<p>Hanna did work in the admissions office a little while. A number of undergrads work there from time to time.</p>
<p>Damn, sounds like if you're not perfect--if you have a "blemish" as it says, you're not likely to get in.</p>
<p>Very, very interesting read. Although I'm not betting on getting in--makes me proud I at least had a year of Varsity on sports (and an excuse to quit) on my app.</p>
<p>damn i should have done TASP as a sophmore, im a sophmore now and its easier to do the summer for sophmore/junior year. this guidance lady recommended it for me. i wanna do it next year. really badly cuz i hear the program is really interesting. btw does harvard look at freshmen grades i asume they do bbut sicne i found out princeton doesn't im confused</p>
<p>Martini--You're confusing physical activity with official high school athletics. I agree, anyone should be physically fit and in shape; even if you're doing research or math competitions or whatever, a half hour a day to go running or biking is certainly feasible most days. But would it be too much of a stretch to assume that when a college grades on an "athletics" category they're judging organized HS sports participation (which is a huge time commitment that certainly not everyone can make) and on top of that, how good you are at those sports?</p>
<p>Adam, you're an Intel finalist, you can sit at home and watch Jewish soap operas all day and Harvard will still accept you.;)</p>
<p>lol. We'll see. Jewish soap operas sounds pretty enticing right now though :p</p>
<p>Again, I did not make an assumption, nor prescribed any differentiation between sports and athletics. I simply read an article and a book. Anyone heard of "The Chosen"?</p>
<p>Nope, can you please expand on that?</p>
<p>My point is, I simply don't think that the adcom really considers your daily, unorganized fitness activities in the "Athletics" category. I mean, how many people even put in their application "Run for 45 minutes around the neighborhood most days to stay fit"?</p>
<p>martinibluex- i read "the chosen" last summer. it was really good, in my opinion, or maybe i'm just a chump for chaim potok :-p</p>
<p>Oh, is that a Chaim Potok book? I feel like such a bad Jew for not having read any of his stuff. It's not my fault I'm really Indian underneath this Jewish body! Mahabharata over Jew books any day for me, I say :P</p>
<p>Maybe he's talking about the other The Chosen about the history of HYP admissions. The whole "meritocracy" deal was created to stem the flow of Jews :(</p>
<p>Yeah. I read about that in the New Yorker article. I think it's safe to say that's over now, though...lol</p>
<p>too bad...</p>
<p>mahabarata over jew books lol. have you read the whole thing guitarman?</p>
<p>ehhh. I've read the rather abridged English translation by William Buck. Most bookstores don't sell unshortened translations which is sort of annoying because you miss out on a lot when you squeeze a story four times as long as the Bible into 300something pages...:p</p>
<p>i wasn't referring to the exclusion of certain groups but to the 4 dimensions of admissions.</p>
<p>OK lol well, what were you getting at?</p>
<p>I was getting at the fact that there is a natural dichotomy between written sources and board-posts-dwelling-self-proclaimed-experts' assertions. I thought that was clear. Feel free to ignore me. I come here to rant and practice my debate. And mostly because I cannot stop thinking of Harvard.</p>
<p>lol oyyyy. I'm just curious WHY you mentioned that book. What fact is in there that you are trying to bring into the conversation?</p>