<p>If I were a top tier school’s adcom, I would encourage everyone and their mother to apply, I would install a computer program where it would kick out (I mean filter out) 80% of applicants, and only go over the remainder 20% manually. It would be the easiest way of making $65.</p>
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<p>Having read cc for a while now, I’m pretty sure that in more than a few cases, it IS the mother who is applying. (Or at least, filling out the application.)</p>
<p>oldfort, I think that is pretty much what they do.</p>
<p>The Harvard admissions office has a long term objective to achieve an acceptance rate of 0%, or at least to approach that number asymptotically. Next year they plan to send out rejection letters to every high school senior in the country. The letter will begin, "Dear student, We know you meant to apply to Harvard but didn’t get around to completing the application. Unfortunately we have an extremely qualified applicant pool and only a limited number of spots available. "</p>
<p>midmo - haha.</p>
<p>We have a friend whose D is applying to the same “elite” LAC as our D; and he told us he’d been talking to another parent whose D is also applying to the school, who casually admitted her essays had been “ghost written.” How common do you think it is?</p>
<p>Tweaked, massaged, edited, maybe–but ghostwritten? I hope not very common…</p>
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<p>They might have “revenues” of $1.8 million, but not necessarily Net Income. A lot of expenses to process 29,000 applications. Let’s assume: 18 people to process 29,000 applications. Average cost to employ someone is $100,000/person/year. Includes benefits, work space, etc. 1,600 applications per person in a 3 month time frame (Jan-March); 500 apps per person per month; 25 apps per person per work day; 4 apps per hour; 15 minutes per app - assuming each person only touches one application. Don’t forget, they also have to process all the Financial Aid applications too.</p>
<p>To add to OperaDad, many applicants to Harvard might have used fee waivers.</p>
<p>midmo>>Having read cc for a while now, I’m pretty sure that in more than a few cases, it IS the mother who is applying. (Or at least, filling out the application.) </p>
<p>I object to the sexist comment. It is the FATHER.</p>
<p>One more hour, and Harvard sends out 29,000 e-mails.</p>
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<p>LOL! My son didn’t apply to any reaches, so he didn’t have the privilege of receiving any rejection letters. It would have meant a lot to him if Harvard had sent hinm a rejection letter!</p>
<p>The stats are as follows: ([Harvard</a> says yes to 7% of 29,112 aspirants - The Boston Globe](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/03/31/harvard_says_yes_to_7_of_29112_aspirants/]Harvard”>http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/03/31/harvard_says_yes_to_7_of_29112_aspirants/)) </p>
<p>10.9 % Latino, 10.8 %African-American; 17.6 % Asian-American 1.3%Native American, 8.9 percent %international students.</p>
<p>The university announced it has admitted 2,046 students for the 1,655 spots in next year’s freshman class.</p>
<p>More than 2,900 scored a perfect 800 on their SAT critical reading test, and 3,500 scored perfectly on the SAT math test. Nearly 3,700 were ranked first in their senior class.</p>
<p>And these stats do not even include legacies and athletes, and internationals with US citizenships.</p>
<p>So, a normal student has a chance to only about 700 slots. Same as last year. Since they accepted 50-50 gender, a WM/WF has to compete for ~350 slots.</p>
<p>A number of the legacies that I know here rank among the most intelligent students I know that attend Harvard. I think the idea that almost a third of students get in predominately because they are legacies is wrong. I think they get in because their parents have been able to provide a fantastic education for them.</p>
<p>Application fees are not a net earnings center for any admission office. All admission offices spend more than they take in through fees. There is a NACAC report on this. </p>
<p>See </p>
<p>[Online</a> Extra: How Harvard Gets its Best and Brightest](<a href=“Bloomberg Businessweek - Bloomberg”>Bloomberg Businessweek - Bloomberg) </p>
<p>for perspective. </p>
<p>After edit: </p>
<p>From above, the Boston Globe report: </p>
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<p>But fewer students in class of 2008 scored perfectly on BOTH sections than the number of admitted students. </p>
<p><a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/sat_percentile_ranks_2008_composite_cr_m.pdf[/url]”>Higher Education Professionals | College Board; </p>
<p>I doubt that high school class of 2009 was much different in that regard.</p>
<p>Ana – is there some reason why a Latino, African American, Native American or Asian isn’t a “normal” student?</p>
<p>I was going to write “average” but worried that it might be misconstrued. Everybody is normal but the cold reality is that when you are white, with males worse than WF, you have to be best of the best to get in.</p>
<p>10 char…</p>