<p>Ok there are alot of myths out there about getting into Harvard. The purpose of this post is to discuss various myths associated with Harvard admissions.</p>
<p>I will start with the first topic: Do you have to be the president of at least one club to get in?</p>
<p>Answer: no. My son's only leadership position was being one of multiple VPs of Science Olympiad. </p>
<p>Question: Do you need a lot of ECs?</p>
<p>Answer: No. My son had two at school. Academic Team was his other one. Outside of school he did freelance computer programming and was involved in a very popular mod of Civilization 4. Less can be more.</p>
<p>Question: Do you need to be at the top of your high school class.</p>
<p>Answer: No. It depends on the high school, but many people I know at Harvard (including myself) weren't at the top of the class.</p>
<p>Taking all 4 years English, foreign language, math or science is not necessary. Because of graduation requirement, one can take only 3.5 years of English or Foreign language and drop these courses in final semester. One can also drop math or science in senior year provided they are taking graduation requirements or in-depth elective courses (beyond APs) in the subjects they want to study in college. H is flexible with course load.</p>
<p>What I've perceived about H admissions is this - They attract about 22,000 of the most academically-qualified applicants in the world, and about 20,000 of them have SATs above the 97th or 98th percentile and GPAs around 4.0. They have room to accept only 2,000 of those 20,000, and there's no real way to distinguish among the group on academic qualifications alone. So, they seek to create the most interesting, talented, stimulating, and diverse cohort they can from the 20,000. That means looking for people with amazing accomplishments, unique talents, and remarkable life experiences, and diversifying the group by ethnicity, nationality, gender, socio-economic background, etc. Ultimately, those making these decisions may have to decide how to weight the fact that one candidate is an Olympic athlete, or another is a concert pianist, or that another created a local non-profit effort that grew into a successful organization. If you can imagine being a part of an Admissions Committee with that task, you can see that there would be no way to give a concise answer to they question "what does the committee look for?"</p>
<p>Question: Do non-URM non-legacy Northeastern suburban kids get into Harvard?</p>
<p>Answer: Yes.</p>
<p>Question: Do you have to have to be an world famous pianist or have cured a disease to get into Harvard?</p>
<p>Answer: No (but it may help)</p>
<p>Question: Might you be accepted to Harvard but not to other Ivy League schools such as Cornell, Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, Penn?</p>
<p>Answer: Yes.</p>
<p>Question: Are there quotas for how many students Harvard will take from one high school?</p>
<p>Answer: No.</p>
<p>I posted some myths in a thread last December- they're more about Harvard than about getting in, but I feel that they're relevant:</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
1)"Harvard students are arrogant and preppy"- DEFINITELY false. If there's one group of people that know that going to Harvard doesn't make you special, it's Harvard students. As for preppy- I know a few preppy students here, as well as goth students, emo students, jock students, hippie students, and (by far the majority) REGULAR students. Harvard isn't the W.A.S.P.-ridden institution it was a century ago- the diversity here, be it in race, religion, class, or just clothing style, is actually astonishing. (All it takes to get rid of this perception is a visit to the campus).</p>
<p>Funny story, actually- "Legally Blonde" filmed a scene in front of Harvard Yard. They had the option of using real Harvard students to walk through in the background as extras. However, they chose to use actors instead- because they said the Harvard students "didn't look Harvard enough." Might just be an urban legend, but still funny.</p>
<p>2)"Harvard doesn't pay attention to its undergraduates"- not true at all. xjayz and I (along with other Harvard students) have written extensively on this in past threads, so I'm not going to go into this much.</p>
<p>The important thing is that while professors are NOT "distant" or "focused entirely on research," and many will go to the trouble to learn everyone's name, even in a class of 200 or more students, it's true that you won't build the same relationship with professors that you will at a liberal arts school that's focused on smaller classes and closer professors. This is true of any national university- whether it's Harvard or Yale or Dartmouth or UC Berkeley or University of Wisconsin at Madison or whatever. (By the way, I have a number of friends at liberal arts schools- some say that the general atmosphere of "being close to professors" is overrated. I'm sure it's a matter of opinion, but make sure you know what you want.)</p>
<p>3) "Harvard is extremely expensive." Completely ridiculous- this one bothers me the most. With a total cost of about $41,000 a year, Harvard isn't anywhere CLOSE to being the most expensive school in the country (that dubious honor goes to Sarah Lawrence, in Bronxville NY, by the way, with a total cost of $48,000 a year). Literally dozens of other schools are more expensive, including the vast majority of the top 100 liberal arts schools in the country, and a great number of top National Universities- Harvard fits very neatly into the list of tuitions.</p>
<p>This misconception is made far more ridiculous by the fact that Harvard's financial aid is incredibly generous. Harvard completely eliminates tuition for families making under $60,000 a year, and the tuition for families making $60,000 to $80,000 is very low (I think it's in the range of $2000 to $3000 a year, but I'm not positive). This means that if you're disadvantaged, it's probably easier to pay for Harvard than it is to pay for most other selective private universities in the country.</p>
<p>4)"It's hard to date at Harvard." Actually somewhat true. While I know a few people in comitted relationships within Harvard (and I'm in a relationship with a student at BU), from what I hear it's difficult to find relationships. I have no idea why, and I have no idea how it compares to other schools, but it's true. One advantage of going to school in Boston is that it's possible to have relationships with students from other schools, like MIT, Simmons, Northeastern... you know, the other sixty schools in the immediate area.</p>
<p>5)"Harvard students are nerds." Not true at all. There are a number of nerds, but (by definition) they tend to keep to themselves, so most people you interact with on any given day are socially very normal. Again, this perception can be fixed just by taking a trip to the campus.</p>
<p>6)"Harvard's easy once you get in." Geez, I wish.</p>
<p>If you choose an easy concentration (Government is often considered the easiest concentration) and take only easy classes, you can get by without doing much work (as is true of almost any college). However, most concentrations involve a TON of work with really difficult classes. I can only speak for myself- I'm taking almost entirely science and math classes, and the workload is really intense.</p>
<p>7)"The weather is crummy." Yup. Not going to deny it. It's in New England on the coast- it's pretty cold, it rains a good amount, and it's often foggy or muggy (I hear the spring is particularly horrible). This is true of a lot of colleges in the Northeast, of course, and each has its own issues with weather (I visited Dartmouth in January once. Yikes.).</p>
<p>Point is, if you want sunny weather and palm trees all year round, try California schools.
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>I'll second every point made by Admiral here.</p>
<p><a href="Admiral:">quote</a></p>
<p>This misconception is made far more ridiculous by the fact that Harvard's financial aid is incredibly generous. Harvard completely eliminates tuition for families making under $60,000 a year,
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Free ride under 60K is itself a myth that circulates on these boards. Harvard eliminated not tuition, but the "family contribution" at incomes below 60. Student contributions in the form of loans and expected work (termtime and summer earnings) are not eliminated. Princeton got rid of student loans but not the parental contribution. </p>
<p>
[quote]
This means that if you're disadvantaged, it's probably easier to pay for Harvard than it is to pay for most other selective private universities in the country.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>There is some truth to that: the super-endowment schools with high prices compensated by large discounts, are sometimes the cheapest alternative even including state schools.</p>
<p>Admiral:</p>
<p>$41000 is lowballing it even when you got in last year.</p>
<p>Hi DocT,</p>
<p>The post I quoted was written in December, and I think I was using the data I’d seen from the previous year when I was applying (I suppose I hadn’t seen it more recently), meaning it would be two years out of date by now. I’m fairly sure it was about $41,000 then, though I have no way of checking it and would not be that surprised to learn I was mistaken.</p>
<p>The current cost per year, according to US News, is $45,620. (<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/usnews/edu/college/directory/brief/drglance_2155_brief.php[/url]”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/usnews/edu/college/directory/brief/drglance_2155_brief.php</a>)
I believe I am still correct in saying that it fits neatly into the list of highly selective colleges. (Sarah Lawrence is still, for example, over $5000 more expensive).</p>
<p>My apologies for being misleading and somewhat outdated.</p>
<p>2005 - 2006 bill = $43655</p>
<p>If Harvard cost only $41000 per year, how would that disprove the “myth” that Harvard is extremely expensive?</p>
<p>Siserune - Students who’s families make 60K and under are required to pay $3500 dollars a year…out of their own pocket.</p>
<p>Which…let me say is nothing. The school pays students $9.50 - $13.00 to work in say…a library…where the time to do homework and get paid to do it is unlimited.</p>
<p>So therefore…this makes Harvard one of the least expensive schools to attend…assuming you are not Bill Gates’ daughter.</p>
<p>That ignores other components of the “student contribution”.</p>
<p>As has been covered many times, Harvard has a large proportion (probably a majority) of students who don’t receive any reduction in cost. Is it fair to say that for them, Harvard is “extremely expensive”, and whether or not it’s extremely expensive varies for the other students?</p>
<p>Only a lucky minority of students do their termtime work in a library, by the way. Some are working in dining halls, cleaning the dormitories, working in an administrative office, doing work-study jobs off campus, etc. I don’t claim that they are leading a life of Dickensian drudgery, and very few work full time, but it’s not true that one just signs up for a sinecure in the library as the way to pay costs.</p>
<p>No it doesn’t ignore the student contribution. If you’ll read it clearly I stated that it is $3500 out out of their (the students) pocket. </p>
<p>What’s fair and not fair doesn’t really matter. You are either very rich and have the funds to pay for the tuition (determined by the Harvard Financial Aid Office) or you are not so rich and Harvard provides the necessary financial accommodations to make sure you can attend the institution. </p>
<p>Basically once they’ve accepted you, they will do (almost) whatever it takes to make sure you attend.</p>
<p>Siserune, more than half of Harvard students receive some type of financial aid. </p>
<p>Also, as a side note, I students don’t work in the dining halls anymore and work study jobs are very easy to find and get. Even if you can’t get a library job, you can still get an on-campus work study job that pays well and allows you some free time to do homeowork.</p>
<p>To add to hotpiece101’s contribution, work-study jobs at Harvard are also very much tailored to students’ interests. There are many jobs in research, business, law, etc. so that students can explore their career options and still be able to make money on the side.</p>
<p>…Amen</p>
<p>The annual student payment includes loans, term-time work, and summer earnings. Which of those are you saying add up to $3500 for a student on zero-EFC financial aid? </p>
<p>In another CC thread, a poster claiming to have data derived from Harvard’s Common Data Set said that the fraction of students receiving no need-based financial aid from the university (did not apply or were denied) is 51 percent. That is in line with the numbers for other Ivy League schools based on their published CDS.</p>
<p>Harvard publishes a much higher number, around 74 percent, in its marketing literature, but does not define how that number is arrived at. Apparently it includes external scholarship recipients, students eligible for loans but not grants, or other sizable additions to the 49 percent of grant aid recipients.</p>
<p>At any rate, the half or quarter of students who pay full freight are responsible for providing, whether through parental payments or loans or whatever other resources, in excess of 40,000 dollars per year to Harvard’s treasury. That is “extremely expensive” by most standards, just as buying a Rolls Royce is expensive. No myth being exploded there; the high sticker price, at least for a rather large proportion of the customers, is a fact and it’s strange to dispute it. What Harvard says or thinks its wealthier clients can afford, or what the costs of comparable alternatives are, or what is a reasonable cost of attendance, are interesting questions but distinct from the matter of whether it’s a “myth” that forty-something thousand per year is expensive.</p>