<p>"Harvard's football roster has 11 players @280 lbs or more, so "scarce as hens' teeth" is an exaggeration."</p>
<p>Yes, divided over four years, that's fewer than 3 a year. They likely have more patent owners, published authors, performed composers, and high school scientists with names on research papers that they do football players each year weighing more than 280.</p>
<p>Scarce as hen's teeth is about right.</p>
<p>How about 280 pounds and with the footwork of Warren Sapp--heavens, that man can DANCE! (you Dancing with the Stars fans, you know what I am saying).</p>
<p>76% yield for last year's Harvard class...a surprise to the low side for Harvard. </p>
<p>"In an interview with The Crimson last week, Fitzsimmons, who has seen over three decades of admitted classes, described this admissions cycle as the “most unusual and most unpredictable in my admissions career.”'</p>
<p>Which meant that more people came off the waiting list. I wonder if they will send out more acceptances this year in the RD round?</p>
<p>Long time Penn (Wharton) alum/interviewer/watcher here. Could not agree with Mini more. </p>
<p>I would speculate in the situation you describe that the first val met some institutional need that may not be apparent and the second val did not and was rejected like the vast majority of vals everywhere.</p>
<p>Ah, the beauty of idle speculation!</p>
<p>At least --for a change-- we brought 280 lbs linemen under the microscope. A few years ago, all the rage on College Confidential was about oboe players.</p>
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probably because H is regularly turned down for BYU
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<p>Why would they even apply then?</p>
<p>Arm twisted by the Harvard football coach, perhaps. If you want to play serious football, better to go to BYU. Harvard coach has an uphill battle.</p>
<p>The applicants from here who get into H and go to BYU aren't football players (or at least I haven't met any.) Naturally, all LDS. Some of it is cost (and that may have changed). They may have preferred H. However, they usually come from upper middle class families (just lots of kids), and BYU is much more economical (or had been), and that, combined with family pressures, may weigh heavily. </p>
<p>Our area has sent LOTS of heavyweight football players to Stanford over the years, often with relatively low stats. </p>
<p>Oboe players are iffy - it works if there is a need. However, an orchestra only has two, plus an English horn. Apply in the wrong year, and it won't help in the least. Williams, in fact, lists right on their music department website the instruments they are currently seeking. And while financial aid is need-based only, they have no fewer than six dedicated scholarships for individuals active in music and awarded on the recommendation of the music department.</p>
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The applicants from here who get into H and go to BYU aren't football players (or at least I haven't met any.) Naturally, all LDS. Some of it is cost (and that may have changed). They may have preferred H. However, they usually come from upper middle class families (just lots of kids), and BYU is much more economical (or had been), and that, combined with family pressures, may weigh heavily.
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<p>That still doesn't explain why they would apply to Harvard.</p>
<p>Because their college counselors told them it is "the best", and they are the vals/sals etc. And they might get a bunch of money. Because maybe the students (as opposed to the parents) would prefer not to attend BYU, if finances were equal. There are LDS students in all kinds of places (though rarely in fundamentalist Christian colleges). Why does anyone apply to H?</p>
<p>(Mitt Romney began college at Stanford; transferred to BYU to be with his sweetie; then went to Harvard Business and Harvard Law.)</p>
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Why does anyone apply to H?
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<p>I dunno, maybe they want to go if they are accepted (as 76% do)?</p>
<p>Maybe because they enjoy rejection. ;)</p>
<p>I live in University housing at the U of Chicago. Most apartments in my building are three bedrooms, and in recent years these have been occupied, of course, by graduate students who like kids and believe in having them early and often. Most of my neighbors are Mormons and Israelis.
Almost all terrific parents, from what I can tell.
Most of the LDS folks went to Brigham Young and aren't lacking in intellectual fire power.
Parents in my building have told me that my daughter, who plays with their kids regularly, speaks a lot of Hebrew. A surprise to me, but then there is no reason she would use it with me.</p>
<p>BYU is a real bargain for any LDS family...under $15K a year last time I checked (the whole package). Their top kids get into top law schools, grad schools and MBA programs every year. It's awful big, though...</p>