<p>Who cares? He got deferred, thats all. Its not the end of the world!</p>
<p>whenicomearound: "these threads always end in arguments.</p>
<p>why cant we be friends why cant we be friends
<em>gets evil looks for singing from bad commercial</em>"</p>
<p>That's easy for you to say, you got accepted!!!!!!!! >:O ~throws bananas at whenicomearound~</p>
<p>hehe :)</p>
<p>Tupac (first of all, i'm zogoto, a random jumble of letters, not zygote, a diploid cell :P) and others, I'm flattered that some of you think that "I should have gotten in," but I do not agree. Harvard does NOT make mistakes. They employ the biggest adcom in the country to make sure they get the very best students. Harvard is different from other top colleges since they have little room for error since they have to preserve that #1 title. Arun, I'm sorry, but I think that if you didn't get in then you shouldn't have. Same goes for me. But for the Siemens kids, I honestly think something fishy is up. Some of the crazy theories on here may be correct.</p>
<p>Edit: That isn't to say I'm not gonna work my @$$ off to get in RD :P</p>
<p>
<p>This person is obviously operating under the assumption that he/she hid his/her caustic and vehement personality well. But I would like to think that his/her deferral is partly due to the observational powers of the Harvard admission officers who peers through the layers of ornate decorations that belies this vitriolic soul.
Congratulations on spitting out the thesaurus you ****ing idiot!!! I can't believe people like you got admitted to harvard at the expense of people like zogoto and spydertennis. Whatever, you may have succeeded at getting into a good school but you still sound like a dumbass.</p>
<p>You may get a Harvard education but if you ever say something like that in real life, you'll probably get shot on the street real quick. I don't really care if you embarass or make a fool out of yourself, but please stop before you permanently damage Harvard's already fragile reputation.:mad:</p>
<p>just trying to prevent the inevitable escalation of violence (by which i mean crazy use of caps lock and exclamation points and angry smilies)</p>
<p>(isnt it weird that angry smilies are still called smilies?)</p>
<p>((ok im stopping. i sincerely apologize.))</p>
<p>Top tier college admissions (Harvard in particular) are very unpredictable. I used to think the way you do zogote (like Harvard was perfect and its admissions were the same). But that is a naive assumption. If the process were repeated, with different admissions officers looking at different apps, I'm sure the results would not be identical.</p>
<p>Look at this thread and think about the percentage of math and science apps compared to humanities. Extend this to the 3700 apps in EA. Harvard could have filled their class with outstanding math and science students had they desired. Obviously, they don't intend to do that. There is little difference in most of the accepted/deferred apps in the science/math pool. They are all outstanding. Harvard is likely looking for that small difference since they can't and won't take them all. </p>
<p>One last thought, the adcoms read this board. Keep a good outlook for RD.</p>
<p>zogoto--I'm surprised!! All this humbling talk and then you make us Siemens kids the exception. Caught me off-guard, hehe. Honestly, I'm flattered at the thought (and when talking to another deferee from Siemens, he justifies his "crazy theories" pretty well), but I don't know if we should jump to any conclusions. Luyi (#5 ind.), Ron (#5 team), even myself I guess, we're all such qualified candidates, but then you, the USAMO 3rd place guy, I mean...I don't know. I'm very curious to see how things play out RD. But if there's something awry here, is it limited specifically to Siemens? I don't know. It's all so speculative.</p>
<p>Now on another point...zogoto, your attitude is amazing, but the admissions process simply isn't perfect, and when you have 4000 applicants (make that 18000 in the RD pool!) it never can be, despite the best intentions. It's just too subjective and there's too much room for comparison. But, que ser</p>
<p>Words from arun,</p>
<p>spydertennis: tell tupac im not some freakjob
spydertennis: yeah
spydertennis: and that i give up
spydertennis: and also be like, i think that only thing i think would have counted agaisnt me is that adcoms would read this and not like me
spydertennis: so adcoms!
spydertennis: im not like this in real life
spydertennis: and boom
spydertennis: thats it
spydertennis: i retire from cc
spydertennis: i would really be mad if thats why i got rejected
spydertennis: cause of cc
spydertennis: and being mean on it
spydertennis: god that would suck</p>
<p>hehe.</p>
<p>I doubt spydertennis is that bad of a guy. What you say in the hours or days after the bad news isn't you thinking 100% in your right mind. Seems like quite the character to me, I think ;)</p>
<p>I mean, if the AdComs read this, can it really hurt? You have so little time and room to get your personality across. CC is one of the few places where an AdCom might see us all in a somewhat social situation! :p</p>
<p>lol, peace man. Good luck with the college admissions game. Maybe I'll see you guys at Intel.</p>
<p>Adam, Siemens is undoubtedly the primier competition you can put on an EA application. ISEF doesn't count since it is too easy to sway judges with fancy words, etc. Intel is more legit. than Siemens, but it is too late in the year. It is not justifiable to reject Siemens National Finalists. Harvard, I'm sure, needs at least six scientists, and there is little reason to not accept the top Siemens placers. Harvard has no prerogative to rank scientists themselves, when other competitions are so much better at it.</p>
<p>Tupac, did you ever place at ISEF?</p>
<p>Yeah, Best of Microbiology and First Place</p>
<p>hahaha sorry I totally missed that when you posted your stats. No offense, but I didn't see how you got in with only two ISEF trips as your main awards. Best of Category puts it all together :P</p>
<p>"real quick"</p>
<p>It's REALLY QUICKLY! THat's the ONE grammatical error that makes me want to strangle people!</p>
<p>Adam, I also agree that the USAMO guy is up there with you. People who don't take the math exams tend to think that doing well on the USAMO is just the result of "asian parents pushing too hard," but that is not the case. There is NO WAY you can even qualify for the USAMO without a passion and innate talent for math. If Harvard needs even one mathematician, why would they turn down pengshi? The USAMO is undisputed as the best indicator of mathematical talent. W.T.F is Harvard doing?</p>
<p>I think top caliber ISEF research is more likely to help with Harvard admissions than Siemens research. First, all Siemens winners worked in a lab (with maybe 1 or 2 exceptions). This means, that maybe your father got you in contact with a great mentor, who did everything. Siemens is a paper competition until the very end so the student never has to explain anything. Maybe he knows nothing about the research.</p>
<p>At the ISEF, you go through several levels of competition, having spoken with over 50 judges by the end. If you don't understnad everything, you are weeded out. Also, ISEF is more about practical applications of research and fewer people do lab work for it. I think the fact that I didn't do work in a lab and really emphasized real-world implications, got me in. Harvard requested that I send in a paper because I was borderline, and the prof. that reviewed it must have like it.</p>
<p>and obviously if you confuse your adverbs and adjectives you have no right to be at Harvard...</p>
<p>Tupac,</p>
<p>I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with you. Let me first of all say that I am unbiased. Although I have more Siemens awards, it is the science fairs that really demonstrate a passion for science in my application.</p>
<p>Few at RSI (where almost everyone is familiar with the competitions, and I'm talking about tutors/TA's/Director, not students) dispute the STS > Siemens > ISEF hierarchy. ISEF judges are more or less regular people that volunteer. My dad, who doesn't even have a PhD, was recruited (he couldn't do it since I was competing this year). Siemens/STS judges are professors, often at places like Stanford or MIT. ISEF judges can be "bought" by good speaking. Unless you totally stole your research, a paper for Siemens would not be good. </p>
<p>In any case, we are talking about National Finalists. They have already won the Regional Competition and definitely know their stuff. If you think ISEF questioning is hard, just sit through a Q&A at Siemens ;)</p>