<p>there's this controversy about harvard cuz it is said that you need to have high SAT scores to get in but on their site is said that their students have 600-800. and 600 isn't that great, right? so I was wondering if there is someone on the forum who was accepted to harvard although s/he didn't have a very high score</p>
<p>You can be assured that the admitted students' pool is probably a bell curve of SATs and GPAs (although I suspect heavily leaning to the right). Just because there is a single student or two with not a stellar score should tell you what?.... One student out of 26000+ applications. And it must have been very extenuating circumstances.</p>
<p>There's no controversy about the fact that schools like H and its kin seek proven academic excellence first and foremost.</p>
<p>Most students that delve into the lower 600's in SAT are admitted for other reasons that academic performance alone.</p>
<p>Usually the university really wants them for their "hooks". This could be a recruited athlete, a development case, or someone with phenomenal performance in some other area.</p>
<p>40% of the student body is comprised of recruited athletes, legacies and URM's. Kids in those groups are considered with lower stats.</p>
<p>^ hmom5, could we get statistics on that?</p>
<p>Michele Hernandez, nationally known private college admissions consultant located in Vermont. Author of the book A is Admissions: The Insider's Guide to Getting into the Ivy League and Other Top Colleges and former admissions officer at Dartmouth College</p>
<p>“40 percent of every Ivy League school is filled up with special cases: athletes, minorities, low-income, legacies or development cases. They’re tagged, and schools lower the admissions standards a lot for those kids. So you got to know how to use those tags to your advantage. If you’re a legacy and you apply early to the school, you’ve got a 50 percent better chance of getting in.</p>
<p>the break down is aprox:</p>
<p>-17% athletes
-18-20% URM
-10% plus legacies
-development ???
-low income/first gen and other tip factors ???</p>
<p>So IMO it's above 40%, but here's the full article:</p>
<p>Dirty</a> Secrets of College Admissions - The Daily Beast</p>
<p>But, of course, many (most?) of the athletes, legacies and URMs have outstanding stats as well. The SAT 25th%-75th% range there is 2080 - 2370, so the midpoint is 2225 (and the median probably skewed higher than that).</p>