<p>What are some recommendations that anyone has for getting into Harvard (or any other Ivies for that matter)?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I believe that the threads posted below will provide you with a general idea of the qualifications of those successfully admitted:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/894548-official-harvard-university-rd-decisions-class-2014-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/894548-official-harvard-university-rd-decisions-class-2014-a.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/681434-official-harvard-university-2013-decisions-thread.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/681434-official-harvard-university-2013-decisions-thread.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/483555-official-harvard-2012-decisions-thread.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/483555-official-harvard-2012-decisions-thread.html</a></p>
<p>^Uh. I’m not sure s/he wanted the results threads.</p>
<p>If you want to get in, make sure to do the following:</p>
<p>[ul]Cure cancer
[<em>]Solve a major world problem like:
[list]The BP oil spill
[</em>]Global warming
[<em>]Runaway population growth
[</em>]Sustainable agriculture
[li]Fair water use[/ul]</p>[/li]
<p>[<em>]Do something smarter than Philip Streich
[</em>]Score 220+ on your IQ exam
[<em>]Disregard everything written above
[</em>]Do something you truly love and pursue it to the highest level available to you
[/list]</p>
<p>Right now, don’t worry about whether or not you can get into Ivies. Your main concern should be living up to your standards and ideals.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Viewing the purported credentials, distinct aptitudes, and individual circumstances of those admitted is usually the most enlightening form of assistance to the basic question of “what does it take to get in?”</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>But this advice holds a very profound degree of merit.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not so; for me, the results threads were sources of never-ending nightmares. 
In my opinion, the threads don’t tell you what it takes to get in - they just show you an ultimately incomplete portrait of those accepted.</p>
<p>Do what you want to do! Then when the time comes to apply put everything that you did down if they accept you great if not nbd because high school time is spent doing what you wanted and nothing was done for the sole purpose of looking good on college apps (PS I’d be willing to bet the adcoms both easily recognize and frown upon resume padding)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Although it is impracticable to indiscriminately assume that decisions threads are entirely factual (since such posts are easily fabricated, unverifiable, and susceptible to self-aggrandizement) or representative of the entire range of admitted applicants, they place a context to the common truism of “Do something you truly love and pursue it to the highest level available to you.” Also, they transcend beyond extracurricular and academic focus to the type of raw qualifications and other attributes that characterize a candidate. And indeed, successful applicants often simply do not have a singular intense passion and the advice is often too imprecise and inapplicable to most individuals. So I stand by what I posted in #2.</p>