Harvard Admissions Of The Past

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
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<p>An interesting article below. JFK would certainly not past muster in a chances thread today.
JFK's</a> Harvard Application: Would He Have Gotten In Today?</p>

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<p>The differences between Harvard admissions of 1935 and that of 2011 are more complicated than weak essay vs strong essay. They weren’t looking for the “best and brightest” back then, just the “best,” define that as you may. Writing anything to Harvard was just a formality for JFK.</p>

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<p>JFK Application:
(source - [Jfk</a> Harvard Application Materials](<a href=“JFK Harvard Application Materials | PDF”>JFK Harvard Application Materials | PDF))</p>

<ol>
<li>Political Connections (Edward E Moore)</li>
<li>Harvard Legacy (Father)</li>
<li>Top 3% in class</li>
<li>Choate (equivalent to Philips Andover)</li>
<li>Popular Family Name (Elite Class)
(A legacy from a powerful filthy rich family)</li>
<li>Deferred his enrollment to attend London School of Economics (indicated in the application)</li>
</ol>

<p>Who wouldn’t get in?</p>

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<p>Uh, he was ranked in the 3rd quarter of his class. LOL. 65/110. He had lousy grades.</p>

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<p>My bad. </p>

<p>In which quarter of his class does he rank in scholarship? Third
Overlooked the “quarter”.</p>

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<p>However–Kennedy is an Irish name–even though they had money, Irish were considered part of the Great Unwashed in Eliot’s day. </p>

<p>Choate is key-- each year the admissions office would call the prep schools and ask “who they were sending” – the deals were cut between the prep schools and the Colleges. </p>

<p>The political connection–“Honey Fitz”,(the Fitzgerald side), his maternal grandfather was a very powerful person in Boston. That played a role as well…Honey Fitz could make life difficult for Harvard even if the University was in Cambridge not Boston per se…</p>

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<p><em>facepalm</em></p>

<p>By most standards, JFk would have flunked out of school with those averages.</p>

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<p>I’m liking his 50 in physics.</p>

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<p>Well on AP scale, a 85 is a 5-A equivalent, a 70 is a 4 B equivalent and so forth. So in JFK’s defense its not quite as bad as it looks? :D</p>

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<p>Oh my god I just compared cars and phones from the 1930s and today and found that they were… radically different. What an enlightening experience.</p>

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<p>@Jersey13 - Difference: technology changes rapidly, grading systems don’t.</p>

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<p>Hahaha.</p>

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<p>Admissions criteria do.</p>

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<p>True, but that doesn’t change the fact that his grades were, well, pretty bad.</p>

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<p>

I never implied that grading systems drastically change. I thought it was pretty clear that we were discussing college admissions policies, seeing as this thread is entitled “Harvard Admissions of the Past”. Like technology, the admissions process at the most selective colleges has changed drastically since Kennedy’s time.</p>

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<p>Seeing as how your post was just after a couple posts discussing the quality of JFK’s grades, I assumed you were commenting on the grading scale rather than the admissions policies. My fault.</p>

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<p>Back then he didn’t have Google like we do. They had to “book google” things using a thing called a “library”, and devote time to go there in the midst of sports and extracurriculars.</p>

<p>Stone age, really.</p>

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<p>^Hahaha. I love you now.</p>

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<p>Grading scales WERE much lower then. Someone with Kennedy’s grades today would have flunked out of Choate years ago, but he wasn’t even in the bottom quartile of his class there. What Kennedy had was probably the equivalent of a B average today.</p>

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<p>[Bush/Gore</a> Grades and SAT Scores](<a href=“http://www.insidepolitics.org/heard/heard32300.html]Bush/Gore”>Bush/Gore Grades and SAT Scores)</p>

<p>Interesting information about Bush and Al Gore.</p>