<p>Hey, So of course by the title, I got a email from Harvards URMP (Under represented Minority Program ) and was wondering if this meant anything. I don't actually intend to apply to Harvard, as I don''t thing my stats are amazing. I was really just wondering if this was more marketing allowed via the CollegeBoard's SSS (Though my SAT wasn't great, only 2020). The letter seemed a little dubious as it stated that it was written by a Harvard rising sophomore. Any responses would be appreciated, thanks! </p>
<p>Harvard likes to target minorities for their SCEA in order to ensure a good representation of minorities for the early round.</p>
<p>Harvard purchased your name from the College Board for $0.33 as part of the URMP: <a href=“Bloomberg - Are you a robot?”>Bloomberg - Are you a robot?;
<p>Also see: <a href=“Harvard Courts Minority Students | News | The Harvard Crimson”>http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/3/29/Harvard-UMRP-minorities-admissions/</a></p>
<p>Yeah that’s kind of what I thought, I knew that the 5.3% Acceptance rate was somewhat “artificial”, and that Harvard encouraged kids who shouldn’t be applying to apply. </p>
<p>5.3% is overall acceptance . the % of “diversity” admits is not 5.3% .if you want to go I would respond to them get on their radar screen. it should benefit you greatly. </p>
<p>Your score may be high enough to allow them to base the decision on other factors in your application. If you would be interested in attending if you got in, why not explore it further?</p>
<p>Well, I really want to go to Rice (if you couldn’t tell by my profile pic lol) but I think my dad will make me apply anyways. I assume by “other stuff” you mean ECs. I think I have a few good ones (eagle scout, cancer patient supplies collection/fundraiser I started) but t</p>
<p>*I never made USAMO or anything:</p>
<p>No, by other factors I primarily mean your HS curriculum and performance.</p>
<p>Well, I have an upwards grade trend of A-'s (90-93) to A’s (94-96) over 9th to 11th grade. I also tried to take as many AP’s as possible, but I am not sure that really shows much because I thought that’s what should be expected of you if you apply to HYP. (or maybe not even those grades, just straight A+'s.) </p>
<p>rice is so supposed to have the happiest student body.
a lot of people obsessed with and or who attend Harvard would be better suited and much happier at a school like rice. but hey harvard has the golden name. (who cares about anything else)</p>
<p>Harvard can be a lot of fun, too. At least this is what my son tells me. I think the student brings the attitude with him. I’m not sure that it is the school that determines whether or not the student is happy or not.</p>
<p>@notjoe for the most part I would tend to agree with this;but on the visit I made every student I talked with was really friendly, even when I asked for directions! And then on that, I live in Houston and a few times while wearing Rice gear in the city I’ve been stopped by current undergrads and asked if I go there or plan to, and how HS is going, so I think there’s something special about Rice! </p>
<p>@FenderFan54,</p>
<p>Actually, I was replying more to the previous poster, who said, “…a lot of people obsessed with and or who attend Harvard would be better suited and much happier at a school like rice. but hey harvard has the golden name.”</p>
<p>However, regarding your statement:</p>
<p>"…but on the visit I made every student I talked with was really friendly, even when I asked for directions!"</p>
<p>I assure you, my son (and I) have had the same experience at Harvard. The friendliness of the students we met there was one of the factors that caused my son to choose Harvard.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, even if I were to concede that Rice students are happier than Harvard students (or than any other school), I would say that it isn’t because Rice produces happier students than Harvard or other schools, but rather a happier set of students showed up at Rice. </p>
<p>notjoe, of course the school does not create happier students, they draw them .(hopefully keeping them happy)
harvard draws a different type of student. yes each person has their own unique personality (not just at harvard…everyone in the world) but, those striving for harvard have put aside a lot of other factors, to attend the school with the golden name. but in the daily grind I would say rice is just a happier place. (for most students)…IMO</p>
<p>@zobroward,</p>
<p>These two things seem mutually exclusive:</p>
<p>"…and or who attend Harvard would be better suited and much happier at a school like rice."</p>
<p>"…of course the school does not create happier students, they draw them .(hopefully keeping them happy)"</p>
<p>A student who goes to Harvard who would be happier at Rice (your first assertion) would have been a student whose happiness, then, had been “created” by attendance at Rice. But you say that that isn’t the case in the next quote.</p>
<p>Either going to Rice would make a student happier than he would have been at Harvard (which is your first assertion), and thus, Rice is “creating happiness,” so to speak, or Rice just draws happier students, in which case, the fellow who goes to Harvard wouldn’t have been happier at Rice.</p>
<p>I’m more than willing to concede that there could be a little bit of each effect, but 1) I think that the happiness folks bring with them usually overwhelms the effects of their circumstances, at least in our society in this era. That’s not always the case; there are circumstantial extremes that some folks suffer that defeat the happiness of all but a hardy few. But most folks, especially most folks going to tony, exclusive, elite colleges, don’t suffer from those sorts of extreme circumstances. </p>
<p>And 2) it just isn’t really very true, that Harvard folks are less happy than Rice folks, or that Harvard students are generally unhappy. Oh, many of them like to complain about how hard it is, how much stress there is, how “toxic” the environment is, yet, when I look at my older son when he is complaining and all his complaining, whining friends, if I “turn down the volume” and just look at their faces and gestures, they all seem really quite happy! They’re all smiling, they’re engaged, they’re interested in the things that they’re doing, they’re making plans and scheming to do, to build, to achieve. They’re doing precisely what they want to be doing, and having a grand old time doing it, and complaining about it the whole way! You may be confusing “laid-backness” with “happiness.” If someone says my son isn’t “laid back,” they’re right. He is a driven, ambitious, Type A kinda guy. My younger son, too, who is joining him at the end of this month in Cambridge. But they’re both pretty darned happy driven, ambitious, Type A kinds of guys.</p>
<p>There ARE Harvard students who are truly unhappy, even miserable, depressed, etc. But most of the Harvard students I’ve encountered are having a ball, as far as I can see. Especially while they’re complaining about Harvard, LOL.</p>
<p>we can go in circles forever. but so many students attend Harvard to attain some weird sort of validation parental approval or some other vague concept. they can not tell you why they go to or want to go to Harvard other than the fact well…it’s Harvard. </p>
<p>Yeah I got this email too, but I only a rising junior. My mom and thinks I’m gonna get into Harvard lol. Its weird because my other black friends that got slightly lower scores than me (not that mine were spectacular) didn’t get anything. Anyways we all know its spam.</p>
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<p>if you have 1800/180, have never played a sport, never cared to participate in any ECs, never held a job to support your family or yourself, and received this email, it might as well be spam since being black alone does not give you a shot at an admission to Harvard.</p>
<p>However, if you are at 2100/210, play a sport at least at a division II level which is also played at Harvard, and happen to be black, you have a shot.</p>
<p>If you are at 2250, taken 3-4 SAT IIs and scored 700 or above, did several ECs in high school and happen to be black, you have a reasonable shot at Harvard.</p>
<p>If you are at 2250, never played a sport, worked to support your family throughout high school, you have a great shot at Harvard if you also happen to be black.</p>
<p>"…but so many students attend Harvard to attain some weird sort of validation parental approval or some other vague concept. they can not tell you why they go to or want to go to Harvard other than the fact well…it’s Harvard. "</p>
<p>I’m sure that describes many who apply, I’m sure it doesn’t apply to as many who are accepted and actually attend. Harvard knows what they’re looking for; it isn’t family-obligated legacies & other kids applying strictly cause daddy or mommy want a Harvard diploma to brag about, or kids with Ivy-leaf-shaped stars in their eyes, and I believe firmly that Harvard is pretty good at usually weeding these folks out of the applicant pool.</p>
<p>You have set up two contradictory assertions, and we can go around in circles, but you have failed to reconcile them to each other.</p>