<p>I chose Social Sciences when I applied RD this year, but I plan to go into medicine. I hope this is alright!</p>
<p>Yes, of course it’s all right. We’ve been saying all along that Harvard doesn’t put a lot of stock in what you tell them right now. </p>
<p>But, more than that, you can even stick to your stated intention to concentrate in the social sciences, and still go to medical school.</p>
<p>^Thanks. That’s what someone I know did (: I’m just worried if they’ll think it’s strange that I chose SocSci over BioSci since I indicated my future career aspiration as “physician” (:</p>
<p>^You can concentrate in anything and still go to med school</p>
<p>^Yes, I know (: I just don’t want admissions to think I’m strange.</p>
<p>^Does admissions actually track every student’s progress over 4 years?</p>
<p>^undergrad admissions or med school admissions?
For undergrad admissions, they do look at your HS grades from Gr. 9 to 12. An upward trend is always good, but a downward trend is a big no-no.</p>
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<p>Errr you misunderstood me. I wasn’t talking about high school.</p>
<p>Once you join a college - say Harvard - does the admissions office bother with the student anymore? It’s not practical to keep an eye on every student at Harvard obviously, but do you suppose they might keep in touch with certain students’ progress? Like say, a student who was admitted after intense debate and argument between the admissions officers, wouldn’t they wonder later if their decision was right or wrong?</p>
<p>I doubt it. Once a class is admitted, they turn them entering class over to the care of the Freshman Dean’s Office and then, after a brief lull, gear up for recruiting and admitting the next class.</p>
<p>^^Sorry, you didn’t specify if you were talking about HS or university. </p>
<p>Anyway, I don’t think admissions cares after you are matriculated. Their main goal is to go through applications, not to keep track of the actual students’ progress. That being said, you will have faculty advisors who <em>will</em> care. If you flunk all your classes, obviously there will be some issues…</p>
<p>I’m sure they keep track of some data. That’s how statistics that say AP exams are good predictors of college GPA are created.</p>
<p>^ I think you mean SAT scores? I haven’t heard of anything saying AP’s correlate with college GPA… maybe success in an individual college course.</p>
<p>Anyways, IMO it doesn’t matter unless you say something like “I want to go into engineering” but decided to not take calculus or physics in favor of two extra English and one art class or something. Obviously, it could raise an interesting point that could be questionable. But I find that those students with diverse interests and diverse academic strengths simply just want to do what they want to do in HS. So, they can communicate clearly why they are “behind” or not on the “right” path. And it makes up for it.</p>
<p>I have heard that the head of Harvard, Drew Faust, is unhappy with the careerism that is rampant on campus these days, and wants to build up humanities and the arts. I think this is a good sign for Harvard.</p>
<p>The kind of direct focus on future career that some posters have described can sometimes mean an unwillingness to explore (particularly if exploring affects GPA and therefore job prospects, in students’ minds). </p>
<p>Often, opportunities can be missed due to premature efforts to control what should be a meandering path at this age.</p>
<p>Enjoyed the lists :)</p>
<p>Can’t speak to Harvard specifically, but some shrewd applicants can game the system by professing a passion for and determination to major in an undersubscribed discipline- i.e. colleges need to justify having faculty in their language and classics departments. The dean of admissions from one preeminent university publically stated that all applicants declaring an intention to major in German were accepted at his institution last year.</p>