<p>The class of 2015 has started an active Q&A group on Facebook. If you still want to put up with our silly freshman queries, we would love it if you would all join and continue giving the incredible advice you give here. If you’re interested, PM me your name and I’ll add you to the group. If you’d rather not connect your real name with your CC account, just search the group and request to join. As long as you are on the Harvard network you’ll be added eventually. </p>
<p>I got 2 questions that maybe you guys can help me with…</p>
<p>I have an 800 in Chem and a projected 780-800 in Math 2, and a 750 in USH. Since most ivies require sending 2 in, should i just send my top two and disregard USH?</p>
<p>Also, I was wondering how my EC’s were - I don’t do very many, but I’m VERY dedicated to the ones that I do do. I designed two websites (one for a local nonprofit, and another for our speech and debate team). I’m also a vice president for our debate team, and I’m ranked top 20 in my state for debate. I have 200+ service hours. I’m a rising senior - will this be enough? (my thought is just that it is more important to do things that i have a passion for, rather than list a ton of random EC’s that they really don’t care about)</p>
<p>@aleader: The group I looked at had one discussion. What’s the full, official name?</p>
<p>@jeff; Since a 750 is still very good and it shows breadth (Math II and Chem require fairly similar skill sets), send it. Also, people every year get in with one EC and with 10 ECs. I know you’re looking for a definitive answer, but there isn’t one.</p>
<p>hello.
please spend a few minutes to rate my EC for harvard.I appreciate ur work.thanks</p>
<p>Im international student from occupied Georgia(europe). </p>
<p>Hooks: from occupied Georgia ; very little income (official 8k $ and 6 person )</p>
<p>extracurricular activities:</p>
<p>Sports:
Tennis-years: since 2002 actively.Member of national tennis federation.
Karate-Brown belt-years: 5.5 - 12. Member of East Europe Federation of karate.3rd place on national competition.</p>
<p>ADVANCED in meditation!</p>
<p>Hobbie:
Billiards-pracitising actively since 2007 years…
Amateur guitarist player.
Drawing.(my painting was in kids newspaper on first page)
Classical Music.
Lead singer in band(former of this band)</p>
<p>Awards/Certificates:
Graduated Leadership School-Full course ( 2 courses).
1st place in television translated INTELECT SHOW-“8 MEN”(intelect show in which 8 participants were accepted despite their age.)
2nd place among 100 top students in english literature competition made by a BRITISH COUNCIL.
Semifinalist of NATO international competition-ALIANTE 2009.
Succesfully attended in amateur photographs competition-nominated as one of the best photographers among high-school students.
The author of physics research,about wavelengthes of electromagnetic radiation and their influence directly on plants growth.My research was nominated as the top 15 projects among 50 partipants)
Maths competition winner in my high school -among 150 students.
President of a stream(100 students) in university.(i am not sure if i mantion it)</p>
<p>Clubs:
Ecology Club(Founder; president)
Green club (Founder; president)
International member of amnesty international!</p>
<p>Jobs:
Leader(“PR manager”) of 3 teenagers who made kids newspaper widely known.
Sales manager of Multi Level Marketing company to support my family.duration 2009 september-2010 may.
Sold luxury watches (with competative price) to support my education and family-years: 2009-2011 .Annual turnover: 2 000 $ .</p>
<p>Volunteering: (700 hours + )
Volunteer at RED CROSS GEORGIA-since 2011 june.
Volunteer at NATO -since 2011june.
Teaching Sat Biology for future test takers-for free.</p>
<p>I have a pretty quick question:
I took 2 years of Spanish in middle school (levels 1 and 2) and took one more year in freshie year. I will be applying soon, and have some notable achievements, all in STEM field except for a scholastic gold key award. Will the fact that the bulk of my Spanish came in MS hurt me big time? I’ve programmed an iPhone and android app (just got approved an making final refinements) and written a “textbook” on how to program. I’ve also gotten USAPHO and USAMO in junior year, top 300 in nation for USAPHO.</p>
<p>@aleader, Thanks, I’ll pop over there pretty soon! @doctoribach: I think you are probably an unusual enough candidate that our predictions will be even less likely to be accurate than usual. Your ECs look very good, but I notice you don’t list any SATs? Also, Google “Harvard for international applicants”: Harvard’s website for students applying to college has some need-to-know information for you. @addy, It won’t be the reason you’re denied. If the science classes you’d have had to sacrifice to take Spanish are sufficiently good, it could be a net positive.</p>
<p>I’m hoping you guys have plenty of experience at Harvard, because this question is pretty broad: </p>
<p>What do you think separates someone from Harvard from someone else? What do you think is like, the essence of people that are only in Harvard? Is it ambition? Passion? Will? Or perhaps raw talent? </p>
<p>I would love to hear your opinions on this, and I think it would not only benefit me but everyone else here as well. </p>
<p>Hope I can get a reply soon. Thanks so much for this thread, and I hope you all have a good evening.</p>
<p>^I’m a pre-frosh, so I might not be as accurate as the others on this thread, but so far from what I have seen from the frequent interactions on the Facebook pages, I don’t feel that harvard students are any class apart from students from those in YPSM, Uchicago, etc or top LACs. Students in all these schools are all motivated, well-read, ambitious, well accomplished and interesting to talk to.
<a href=“and%20you%20also%20have%20your%20fair%20share%20of%20noobs%20in%20each%20school%20including%20here%20:p”>size=-2</a>[/size]</p>
<p>I don’t think we’re much different from Yale; maybe on the margins, but I’m not sure which margins. I think we’re more independent than people at Princeton and definitely Amherst and Williams: not that they can’t or won’t do things, and do them very well, without adult supervision, but that we are more likely to get annoyed if the adults of the university insist on overseeing us when we feel they don’t need to. I think we’re more ambitious than students at UChicago and Swarthmore, and probably less intellectual-for-intellectualism’s-sake. I like intellectual people, although I wouldn’t call myself one (it seems more than a little bit haughty), but even I like my summer job and my courses for the sake of their intellectual value, probably primarily so…but don’t think I’m not thinking about their resume and career effects. Also, I’d say we’re more gregarious than UChicago. I say this with a great deal of affection for the school: I nearly went there. But I always assumed they were sort of kidding when they say that they were “the place where fun goes to die.” Seeing how much I enjoy myself here, and how much fun my friends at UChicago are having, I no longer think that they were kidding. I didn’t have much fun in high school, so I discounted its importance in college life. Now, having fun, going on random picnics with my friends in Boston as well as going out to parties, I shudder to think of sacrificing any of it.</p>
<p>Again, I think they’re probably all pretty similar, but if I had to guess at differences in the “average” at each university, it’d be those.</p>
<p>In retrospect, I should probably not have answered that question that way, because it might feed the perception that there are large and easily noticeable differences between the students of the universities in question. I only know anything, really, about my own university, so I shouldn’t’ve said anything. (Although if there are any people who’ve transferred among them, it would be interesting to hear what they have to say.)</p>
<p>Brief profile:
Gender: female
Country of origin: less usual than, say, China or India
School: private, national curriculum, lessons taught in native language
SAT: 2300+ </p>
<p>And then the SAT 2. I started to self-study WH and Math 2 3 weeks before the exam, and the results are, compared to the multiple 800s here, not amazing. It’s still within the range, though, and the mean is 760.<br>
Do you think it would suffice? </p>
<p>I didn’t have a graphic calculator (nor could I operate it), so I used a scientific one during Math 2. I’m considering to retake it in the fall, but it would be pretty damn expensive and take the time I could’ve spent on writing my essays and organizing my portfolio.</p>
<p>Hi I have a few questions. I am currently in high school and am going to be a senior and begin the whole application process. Here it goes:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Is it ok if my recs are from teachers who did not teach me junior year? One was an inspirational english teacher from my sophomore year. And the second was a teacher I had freshman and sophomore year. I am ‘friends’ with both teachers and they have a really good sense of who I am.</p></li>
<li><p>I am not much of a partier now but I wanted to know if students at Harvard have parties? And what kind are they? Are they out of control, no alcohol, which kind?</p></li>
<li><p>Is there a chance that I could be a walk-on football player? Like a kid who is on the scout teams. I love football and being a member of a team like that would mean so much since being on sports teams is something a thrive on. </p></li>
<li><p>Also are there many intramural tournaments like in football, baseball, basketball, wiffleball, etc?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>1) My recs were from a sophomore-year teacher who also ran one of my extra-curriculars and a senior-year teacher who I had only had for a month but seemed really cool. I think as long as the teachers will write really good recs for you and taught serious classes, then you’re good.
2) Harvard isn’t really known for its parties, and a lot of people don’t really go out at all (more just hang out, chill with friends). That said, there are parties every weekend and people do drink. The alcohol policies are pretty lax (outside the freshman dorms, where you aren’t supposed to have any regardless of age) so some people get pretty trashed. Basically like at almost every school, though I think Harvard has a higher proportion of people who don’t really party, and people respect that.
3)No idea about football- I’m on a pretty small specialized team, but we do accept walk-ons that are already knowledgeable of the sport.
4) IM’s, as they are called, are pretty big house spirit events. If you really get into them, you could probably do a couple events every week. The upperclassmen houses and freshman dorms even have special student representatives to coordinate the teams and matches.</p>
<p>Strat94 - I think the rec’s from your sophomore teachers are ok. I’m not in Harvard, though, so you should confirm that with someone actually going to Harvard before assuming that it’s true. </p>
<p>To everyone else: </p>
<p>What do you guys think is the factor that separates people that are admitted into Harvard and rejected? Not really like grades, SAT scores or extracurriculars; everyone who applies has those and there must be something that distinguishes those accepted from those who are not. In your opinion, what is that quality? </p>
<p>To rephrase this question in a different way, it’s kind of like this. Two people apply to Harvard with the same grades, SAT scores, extracurriculars. One gets accepted and the other does not. What quality does the person who get accepted have compared to the person who didn’t?</p>
