No.
This is going to generate some angst, but I don’t think it’s healthy to spend formative years among so many who value prestige to that degree.
If Harvard offered a lottery spot w/o academic requirements, would your encourage your kid to apply?
No. Because going to college isn’t just about getting accepted. It’s about the experience and growth possibilities for the true individual, once there. And not job opps. If my kid wasnt truly strong enough to thrive there, in that ongoing competitive environment, no. Even if she thought, at 17, that she “wanted” it, no. That’s not enough.
No none of my kids like cities and it would have made them miserable. Now Dartmouth would be a different story.
I told my older son I thought he should apply to Harvard because I thought he had a better chance of being accepted there as a legacy than his first choice down the river. I was right. I thought he’d be better off there than at his safeties. I didn’t make him attend because he got into another school he liked better than Harvard. (Though he liked Harvard much better than he expected to when he actually spent a whole weekend there.)
But to the original question. If I thought my kid could thrive at Harvard, I’d have them do the lottery. That’s what my younger son did. His application was not as strong as his brother’s and as expected, he was not accepted. But I think he’d have done well there. He’s a bloom where planted kid. He had no first choices and did not end up attending the most highly ranked place that accepted him.
There are some students at Harvard who enroll in these classes simply because their HS did not have advanced/AP. Not everyone who gets into Harvard comes from a tippy top HS.
Not a chance.
Harvard is not listed in the only guidebook I care about (CTCL) 
It seems that your real question is whether or not you should encourage/push your daughter to complete scholarship applications that require essays when she no longer wants to do it. Your question about Harvard is just confusing the matter.
The best aid comes from the schools. Your daughter is extremely unlikely to win a full ride through external scholarships. Her time would likely be better spent on prep for the SAT/ACT.
@austinmshauri, yes, my dilemma started with thinking about super-competitive scholarships, but then my train of thought jumped to summer programs like TASP, and then to HYPS. At each one the admission rate is about the same (I honestly don’t see a difference between 2% and 4%, just calling them lottery odds). Ok, if we consider that out of everyone who applies, only “average excellent kids” with top grades and test scores, good essay writers and involved in meaningful EC’s (but lacking any exceptional achievements like curing cancer or competing in the olympics) make it across the threshold to be considered, the odds might be about 10%, still pretty bad. Each category provides a great benefit - be it excellent education at a top school (for those who want it), an amazing and intellectually stimulating summer experience (which also gives a leg up in admissions to top schools), or simply money for college to be used at the college of your choice. There is a marginally greater benefit to applying to multiple scholarships than to colleges or summer programs - if you win the former, you benefit from all your wins, and in a latter case you can only choose one opportunity even if you are accepted into multiple ones.
I was just wondering why some parents might feel one category is worth it putting one’s time and money into (mostly time), but other category not so much.
I am not trying to compare time spent on test prep with time spent writing essays for national scholarships, I understand most parents consider it to be better investment of time and effort. It’s just irrelevant to my situation (I won’t pester my kid to re-take an ACT just to get that one final point to a perfect score, but then things might have been different if either of the schools she is interested in gave merit aid based on scores).
Thanks!
OP - I don’t think outside scholarships are worth the time and energy. The best merit comes from school’s themselves.
DD only applied to one high reach (out of 8 applications) because of the same feeling about time/energy. If you are looking for merit, the best bet is schools with higher acceptance rates where your students’ stats are above the 75th percentile.
As far as summer programs, DD did an engineering program as a rising senior that was competitive admission, but certainly not uber competitive. The application was as time consuming as a college application though with essays, LORs, etc… Doubt very much that she would have put in the time if it was a single digit acceptance rate.
There are many, many schools that provide an excellent education that don’t have single digit acceptance rates. Focus on those!
PS. She would never have applied to Harvard - not the right school for her major, not the right environment, etc…
It’s a $50 lottery ticket and nothing more. No. Waste of money.
No.
Yes, I would.
My daughter is going to the least competitive school she was accepted to. Even if she could have been accepted to Yale or Harvard she has no desire to go + SO COLD.
For 95% of US families (income below $170k), Harvard’s tuition is zero, which is certainly much lower cost than any other alternatives like a state school. So winning this lottery for 95% of families is not just a matter of debate “fit vs prestige” it means hundreds of thousands of dollars, certainly worth many hours of essay writing and a $50 fee.
@jzducol that would be a bit more than 50% of US families, income below $65,000 (median income - $59,000 or so). Up to $150,000 it is up to $15,000 a year, and starts increasing at higher salaries. At $170,000 it’s probably around $20,000. There is also about $14,000 for room and board.
^You are looking at the total cost ($70k) which includes R&B $20k and tuition $50k. Here is a bit more detailed breakdown: at 50% or lower income scale (now at $70k/yr) the familiy pays nothing, at 90% ($120k) the family pays half cost of R&B (about $10k), at 95% ($170k) the family pays only R&B ($20k) and at 97% ($270k) the family pays the total cost. And Harvard does not take family assets into account when calculating income either.
Its no coincidence that the most sought after schools for 95% of families happen to be the best deals, and Harvard is probably the cheapest of them all if your family income is under $170k with some assets.
Of course, 95% of the CC families here happen to belong to the top 5%, which is why the focus tends to be more on “fit” than dollars.
Yes.
There are a lot of Harvard “haters” out there. Not sure where all of the bitterness comes from. And some things get massively blown out of proportion (I agree, the stories of major donors such as the Kushner family giving multi-million dollar gifts and then kid gets in are icky, but there are less than 5-10 kids like that per year. 70% of the kids are on financial aid, so clearly none of those kids are doing any bribing/donating, and the vast, vast, vast majority of the full pay families are not either. ). Legacy students are only 13% of student body, and vast majority of those students are eminently qualified.
The overwhelming majority of students there are absolute rockstars with astonishing achievements and intelligence. That may not be for everyone—it can be intimidating among other things. But it is a rare opportunity.
Harvard also has one of the most diverse student bodies (along with other elites). They can afford to focus on diversity, take the best of each group whether that is ethnicity, geography, area of academic interest, socio-economic level, etc. It is an awe-inspiring student body.
So for me the answer is: absolutely!
“There are a lot of Harvard “haters” out there. Not sure where all of the bitterness comes from.”
My theory is that there are a lot of Harvard Haters because all people admire a winner, but there is a subset of people who come to resent on general principles any organization that wins all the time.
Harvard, Microsoft, Apple, Google, the Duke men’s basketball team, The New England Patriots, California, and The United States of America are all organizations that have some people who just generally hate them, not because they are so bad but because they are so good - year after tiresome year.
I honestly think my son would have had a good shot at Harvard but we have too much money for financial aid and not enough to afford to pay. So unless the lottery came with free tuition, no.
Absolutely not. Even if my child won this lottery, we would be full pay and I simply don’t believe that any university in the world is worth $70k+ for a BA/BS. It wouldn’t even matter if we were wealthy enough to not notice the cost; I wouldn’t spend thousands of $ on a Birkin bag either for the same reason. I don’t think I’d ever be able to convince myself that the education at a high-status college is so superior to a good, solid state flagship that I would be willing to pay 2 to 3 times more for it.