<p>I was reading a book yesterday about elite schools, including harvard, and it said that 25% of the applicants get in by "special" cases. In other words, the applicants have some relation/connection with an admissions counselor....I believe that they should work on decreasing this high rate of "special cases" it is unfair to other people who actually worked hard to get in and it's unfair to the world...any other opinions?</p>
<p>Sorry to burst your bubble...but MANY schools do this. It's just a fact of college admissions at top, selective schools.</p>
<p>It is unfair, but that's just how it works.</p>
<p>It's unfair, but it happens.</p>
<p>asayedahmad08, it is part of life, there is a kind favoritism in almost everything. Harvard doesn't have to be fair to anybody. If they want to admit only the relatives and friends of ADCOMs, or only 2400 SAT scorers, or the offspring of third-world dictators, and no one else, it is their business. But they won't do it. What they do is to keep the hope alive in common people and keep the applicant pool large enough for USNWR rankings by admitting a small percentage of kids (~ 6% of RD applicants) that you and I may know.</p>
<p>Cant we protest this?</p>
<p>Last time I checked it's their school. We could protest only if we have an investment in the school and feel like we've been cheated out that investment. A wealthy and loyal alumnus whose kid didn't get in has more "right" of protest than most of us do. If we wanted life to be fair we would all have live under a communist system.</p>
<p>Its ridiculous, I went to an elite high school and of the 20 people at Ivies, about 6 were "special cases." And the gap was crazy. But I guess our president is one of these people...</p>
<p>hahahahahaha bush is a "special" case hahahahha</p>
<p>sorry...</p>
<p>I guess that's why Harvard doesnt like to release any statistics...they are probably embarrassing because special case kids lower them.</p>
<p>I doubt the "special case kids lower them." Ok, so they're born into rich family. Their brain is the same size of our and probably the same IQ. But they have every conceivable advantages. Private tutors, private SAT training, and private guidance counselor ($28,000 per kid per year). If anything, the special case (synonymous for wealth) would have high scores in everythings. But I'm not saying there aren't some really stupid fools who got in SOLELY through connections, but I just don't think they're the majority of the special cases.</p>
<p>For most of us, we need Harvard more than Harvard needs us. Sad, but true. We have to play the game by their rules, not our own.</p>
<p>That number (25%) seems very high...how recent is that statistic? </p>
<p>In comparison, only 1-1.5% of Duke's admits are developmental admits.
<a href="http://www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2006/09/15/Columns/Admissions.For.ale-2279851.shtml?norewrite200609161630&sourcedomain=www.dukechronicle.com%5B/url%5D">http://www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2006/09/15/Columns/Admissions.For.ale-2279851.shtml?norewrite200609161630&sourcedomain=www.dukechronicle.com</a>
Adding in athletic admits bumped special cases up to about 20% in 2001, however.</p>
<p>The 25% number (which is a guess at best since Harvard doesn't release such figures) includes ALL hooked students, not just rich ones. "Special cases" includes recruited athletes, URMs, developmental admits, famous students (e.g. Jody Foster, Sarah Hughes, Brooke Shields), politically-connected families (e.g. Kennedy, Bush, Gore, Frist), and last but not least, legacies.</p>
<p>Didn't Harvard turn down an Olympic medalist with a 4.0 a short while back?</p>
<p>I mean sure, this stuff happens. But I don't think it has a serious effect on the chances of typical applicants.</p>
<p>^^You are probably referring to Joey Cheek - the guy who was in his 20s and who won a gold medal in speed skating. He had good SATs, but it's not clear what his grades were. His public comments were along the lines that he didn't really apply himself in high school, so his GPA might have been somewhere well south of 4.0. In any case, Harvard turned him down (EA) BEFORE he won the gold medal and then refused to revisit their decision after he won, despite enormous public pressure to do so.</p>
<p>So poor Joey had to settle for Princeton, who was perfectly happy to take him in the RD round. I'm sure he is very happy there and will do very well. But given the circumstances it's clear that this is not a typical example of the plight of a "special case." And in the end, his medal did indeed help him get in one of the top schools in the country - it just didn't happen to be Harvard.</p>
<p>of course it's unfair, nearly everything is unfair and theres nothing you can do about it. That's life, get used to it.</p>
<p>Your stats paint a broad stroke by including all the so-called special cases together. Sounds like the author lumps things together to make up pseduo facts in order to sell books. </p>
<p>Look at it another way, EVERYONE at Harvard is a special case. No one gets into Harvard by being ordinary. Yes Harvard is so unfair it admits 100% special cases.</p>
<p>Actually, I think joey was ranked well inside the top 10% of his class. He also had like a 1500 SAT.</p>
<p>Of course Duke has D1 athletics, so it must bring in enough recruits to field competitive teams. Few of thesee students managed Duke-level academics in high school while also producing Duke-level athletic results. </p>
<p>There are far more athletic recruits than development admits- although Duke would love to have more of the latter. Interesting that, even after the lacrosse affair and the black eye the university received over the behavior of one group of favored admits, they apparently intend to continue business as usual for athletes.</p>
<p>Well, college admissions officers do always talk about not admitting individuals, but building diverse, strong classes. What better way is there to build a class than by having diversity among the strengths of admitted students. If every student was admitted for academic reasons, the class would be very bland. By admitting athletes and musicians and famous people, the class is diversified.</p>