<p>CONGRATS TO ALL OF THE HARVARD UNIVERISTY EARLY APPLICANTS ACCEPTED THIS YEAR! </p>
<p>I was wondering if you have any tips and advice for a sophomore currently attending an intense and competitive private high school in Los Angeles, CA. </p>
<p>I currently have about a 3.84 unweighted GPA. </p>
<p>In 9th grade I took 3 Honors classes and 4 regular classes (Honors not offered then) and in 10th grade I am taking 3 Honors classes and 2 AP Classes along with 2 regular classes. </p>
<p>I have about 10 good extracurriculars which I truly enjoy being a part of and leading.</p>
<p>I of course can't say I've found my passion at 10th Grade, but I have a love of tech and finance. </p>
<p>I aspire to attend an elite University like Harvard , Stanford , Columbia , Princeton , Cornell , UPenn , and UC Berkeley. </p>
<p>I have lots of questions about how to get into elite Ivy League schools, but I will start with : </p>
<ol>
<li><p>What have you learned about the admissions process that you'd like to share? </p></li>
<li><p>Is there something in particular elite colleges look for? </p></li>
<li><p>Is there specific advice for achieving high in 10th, 11th, and 12th Grades? </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks so much for the advice in advance, and I hope everyone has an amazing and enriching time at every school everyone ends up in! </p>
<p>I got deferred in SCEA but I think some of my tips might still be valuable.</p>
<p>1) Apply to as many schools as humanly possible. With the competition the way it is, it’s becoming more and more difficult to get into an elite school. A lot of people try to finger pick schools and so only apply to around 5-12. I think this is the wrong approach. Do your research on the school but keep your net wide; you can finger pick once you get in. Also with applying to so many schools comes the essays. Start as early as possible since a good essay won’t just pop up over night (most of the time). Another thing I noticed is that as the process goes along, your writing becomes better and better and so, if you start early, you will be comfortable cranking out good essays.</p>
<p>2) From what Ive heard, its passion. I think Harvard said that some people are well rounded while others are well lopsided. Make sure that when an admissions officer reads your app, they can see some sort of theme emerging. So if you like music, show that through extracurriculars, essays…</p>
<p>3) 11th grade was my best year and the best advice I can give is to just work very hard. Don’t go out with friends as often, and don’t waste time. Hard work beats talent when talent does not work hard. If your motivated, you can truly make it anywhere. In my 10th grade PSAT I had a 142, in my 11th grade PSAT I had a 189, On my actually SAT I had a 2210 simply because I spent hours and hours working on it (doing 65 practice tests etc…). The honest truth is that the system does not measure how smart you are, it measures how hard you work.</p>
<p>I hope my advice was somewhat helpful. Best of luck!</p>
<p>Just my opinion. Always nice to see the applicant in person, attach a face to it. Also gives you a chance to explain more different circumstances. A personal example, as an intern at a politician office past summer, couldn’t do the whole summer because of broken wrist/cast for 6 weeks, you can explain why you just interned 4 weeks in the summer and not whole summer or work. You can mention some before the 9th grade EC’s you can’t put in the common app. And I just think they may favor someone they just sat with and chatted with over someone they never met. Just human nature I think.</p>
<p>I disagree w/LovingHarvard. Many on campus interviews are conducted by employees who are seniors, not actual admissions officers. Their write ups are equally as invaluable as alumni reports. Interviews rarely do anything to enhance the application (speaking as a 20+ year interviewer for an H peer college). On campus or alum – both are equal.</p>
<p>Visit Boston/Harvard if it’s convenient to do so. Spending $1000s *solely *to chase a perceived infinitesimal bump for an on-campus face to face? No way.</p>
