<p>When you talk about kids being the "smartest" at their high schools, I would disagree. I would say the key commonality is that they are the hardest working. The are a lot of brilliant people who will never apply their brilliance to anything fully. What you will find at Harvard is the combination of very smart and being willing to jump through hoops to achieve all they can.</p>
<p>Harvard takes a lot of vals not because they're smartest, but because they have proven they do what they need to to excel among peers. Having done that is a pretty good indicator that they will continue to do that in college and in life.</p>
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<p>What you will find at Harvard is the combination of very smart and being willing to jump through hoops to achieve all they can.<<</p>
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<p>Yep, and that's what makes them the smartest kids in their schools. They not only had a lot of natural intelligence, but they were also smart enough to work hard and take full advantage of it.</p>
<p>Um, in this group of extremely smart, very hardworking kids who used the resources of their community very very well and had superlative grades and test scores, you'd find loads and loads rejected from Harvard, for no rhyme or reason other than that the school is so selective. </p>
<p>These kids are not going to be going to State U (in fact, they could definitely be going to YPSM or some other Ivy League), but the fact is, you really have to be hooked to have the proverbial "great chance" at Harvard.</p>
<p>Someone at my normal, non-ranked public high school in the middle of nowhere special who wasn't nationally recognized, wasn't even in any national competitions, much less win anything, was just a normal, smart girl who took advantage of everything around her got into MIT.</p>
<p>Celebrian, schools want kids from a wide variety of schools. A well done pplication from a non feeder is a plus. But where did the MIT comment come from? 2 very different schools looking for very different things. If you have the stats and the promise, MIT will overlook a lot. Harvard wants well rounded.</p>
<p>no school wants well-rounded, that's a myth. They want students who excell mainly in one thing (apart from stats of course). You won't find a ton of okay soccer players who are in the intermediate band, etc, you get the flow at any of the elites. However, you'll find a ton of good soccer players, good musicians, etc. I don't care what elite college you pick. I really don't think harvard is so much harder to get into than MIT</p>
<p>The point was not to start something Celebrian, but you need to be careful what information you put forward. I have interviewed for Harvard for 22 years and I am constantly updated on what Harvard is looking for.</p>
<p>You are both right. Harvard is happy to take the rare student who is truly well rounded -- the type of student who dives passionately into a variety of things and does them well because the student is multitalented and also loves lots of things. </p>
<p>Harvard also is happy to take the student who is very well lopsided. My experience as an interviewer is that I see more students who are well lopsided than students who are truly well rounded (meaning the student has well rounded, well developed interests -- not interests that are there only on paper and on the advice of a highly paid college counselor).</p>
<p>This is because, IMO, the well lopsided students are more likely to be students who were following their own passions, not ones whose parents or highly college counselors were forcing them to do certain activities to look good. </p>
<p>Harvard uses these people to create classes that are well rounded.</p>
<p>I didn't mean only 1 area, I meant there aren't many who are good in everything, great in nothing people who get admitted versus great in one/a few things people</p>