<p>It’s fun for the freshmen to live in the Yard despite the tourists. However, once they move into the houses which are much more neighborhood-ish, most appreciate the calm.</p>
<p>A Harvard meeting in Texas on 9 October 2007 has been announced </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/utilities/travel_schedule/index.cgi?state=Texas[/url]”>http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/utilities/travel_schedule/index.cgi?state=Texas</a> </p>
<p>and more meetings should be announced on the same Web form in a while.</p>
<p>Harvard has now posted its schedule of joint information sessions with Princeton and U of Virginia in November </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/utilities/travel_schedule/index.cgi[/url]”>http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/utilities/travel_schedule/index.cgi</a> </p>
<p>in various states. I think some more individual regional information sessions by Harvard in other states have yet to be posted, so check the webpage from time to time.</p>
<p>I saw a Harvard admission officer today. She was at the Harvard booth at the Minnesota National College Fair, with her admission office nametag on. She has been in the office of admissions for many years, and I think oversees the docket that includes my state. </p>
<p>I stood and listened at the booth for a few moments while high school students walked up and said hello. Standing next to me was an alumnus, a man my age or possibly older, who was about to go into the booth to cover the next shift of helping in the booth. Another alumnus, who took the first shift, was inside the booth with the admission officer. The booth was quite busy this morning. Lots of students were walking up, and the admission officer or alumnus would ask them what grade they were in and where they went to high school. A pretty common follow-up question to the students was “Do you get good grades?” or “Are you doing well in school?” or something along that line. The Harvard booth was trying to make it clear, without being obnoxious (as I think they succeeded in doing) that Harvard is competitive to get into and a student has to be a strong student to have a reasonable chance of admission. In a very brief lull in the stream of students coming to the booth, I asked the admission officer what happens if a student retakes an admission test. Of course she said, “We only look at the highest scores,” and said that with such practiced automaticity that the alumnus standing next to me remarked on how rapidly the answer came. I knew that, because that is said on several Harvard webpages and in this year’s Harvard viewbook, but I wanted to ask again because not everyone on CC believes this. </p>
<p>Then I mentioned that I go to college fairs partly to gather information about college admission for homeschoolers. The admission said, “Oh, so you’re a homeschooling parent?” I answered yes, and she said that it is very important for homeschooled applicants to Harvard to explain why they are homeschooling. “In many ways, Harvard is just the opposite of homeschooling,” so it’s important for the admission committee to know how and why the homeschooling was done to know if the student will fit into Harvard. For example, a student at Harvard will probably not the degree of individual attention a homeschooled student may receive at home. I appreciated that advice, and I mentioned that online networks of homeschooling parents are discussing the new homeschooling supplement to the Common Application and how to use that to describe a family’s homeschooling program. </p>
<p>It’s apparent that Harvard is doing very intense recruiting </p>
<p><a href=“Bloomberg Businessweek - Bloomberg”>Bloomberg Businessweek - Bloomberg; </p>
<p>and there are a lot of students in Minnesota alone who are at least thinking about applying to Harvard. I expect there will be plenty of applications submitted this year.</p>
<p>By email from the Harvard admissions office, I just learned that Harvard, Princeton, and the U of VA now have a joint website announcing their joint regional information sessions. </p>
<p><a href=“Redirecting...”>Redirecting...; </p>
<p>They are taking advantage of not having to read early round admission applications by traveling more in November than most “peer” colleges.</p>
<p>Here’s my last bump of this thread. A few more of the Harvard, Princeton, U VA joint meetings happen tonight, or in the next week. </p>
<p>[University</a> of Virginia, Harvard, & Princeton Admission Presentations](<a href=“http://www.harvardprincetonuva.org/]University”>http://www.harvardprincetonuva.org/) </p>
<p>What did you learn from any Harvard sessions you attended this fall?</p>