<p>Thanks for the responses guys! They made me happy (not very math - only took pre-calc senior year).</p>
<p>from what i understand, math doesn’t seem to be a gen req for pre-med…? so can i take a class like stats or anthropology for my gen ed math req instead of calc, etc. and focus on my sciences and other classes?</p>
<p>@tochau: many medical schools recommend calculus, and the best ones usually require it. You’d be more competitive as a candidate if you complete 2 semesters of calculus.</p>
<p>Can a course fulfill a gen ed requirement and a concentration requirement at the same time? For example, I believe that Economics 10 (formerly Social Analysis 10): Principles of Economics fulfills the economics requirement for the Social Studies concentration, and I see that it is listed under the HERS program as a course that can be taken to fulfill the E&MR requirement. So if I take this course, will I have fulfilled by E&MR gen ed requirement and my Econ concentration requirement, or will it only count for one or the other?</p>
<p>@aleader: No. You cannot double count a course for both a gen ed requirement and a concentration requirement. It’s one or the other. However, I believe in many secondary fields you can double count one course.</p>
<p>
:D</p>
<p>tochau, general education requirement is not the same as pre-med requirement, which is not the same as your concentration requirement. For premed, you need to take two semesters (?) of legitimate math, whether that is calculus, stats, or else. Most science concentrations require that you take math at least up to multivariable. If you’re not concentrating in math/science and just want to fulfill the university general education requiremnt, then any slightly math-ish elective will do, like those Polyglot and Dwight mentioned. </p>
<p>As for a concentration requirement also fulfilling a gen-ed requirement: yes, I thought so 
? I believe what WindCloudUltra described was the older, core curriculum… If you go to [this</a> site](<a href=“http://www.handbook.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k69286&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup106995]this”>http://www.handbook.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k69286&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup106995), click on each of the concentration, you can see which gen-eds are exempt for which concentrators. I think it’s a much better idea for certain university requirements to be waived for people who are already majoring in the area since it frees up space in the schedule for the courses that someone would rather be taking.</p>
<p>P.S.—I love how all of you are thinking about this already O.O! </p>
<p>perfectpixie - no problem haha :)!</p>
<p>Hey, thanks for doing this! </p>
<p>So I’m a high school freshman, and I’m currently enrolled in honors Spanish 3. However, I honestly dislike the Spanish dept at our school as does every other student here. The Spanish dept is regarded as one of the biggest jokes in the county here. Next year, I’m quitting Spanish, but I checked the Harvard website and they “recommend” all 4 years. I’m not sure if that really means it’s a requirement or just a casual recommendation, because to be honest, I’m a technology/physics/math guy and I’d prefer to stop Spanish IN school, and rather take classes at my community college. Can you clear up whether the 4 years of foreign language are a requirement or just recommendation? Thanks! </p>
<p>FYI, I do know Hindi so I have at least that for fluency in foreign language.</p>
<p>Thanks for both responses to my question. I’ll look into that link you posted, Dwight. </p>
<p>Addymithas, I’m not a current Harvard student, but I hope you won’t mind my response.
I actually only took two full years of a foreign language (and a semester of a different language at a local university.) Despite not having four years of language, I was accepted. (=D!!) However, this could have been because my school only offers three years of language. I would say it really varies on a case by case basis, but I would also guess your application would not be tossed the moment they realized you only had three years of foreign language. Mine wasn’t. </p>
<p>Furthermore, if you choose to pursue Spanish courses at your local Community College for two semesters and report that on your application, I would think that would take care of your fourth year of language.
Good luck! </p>
<p>Oh, and by the way, if you’re a freshman, you’ll have plent of time to worry later, enjoy high school while you can, it goes way too fast!</p>
<p>thanks for all of the responses, everyone! nice to know that there are such helpful people at harvard =D (and the fact that you have the time to answer questions on top of all your classwork/activities…speaking of which, is it hard to balance everything?)</p>
<p>This might come off as a dumb question, but there is air conditioning/ heating in the dorms, right?</p>
<p>^There is heating but no AC unless you’re in Dewolfe (which is overflow apartment-style housing for Quincy, Leverett and Winthrop)</p>
<p>Thanks for taking questions. I’m a current high school junior, and I have a question about how financial aid actually affects acceptance into Harvard. Do students, generally, have a higher chance of getting in if they pay full tuition (no financial aid)? If they do, is this advantage more useful in Early Action or in Regular Decision (for example, in EA, Harvard might want to lock in/guarantee a certain number of full-tuition-paying students, or in RD, Harvard might want to ensure that they get enough full-tuition-paying students)? I am under the impression that it’s best to be either really low-income with actual, demonstrable economic difficulties (working a job throughout high school, less than 20k income, multiple siblings, food stamps…) or be able to pay the full 60k tuition per year. (Legacy and donors excluded.) My family makes about 40k per year, so I qualify for Questbridge, but I don’t feel that I’ve faced any real economic difficulties (my parents are college-educated immigrants, one is unemployed, both are scientists, I have a younger brother, we live in an apartment). My parents can afford, if needed, to pay full tuition for me to attend Harvard. Do you think it would be better for me to mark “no financial aid” or attempt to be a Questbridge Finalist and apply as low-income? How much does Questbridge Finalist actually help, especially since Harvard isn’t a partner college? I’m not any amazing applicant, about average, and an Asian female. Sorry for the long question. Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Addendum: The reason I’m asking is because I know of a friend who didn’t seem too amazing, but paid full tuition, and got into MIT, where he is now. I know other similar kids who I thought were going to get in, but didn’t, and I think they applied for financial aid. Anecdotal evidence, I know, but still; it got me thinking.</p>
<p>P.S. Also, if knowing some general application-relevant information about me will help in figuring out which way of applying is better (financial aid or no) or if I shouldn’t bother anyway, here’s a bit about me. 2250 SAT, 790 Biology, 790 Literature, 5 Biology, 5 Spanish Language, 5 European History, 3 Physics C, 4.7 cumulative GPA, MUN Club Vice President (President next year), Math Club President next year, 100.5 AMC - qualified for AIME, Certificate of Merit Level 10 piano, organized a hair donation drive that received some local publicity and went well…I can’t think of anything else right now; I’m still working on putting together a cohesive picture of myself that’ll fit into an application.</p>
<p>Thank you again!</p>
<p>@xrCalico23: Ah. Thanks for the correction. The new GenEd requirements may be a bit different than the old Core. (I’m showing my age :D)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’m not a current student, but I can answer these questions. First of all, Harvard is need blind when it comes to admissions. That means that whether or not you’re applying for financial aid will have no bearing on your application. You should definitely apply for financial aid. Families with a yearly income of $60,000 or less do not have to contribute anything at all to the cost of attendance.</p>
<p>Furthermore, because Early Action (EA) is non-binding, students wouldn’t be “locked in” just because they were accepted EA. You might be confusing EA with ED (Early Decision), which is binding.</p>
<p>Hello DwightEisenhower,
Can you see my thread and answer it?
I’ll be very grateful if you do it,
To do it, please click at Giulia, and see my statistics, so you can click at “find all threads started by Giulia”, and there will be my thread,
Or I can write here:</p>
<p>Can you write me about what you have done I to got into Harvard,
I also want to know if the you can tell me about the process to get into:
*What did you do first?
*What about the interview?
*How works the process of courses and subjects?
One more thing: Did you need a financial aid? If you did, can you tell me about it?</p>
<p>Thank you so much, it is such a kind attitude,
Happy Easter,
Good Luck and Good Work and Congratulations,
Giulia.</p>
<p>Hello,
Could you tell me what are APs and ECs?
Could you also tell me what do I have to do to get into Harvard?
Could you tell things that you think the colleges look for in the students?
Thank you so much!
Bye,
BrunaHarvard.</p>
<p>Calico, I think those exemptions might actually be for people who are still in the core program…</p>
<p>Under the General Ed/Core requirements section, it states,
"Students completing the Program in General Education—regardless of concentration—must complete one letter-graded course in each of the eight categories in General Education, one of which must engage substantially with the study of the past. " Which leads me to believe that no one is exempt from any requirements. </p>
<p>Before the exemptions listed, there’s a short blurb ending with the statement, “The Core requirements for students in this concentration are as follows:” The names of the exempted requirements are also core names, not genEd names, so I think that chart is for the core.</p>
<p>So I’m thinking that there are no exemptions from requirements based on concentration under the General Ed. program, but there were under the core program. Nevertheless, I still am not sure if this means that no course can fulfill two requirements. Ayeayeaye! I suppose it’s too soon to be worrying over this anyway.</p>
<p>You can definitely double count gen eds and concentration requirements. If not, my adviser forgot to tell me that I’ll be graduating in 2020…</p>
<p>Thenumbereight, Harvard claims to be entirely need blind, which means that applications are considered regardless of the financial need of the student. According to this claim, whether you apply for aid or not is supposed to have zero effect on your admission. I was accepted even though I applied for aid and actually ended up with a full aid package.</p>
<p>The reality of the situation is this: If your parents only make 40k a year, their income is only 2/3 of the annual COA. If your parents didn’t buy food, didn’t pay rent, didn’t have electricity or running water… basically moved to a homeless shelter, their income would not cover a Harvard education. Unless your parents have a huge college fund saved up for you, it seems like financing your education out of pocket would be nearly impossible without incurring massive amounts of debt.
For people with incomes under 60K applying to Harvard, the Harvard Financial Aid Initiative eliminates ALL expected family contributions and loans from your financial aid package. What that means is that you will have only to pay around 4k, which you can easily earn through a term time job, summer job, or outside scholarships. Basically, you will go to Harvard for free. (The only exceptions to this rule would be if your family had an unusual amount of assets (several homes, etc.) or if your unemployed parent was later employed in a job that brought your total family income to >60,000, in which case your aid package would change to reflect the increase in income.) When there is a program like this available and admissions are need-blind, it almost seems silly not to apply for the aid. </p>
<p>I looked into applying for Questbridge a lot as I began my application process, so I’ll give you my thoughts on that as well. My top choice was a QB partner school, and I planed to participate in the match. As I continued research on the QB program, I found that the typical matched QB finalist was a first-gen, low income, URM. I eventually decided not to apply because had only recently become low income, did not fit into the other categories, and had never really faced any economic hardship. Two of my friends did apply and were not chosen as finalists. (They’re both bright, low income, first gen, URMs, but neither had faced any significant economic hardship, and I would presume that played into the fact that they were not named finalists.)
The issue that I see for you is that only 23% of those matched through Questbridge are not first-gen, only 25% are in your income bracket, and 17% are Asian-American. (That’s even lower than the match percentages for Caucasians…) If you are planning to participate in the match process (with non-binding schools as I’ll assume you want to apply to Harvard regardless) you should know that while it is not impossible, the odds of a match are not in your favor.
Here’s the other issue, while Harvard is need-blind, putting that you are a Questbridge finalist on your application highlights the fact that they will be paying full aid for you to attend if they choose you. If you don’t put that you are a finalist, I guess in theory, it’s possible that they will not know this until they admit you. I think it’s advantageous to note that you are a Questbridge finalist if you can then provide an essay about how you have overcome an economic hardship, but otherwise, I worry that it might just call attention to your need. When you list an honor that gives you away as low-income, it’s hard to ask anyone to be blind.
I spoke with a Rice admissions officer who said he wished kids would stop writing QB finalist on their applications because he sees tons of QB finalists rejected in the RD round who would otherwise be accepted, simply because the committee sees that they can’t afford the aid for all of these kids… and the kicker is that Rice is Need-blind. I’m not saying that Harvard necessarily operates the same way with regards to QB applicants, but I do feel that there’s a greater chance that it will hurt you than the chance it will help you. (Unless, like I said, you crank out an incredible essay about your herculean efforts to support your family by working two jobs and attending school.)</p>
<p>To wrap it all up, I think that you should apply to Harvard and apply for financial aid because it will not affect your a chances of admission. Assuming you are accepted to Harvard and assuming that you have no unreasonable assets, you can go to Harvard for free through the HFAI. However, I don’t think you should concern yourself with applying for QB. Unfortunately, you don’t fit the profile of the typical QB candidate, and since you stated that have no economic hardship to describe, I feel like a QB finalist notation could actually be more detrimental than helpful to your application. The kicker is, with your income, many schools in the QB match and other top private universities will provide you full aid if you are accepted anyway! (One of the rejected QB applicants that I mentioned earlier received full packages to MIT and Harvard)</p>
<p>Good luck and sorry for the long-windedness. Feel free to PM me with any more questions about this, because it sounds like your situation is very similar to mine. </p>
<p>And sorry to all the actual students for stealing this question, but I love to talk about HFAI. =P</p>
<p>Haha, thanks for that Dwight. =)</p>