How do "regular" people get in?

<p>Well a 2300 is impressive, but in the general talent pool at Harvard nothing amazing. However, I highly doubt that she was just regular. She must have something more to her, because I refuse to chalk something like that up to luck.</p>

<p>Wow this thread has just over 1000 views an 20 replies....people reading this sign up and give us some information!</p>

<p>lol, i just don't get why everybody feels that they have to go to Harvard, there's other schools that are great </p>

<p>i think that showing passion and deep involvement in something that you enjoy or believe in will get an admission officer's attention because after many years of experience, they know how to differentiate between pple who do ec's to look good and pple who show true passion :)</p>

<p>I love the people who say don't tell, but "show."</p>

<p>Seems like the most useless peice of propaganda ever. To me, it seems as if it's rewarding all the people that simply know how to bs and spin a story well.</p>

<p>Harvard's eminence, while still top, is starting to go down, and the other schools,who've focused on the times instead of the image, and cultivated modern ways of the purpose of the college experience are poised to overtake Harvard.</p>

<p>I still can't believe how some places will say that the essays are the most important part. They decide your worth on the basis of 20 lines...</p>

<p>Most complete bs I've ever heard.</p>

<p>From what I've read about the expansion that Harvard is undergoing and will continue to go through, especially with science/engineering and its financial aid initiative, it seems like Harvard is getting ready to put even more distance between itself and its competition. Harvard remains as innovative today as it was fifty years ago.</p>

<p>As for regular applicants, well, I agree with those who say that no one "regular" gets in. But that doesn't mean that an extraordinary applicant has to have won national competitions, be an expert musician, or have a rich alumnus father. Those who get in let their passions show through, not necessarily through just their essay, but through the substance of their extracurriculars (not quantity) and their personal interview, as well as their recommendations.</p>

<p>Someone with a 2200+ on the SATs, along with an A average and a strong drive for something that's important to him or her is certainly not a regular applicant in my opinion. That person is a well-qualified applicant for any school in the country.</p>

<p>No top school would EVER say that essays are the most important part. Harvard very clearly states that grades are the most important part of your application. </p>

<p>And even if essays only play a more marginal role (after all, academics are about 70% of the evaluation), they should still play a role. Writing is critical in college. Even engineers have to write, and the essay is a great place to show not only a personality, but also the ability to string two coherent thoughts together. It's nothing to complain about, especially after having to go through writing a horrible essay in 30 minutes for the SAT. I think everyone would be far worse off if they just used that as your "writing sample."</p>

<p>I agree with lingbo that the essay is one way to show your "ability to develop your thoughts". Even Columbia denotes this in their application's essay prompt. But the content of the essay becomes far more important when there is a highly qualified applicant pool. Imagine you have 2000 students with straight A's and perfect SATs. The next step will be to build a class in which a variety of characters is represented. In a good book I have read that it is not the school's only goal to gather as many talented people as they can but to have a community, too. And I think this is a very good approach since a healthy social environment cannot solely be established by won competitions.</p>

<p>I look forward to hear further participation</p>

<p>I didn't apply to Harvard (or any Ivy-esque school for that matter) but people are right when they say that you need to stress about how your ECs affect you as a person. For example, instead of saying "I am in an Israel advocacy program which has taught me leadership and advocacy skills" I wrote about going on a trip to Israel with that group and getting home the day all the stuff with Hezbollah started happening. Don't state what you have done and how it affected you, show how it had affected you.</p>

<p>
[quote]
We all know that Harvard looks beyond the regular slew of 36 ACT, 4.0 GPA, and science fair champions for admissions, because there are so-called "regular" people that get in with good but not GREAT stats.</p>

<p>So how do these applicants do it? Is it the essays, having some type of super-awesome activity that made some change in their community, or some other unknown factor?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Harvard (and Princeton and Yale) don't admit regular people. There are people who come in without the same statistics as others. Some are those who have devoted many hours to community service and have made a notable difference in the nation or in the world, such that they stand out. Some have a very amazing skill that others don't. Some bring publicity to the school, some bring money to the school. Some write essays that, on the day that they are read, inspire, in the admissions officer, a warmly spreading feeling that the applicant loves knowledge. Some are legacies. Some are URM's. Some are athletes. The list goes on.</p>

<p>To OP: A hook. These include, but are not limited to;
Athlete
URM
Published writer
Scholastic Award winner
Andover or Phillips
Formerly Homeless
Reformed Alcoholic
Science award
Math Award
Class President
Featured in an Art Show
30 hour+/week job
Cancer survivor
Helped Aids Victims in Africa
Speaking Multiple foreign Languages
Having a story about 9/11(only if you were there)
Homosexual from a red state(depending on school you're applying to)
Running a Marathon or Ironman
Performing at Carnegie Hall
Relative of faculty member
Rec. by a professoror or senator
Rec. By a Pulitzer/Oscar/nobel winner
From a Rural State
Walking on Water
Dirt poor
One of more of your parents is in prison
raising thousands of dollars for a famous charity
understanding the esoteric nature of an Albers painting(haha)
professional model
The ability to trace your roots back to a dead President
Prince/ Princess</p>

<p>These are only a few hooks that have turned a mere 1350 into a 1500, giving the edge to pass muster. But I do warn, if the name Maya Lin means nothing to you, stay away from the Ivies. If you like James Joyce because alliteration is fun, Princeton has a place for you(the rejection pile). If good art is pretty, don't waste $50. If, for you, the string theory has to do with a quartet, then I must say no. If Dan Brown constitues "literature" in your mind, revisit the US news rankings. The best of luck. Hooking is the only way.</p>

<p>Nice post. Those are a lot of good hooks.</p>

<p>When you say Andover/Phillips is a hook what do you mean. It's easier for a student from there to get in?</p>

<p>yes, not sure if this is still true, but at one point these two schools constituted a "geographical" region of their own in the Harvard offices, because they are traditionally the top feader schools for HYP.</p>

<p>I'm gonna have to disagree with that "hook" list. My interviewer made a point of telling me that he had none of those "hooks" and he got in. However, this was awhile ago, and maybe things have changed?</p>

<p>The truth is that you can get in without a hook. Most people do at HYP. Your interviewer probably did. But the below-average kids with a hook have a better chance of getting in. The point of having a hook is being a kid who is "average" get in.</p>

<p>I'm applying to Andover (I'm an eighth grader) and I also want to go to Yale. But I don't really think that going to Andover or Exeter would help chances. The only reason why 20 people go to HYP a year is because those schools attract really brilliant people. It isn't the school that gets them in, but they do have connections. HYP will accept students from Andover/Exeter with lower GPAs than kids from other schools, just because the course work is harder.</p>

<p>The most important thing is to set yourself apart from the rest of the applicant body.</p>

<p>I don't have time or energy to read the rest of these replies, but on page 2 I have to agree with am12388; there is a reason that colleges have essays, personal interviews, etc. They want to get a feeling for who you are as a person, not what you have or have not done in high school. Everyone at Harvard is an absolutely amazing PERSON, not necessarily an amazing performer/athlete/whatever. JSimons is also correct in saying that you should let your essays show how your ECs etc. affect you as a person. Harvard is a community as much as it is an institution, and the people chosen reflect that, I believe. It's certainly not a place for everyone--Harvard, for me, can best be described as "sink or swim"--but the community here is such that you find yourself and your path, and you are chosen because they know that you have the ability to do that for yourself and for others. I really believe that they select applicants based on WHO they are; a "regular" person (stats-wise) may be just as amazing when placed in the Harvard environment as one with off-the-charts ones is. </p>

<p>~lb</p>

<p>For the 8th grader:
You have WAY too long to go to be on these boards. I'm not telling you to leave or anything, it just pains me to see kids (and parents) get all worked up
about this stuff so early. That doesn't mean don't plan early or anything like that, but just to keep yourself sane I recommend not to even think about Ivy-caliber schools until you at least see some of your standardized test scores. To quote Billy Madison when referring to childhood: "Cherish it. CHEEERRISSHHHH IT."</p>

<p>Ooh, no, I'm nothing like that. :) I originally got attracted to these boards because of the Prep School Admissions forum. And seriously, I'm not in the numbers game like I've seen some people here are. It's just an option for me. I'm really not like that. I only have about a 93 average, I think ... and I don't obsess AT ALL about school work. I'm not a perfectionist, really.</p>

<p>So don't think I'm one of those new-age 4.0 GPA seventh-graders (or eighth-graders) who are preparing too much and too early for college. ^^ I'm definitely not like that.</p>