<p>Could something like a unique talent in theatre cause Harvard to overlook better than average grades? Isn't Harvard looking for special people that they would be proud of in the future?
Oh, and 5 days!</p>
<p>Aside from athletics, Harvard seeks students for their academic achievement, not their extracurricular activity.</p>
<p>I think you meant “worse than average grades;” probably not, unless you’re Natalie Portman. (Although I think she was more than smart enough to get in anyway.) If your initial wording is correct, it could probably cause them to overlook better than average grades (compared to best-than-average grades), yes.</p>
<p>even Natalie Portman was excelled academically, plus that she had won an intel</p>
<p>Hence the parenthetical</p>
<p>I meant what I said! I’m not 4.0 by any means, but I’m not 3.5 either. I’m just not the BEST.</p>
<p>gibby wrote:
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<p>That’s misleading. Harvard does put a very high value on academic achievement, and being a recruited athlete puts you on a fast track to admission. But Harvard also values significant passion and achievement in extracurriculars of almost every sort. In the admissions office’s own words:
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<p>High academic achievement is essential. But, as admissions sorts through the thousands of academically superlative applicants, those other qualities make the difference.</p>
<p>Of course HPY wait until the 15th, they can. Even in athletic recruiting, their coaches came in weeks after all other ivy offers.</p>
<p>Opensecret: [In</a> a New Era at Harvard, New Questions of Standards - New York Times](<a href=“In a New Era at Harvard, New Questions of Standards - The New York Times”>In a New Era at Harvard, New Questions of Standards - The New York Times)</p>
<p>“Harvard is willing to consider players with a lower academic standing than previous staff members said they were allowed to. Harvard has also adopted aggressive recruiting tactics that skirt or, in some cases, may even violate National Collegiate Athletic Association rules.”</p>
<p>“Nearly every prospective Ivy player must meet a minimum on the Academic Index, a measuring tool that uses grade-point average, class rank and standardized test scores.”</p>
<p>“To understand Harvard’s apparent change in philosophy, it is necessary to appreciate the complicated tap dance of Ivy League recruiting. For example, a student with a 3.1 grade-point average and just over 1,560 out of a possible 2,400 on the SAT would register roughly a 171 on the Academic Index, the minimum score allowed by the Ivy League for athletes.”</p>
<p>Also depends on the sport, fencing, squash, crew bring kids from the prep schools and those sport are relied upon to bring up the average of all the athletic recruits in general. The higher one student rates, the easier to get a weaker academic recruit who brings greater athletic talent. it is indeed all a dance. the better you are - in the classroom and on the field, the better your chances. it is certainly not an easy thing to pull A’s, mid-700’s, and be tops in country at a sport. These kids are exceptional!</p>
<p>They should proportionally reserve spots in the early class for athletes, urms, etc., and let everything else be for people that they genuinely want (diversity blind)</p>
<p>I think they “genuinely want” diversity.</p>
<p>I mean quota-blind</p>
<p>What quotas are you referring to?</p>
<p>[Quotas</a> have been ruled not just illegal but unconstitutional, mate.](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regents_of_the_University_of_California_v._Bakke]Quotas”>Regents of the University of California v. Bakke - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>You will not be happy here if you take the attitude that there are two categories of people here: those who deserved to get in (aka not legacies, URMs, or athletes) and people who didn’t (legacies, URMs, athletes). I know some very clever athletes, and valuing the drive it takes to excel at sports is not really that different than valuing the drive it takes to excel at community service. And then a majority of both legacies and URMs who attend here would have gotten in without that tip, if every other portion of their application was the same. That attitude can also get you into some awkward situations, like when this prefrosh was walking around my room talking about “haha the z-list, that was so stupid, what a joke that Harvard had created an innovation to save people who only got in because of who their parents were, but otherwise absolutely no right to be there.” Yeah, that was a great move considering one of my roommates had been z-listed and was watching this all go down. (Nor was she a legacy or somebody with extremely wealthy parents.)</p>
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Exultationsy, I think that’s just a specific instance of the general principle that one should never gossip in a crowded restaurant.</p>
<p>Of course, I myself forget this rule all the darn time.</p>
<p>@exultationsy, I absolutely agree that the drive to excel in sports is similar to the drive to excel in community service - or music, or science, or anything - I just wish that those activities also got “recruits” or that sports had the same amount of weight as any other activity. But with our society so focused on athletics, such is life.</p>
<p>It was pretty funny 
she does not now go here.</p>
<p>I agree that the process is flawed–I know something like 7 piccolo players here in my year, which is ridiculous. We do not need that many piccolo players as a year in college. And yet they were admitted because they are all were interesting and accomplished for various reasons including their piccolo playing. I think it’s wrong that, on the other hand, my cousin wasn’t being recruited for volleyball because–hey, they only need two of her position at the team at any one time, and they already had a freshman and a junior at the time she was a high school senior. O OK. I was perhaps overcompensating for the feeling I get on these boards of all the people who aren’t hooked feeling bitter that that is going to be “the reason” they don’t get in.</p>
<p>I also suffer from a terrifically bad case of saying things I shouldn’t just as the person who shouldn’t hear them walks up behind me. It’s a good time.</p>
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<p>Seriously. You say a person’s name, and he or she instantly appears. It’s like something out of Faust. Just be sure you don’t go around saying “Mephistopheles.”</p>
<p>These threads just make us feel like if we aren’t hooked, then we are out</p>