Extraordinary enough to get into Harvard?

[aaajoehansenaaa]

Hi- I feel I have a rather unique story with extraordinary elements. I have 35 ACT but poor grades (3.4 unw 4.4 w) due to a severe life threatening illness which affected 2 years of school and dropped me from a 3.8unw/4.8w.
Big stand out on my app besides the usual, like president of a few school clubs, is my extracuirrs-- I was wondering if these would be considered “extraordinary”:
-created nonprofit for which I fundraised 10s of thousands of dollars + thousands of volunteers in over 8 states that is related to my major and a very good cause, state awarded me for it
-created a LLC (Company) which got over $10,000 from investors I pitched, and increased our evaluation 4x the original $10,000
-few other “companies” as well in which I got some thousands of dollars but minor neighborhood things

Also some personal things like self teaching languages, well traveled + study abroad programs, proficiency in instrument, etc.

Is this extraordinary enough for Harvard?

thanks,

Joe

[VenomBuds]

In my humble opinion, those alone are not “extraordinary enough” for Harvard. Your GPA will cause major concerns, so if you explained your issue well enough then you should still perhaps have a slim chance.

[gibby]

First, off this from the College Board: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/get-started/video-transcription/whats-the-most-important-part-of-the-application

Students, when we’re on the road, we often play a little kind of quiz show game with students, asking what they think is the most important part of the application. Many, many students respond, “Well, the testing must be the most important.” It’s actually one of the less important elements in the file. The testing can give you a sense of what schools are within your range, and it gives the school a sense of what students in the applicant pool are within their range. **The most important part of your application — bar none, no question, any college — is your high school transcript. Probably the next most important are your teacher recommendations, **particularly if you’re applying to any kind of selective college or university.

Harvard Admissions is most certainly in agreement with that statement. The reason your transcript with it’s GPA and course rigor are the important factor is that it’s a 3-YEAR WINDOW into your scholastic potential, whereas an ACT/SAT score is just a 3-hour window into the same thing.

So regardless of what selective college you apply to, your guidance counselor will have to write against your grades in the Secondary School Report (SSR). Although this sample GC note does not address your particular issues, it will give you an idea of what your GC needs to do: http://mitadmissions.org/apply/prepare/writingrecs

Guidance Counselor Recommendation for Jane:
Jane is an outstanding young woman whose academic record may not fully reflect her ability. Her parents were divorced during her junior year, and, for several years before that, her home situation had been in turmoil with a great deal of fighting between her parents. Her father has an alcohol problem, and Jane certainly endured a great deal of emotional distress. The fact that she has been able to do as well as she has done given the circumstances says a lot about her. Now that the home situation has stabilized, her performance has improved. I believe her senior year grades are a much better reflection of her ability.

Critique: You may wonder whether or not the above information is appropriate in a letter of evaluation. It is! We appreciate anything that gives us insight and perspective into a student’s performance and the environment. Comments about problems that a student has experienced will help us understand the context in which they have accomplished whatever they have achieved. The extent to which they have dealt with these problems is useful to know as well.

Without an explanation note from your GC, your low GPA is going to fall “below the line” for many top colleges – and that’s going to result in lots of rejections (in a recent Harvard freshman survey, 54% of students had a 4.0 unweighted GPA, while the average unweighted GPA was 3.9 ). So, your GPA needs to be addressed first, specifically by an adult in a supervisory capacity at your school. (Unfortunately, colleges don’t take students at their word for this sort of thing.)

Secondly, Harvard receives more qualified applications than they have seats in their freshman class, Admissions uses a student’s teacher recommendations, guidance counselor’s Secondary School Report (SSR), essays and interview report to choose one high performing student over another. They look for wonderful scholars of “good character” – that’s an old fashioned word meaning the way you develop your inner qualities, intellectual passion, maturity, social conscience, concern for community, tolerance, inclusiveness and love of learning. And none of those qualities can be gleaned from a post like yours.

[aaajoehansenaaa]

GC wrote explanation, which I assume was similar to the above excerpt, and I have stellar recs from both my teachers and employers for high level internships I worked on before I started my own companies which will highlight personal qualities, including one where I saved them hundreds of thousands of dollars. I also have an interview scheduled where I will touch more on those qualities.

[gibby]

^^ Then you will be a competitive applicant, however Harvard is on record as saying 80% of applicants could do the work on their campus and fully 40% of applicants are very competitive.

So, doing the math: 35,000 applications X-.40 = 14,000 very competitive applications. So,14,000 other applicants will also be as competitive as you. The difficult reality is that Harvard only has enough beds for 1660 students – and over half of them have already been admitted in the SCEA round. Whether you will be accepted in the RD round is really anyone’s guess and a fool’s game to predict.

Best of luck to you!

[compmom]

There are applicants with serious illness who nevertheless still do well (or leave school and then come back and do well). Did you have accommodations?

Also, if you were too ill to do school work well, how did you do all that other stuff?

[VanOsch]

Dude, you are so extraordinary that you don’t need to go to Harvard. If you are so good at pitching and getting money from investors, then why sweat the small stuff. Go form your own destiny. Unless of course it was all done to impress Harvard.

[coolcheesebagel]

I agree with the person above. I’m a bit bothered by your headline. A college decision doesn’t define how extraordinary you are. If you overcame an illness and kept in school, overcame adversity and demonstrated such leadership, you are def an extraordinary person. You don’t need Harvard. Plus you can be extraordinary without Harvard.

But for the real chance, I’m not sure. Your Gpa is weak, but I do encourage you to still apply. It doesn’t hurt to try unless it’s a financial burden.