I have different opinion to the high school student research “Award”. First, for the meaningful, innovative research, a student has to have deep and broad knowledge base close to PhD level. Second, he/she has to have the resource to conduct the research which I believe most of American High schools can’t provide. The student who has connection to the research institution has unfair privilege over others who don’t have the privilege. Any student can follow an institute researcher to achieve something but not necessary originate from him/her. No doubt there are some very talent kids have their innovative, original research, but there is no objective standard to judge the credibility of the research. If the college use the research “Award” as a strong gauge to college admission, it is not a fair practice.
As I have said before on this site: To quote Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest: “Ah, but nobody ever said life was fair, Tina.”
That said, I’m of the opinion that these AOs are experienced enough to separate the wheat from the chaff.
In regards to what counts as meaningful & competitive research, what do you think about this? The article below is about me:
@skieurope - I’d appreciate your thoughts
Does anyone know when Harvard will announce the date of release for admissions decisions?
@carey46 People are saying 12/12 at 5pm, but I could be wrong.
@oRcHiD4 Way to make us all feel insignificant lmao. Seriously, it sounds like what you have achieved and are interested in is extremely impressive. No matter where you go you are going to do big things.
@AnnaNura Nobody in my area that I know of has gotten an interview either.
@Dataminer Philosophy and education.
Does anyone know if the official early decision date has been released for any of the other ivies?
@bruhinterviewme when you say philosophy and education, what do you mean?
@x2019x I heard Yale is the 14th from a friend who applied EA there
Does anyone know when the decision day will be announced and how it will be announced based on previous years? Im NOT asking when decision day is
Wait how are people finding this information
@lilyfullford which information?
@AnnaNura the notion of the mix of “spikes” was communicated to interviewers during a training session where we went over real case studies with all the information admissions officers see. The first case was of a very strong math/cs/physics applicant who had been successful in USAMO/MOP/USACO/USPHO competitions and had submitted a research paper in CS. The other two case studies were of applicants who more well rounded with a number of extracurricular activities and strong leadership roles.
So the comment about the mix of the class with “spikes” was made in reference to these 3 case studies. The admissions officer didn’t explain further what could be considered a “spike” but I’d understand it to mean having ECs that revolve primarily around a particular area of interest.
Is there a set date when interviewer reports should be finalized and sent to Harvard’s committees? I apologize if this question has already been answered in an earlier post; I have yet to receive my EA interview but several of my classmates who submitted their EA application several weeks after me have already had their interviews so my hopes are slowly dissipating at this point!
@hgrad2010 I’d love to hear more about the decisions involving spiked candidates. What were the results in those case studies?
Speaking generally, would Harvard rather have a USAMO winner who was a dud, or a humorous/lively, well-rounded candidate lacking a significant talent? I am neither of these things, but I wonder if admissions committees ever accept walking trophies instead of real people.
@skieurope if history repeats itself there should be an announcement on the release date sometime next week correct?
@nrsebayer Yup
@bruhinterviewme funny you should mention it because the stellar USAMO candidate had a meh essay and interview and resulted in a waitlist and a rejection ultimately. One of the well-rounded candidates was waitlisted and then withdrew their application. The last candidate, despite well below average scores due in part to first-generation college/immigrant background, wrote a mind-blowing essay (IMO) and had sparkling interview reports/LORs…I forget what their personal quality score was but it may have been a 1- (only a handful of those exist), so they got in.
The interviewers in the room were asked to vote on what we all thought were the outcomes of the decisions, with the first two applicants being the most “controversial” based on the split vote. The third case study was least controversial. I happened to get all decisions “correct” \m/
Of course I’d caution drawing generalizations re: spike w/dud personality, but yeah.
@hgrad2010 My daughter has an internal (admission office) correspondent document uploaded in her application as academic information. What would that report be?