<p>Congratulations to the guy with the cool screen name. ;)</p>
<p>Congrats!!!</p>
<p>Congrats, Token.</p>
<p>In defense of JohnC613, I know more than one kid who has applied to Harvard this year with better stats (higher SATs and SAT2s, more and higher AP scores, higher GPA) than Token89 AND 3 varsity sports all years AND at least as many or more ECs AND various awards and none of them has gotten a likely letter. </p>
<p>Of course, they aren't recruited athletes. (Or URMs. Or private school kids.) Those are the breaks. Token89 is obviously a qualified student and could well have been accepted eventually anyway, but he is more realistic about his reasons for receiving a likely letter right now than some of the other posters.</p>
<p>Consolation, there's no mystery about that - not all great athletes get recruited. You have to meet the coach's specific need that specific year, and be at the top of his/her list. And meet harvard's academic requirements, do the full application, get interviewed, pass muster on your 'official visit', and be admitted by the admissions office (not the coach.)</p>
<p>Being URM or private school or striped purple and green :) really has nothing to do with athletic recruitment and getting a likely letter. A white athlete from a public school would have had the same odds, if he occupied the same spot on the coach's list and met the requirements in the first para.</p>
<p>Ailey, I would agree. I think that being a high-statted URM from a private school would definitely help somewhat in the RD process, but the coach's athletic needs are what matter now. As you say, there's no mystery about that.</p>
<p>BTW, the applicants I know are not "great" athletes--if they were, maybe they'd have a likely letter from somewhere also :)-- just decent athletes who participate all three seasons in three varsity sports. One of the other posters seemed to think that that made a big difference. I don't think it does: kids like that are a dime a dozen in RD and the vast majority of them are rejected. Their classmate who <em>is</em> a standout athlete with good stats (not as good as Token's or theirs, though) has been actively recruited by a number of elite schools and been told by the coach that he's into the one he selected.</p>
<p>Again, congratulations, Token: I'm sure you'll have a blast at Harvard and do very well.</p>
<p>Yea this definitely happens with sports. Yale more or less offered me acceptance if I agreed to apply EA and dive at their school (I declined).</p>
<p>A football player from my school is also "in" at Harvard for football, but probably won't go because he wants a full ride from Cal.</p>
<p>Anyway, I find it funny when kids disqualify acceptances based on athletic accomplishment, e.g. "so and so only got in because they are amazingly good at basketball"...As if being amazing at a sport was somehow less difficult and less work than academic achievement.</p>
<p>Sorry if I might have sounded skeptical, but I have no idea how the world of athletics works with admissions so please forgive me. Padfoot, I agree with you completely. I see no reason to put achievement in sports as second rate compared with academics on a "amount of dedication/effort" put in scale. However, you have to realize that you are going to college first and foremost to get an education, not play sports professionally. Naturally then, you can expect many hardcore academic only people to be jealous because "valuable" athletes are watched by adcoms like a fat kid watches cake. However, I see no reason to not recruit them because athletics is a part of our culture, and perhaps will attribute more to our success than provincially studying purely from books.</p>
<p>However, colleges want people that will soak up what they have to offer outside of the lecture halls, which is why a lot of schools, Harvard included, reject many, many valedictorians, I assume.</p>
<p>congrats. now get drunk</p>
<p>congrats token!!!</p>
<p>good luck~! im soo happy for you! ill see you soon! HAHA</p>
<p>Congrats Token! Hopefully, Harvard will give me a similar message 5 months from now haha.</p>
<p>Congrats again!</p>
<p>Wow. You're like the perfect student! Congrats! I hope I get in; I am beginning to doubt it though. :(</p>
<p>congratulations! :)</p>
<p>P.S- How'd you get recrutied for Basketball?</p>
<p>i didn't get recruited for basketball. i got recruited for track.</p>
<p>congrats! 10 chars</p>
<p>thanks to everybody for your congratulations. u CC'ers aren't half bad.<br>
to rosh420, i am NOT the perfect student. you're crazy. i appreciate the compliment though.</p>
<p>Congratulations Token 89! My prediction in September was correct! Hooray! The track team is a great group of people, you'll have a blast, and be able to contribute greatly to the sprints! If you go out in late April for Admitted Students Weekend (a great time to meet future classmates and be treated like royalty) remember to buy your mom a Harvard Mom mug or sweatshirt- she'll be forever grateful. Also watch for Harvard Facebook to open a group for the Class of 2012- you'll have fun messaging fellow frosh.</p>
<p>congrats, token! </p>
<p>a few of us current students check in every now and then around here, so just let us know if you have any questions about life @ harvard</p>