<p>Hi, everyone,</p>
<p>As part of attending the 2008 Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament, my son and I were able to join in on the Friday 22 February 2008 Harvard admissions information session and campus tour. We arrived by plane at Boston and took the Silver Line bus to South Station to transfer to the Red Line subway. First we dropped off our backpacks at our Kendall Square hotel and then we walked along Massachusetts Avenue to Harvard Square. The ground was very slushy because of the winter storm just then, but we were dressed for Minnesota outdoor weather so we were just fine. We had lunch at Z Square on 14 JFK Street, next to Harvard Square. We got to the Harvard admission office in Radcliffe Yard just before the information session started at 2:00pm.</p>
<p>The reception area of the admission office had hot water and packets of tea and cocoa (which we declined, having just eaten lunch) and a good array of viewbooks and other brochures about Harvard. No one made any attempt to have us sign in. Guests were directed to the room where the information session was held, which eventually was about half full (I estimate there were sixty or more people there, about half high school students and half parents or younger siblings). As the admission session proper was about to begin, there was a slide show projected on a screen in the room, with facts and figures about Harvard such as that Harvard has five full orchestras and 100 percent of its freshmen living on campus.</p>
<p>An admission officer, herself a recent graduate of Harvard, and two current students spoke at the information session. One student is a junior studying fine arts and participating in dance extracurriculars, and the other student is a sophomore studying psychology and participating in a student-run magazine. After they introduced themselves, they asked each high school student in the room to speak their name, high school, and home town. There were students in the room from all over the country--quite a few from California--and the admission officer said that was "awesome," because "we want people from all over the world, as that makes Harvard exciting." She encouraged the audience to ask questions as she began her presentation. </p>
<p>An audience member asked if it was easy to change majors (which Harvard calls "concentrations"). One of the students said it's easy to change your mind about your concentration. </p>
<p>In response to a question about well-roundedness, the admission said that Harvard students are expected to know a lot of one thing, and a little about everything else. </p>
<p>About 63 percent of Harvard students study abroad, many during the summer. </p>
<p>A survey is sent out to admitted students during the summer before freshman year so that the Freshman Dean's Office can match up roommates. Each first-year dorm next to Harvard Yard is divided into entryways, and the entryway becomes your family. Each entryway has a "proctor" to help you with your studies and adjustment to Harvard. </p>
<p>Near the end of the first year, students form blocking groups who will room together in one of the upperclass "houses." As many as eight students will be assigned together to upperclass housing, but the assignment to a particular house is random. All freshmen live on campus, and 98 percent of students stay on campus all four years. [My son commented later that the Harvard discussion of first-year dorms on Harvard Yard followed up by three years of living and eating in a "house" was helpful in distinguishing Harvard's housing system from the "residential college" system he has heard about at Yale information sessions.] </p>
<p>Students can choose from many extracurricular activities. "We want students to reach outside their comfort zones" when choosing ECs to try out. </p>
<p>Time management is an acquired skill, and the students mentioned that they learned as they arrived at Harvard how to manage their schedules to fit in their studies and their varied activities. One student mentioned, "When I added more activities, I was still able to get my schoolwork done" to illustrate how her time management skills improved as she became more busy. The admission officer said that Harvard expects that students will use their time about half on schoolwork and half on activities at Harvard. Some programs are more rigorous than others, and may require a different balance of schoolwork time. Both the students described their favored activities in considerable detail. Each is pursuing an activity related to career aspirations after graduation. One mentioned that she formed a new student club devoted to belly dancing, which she says is helpful for women to develop a healthy body image. It's easy to form new clubs and obtain funding for them. </p>
<p>The students mentioned that it takes your initiative to seek out professors, all of whom are required to hold office hours for the students in their classes. Both related stories of professors who arranged lunches with groups of classmates until the professors had met all students in the class over lunch. </p>
<p>After more details about campus life and activities, the topic turned to admissions requirements and procedures. The admission officer said, "We're blessed to have so many wonderful applicants. We could fill three or four freshman classes each year, and each would be just as good as the class we admit." She said, "I can sleep at night, even though we cannot offer admission to so many wonderful students, because I know great things [sc. admission to other great colleges] will happen to you." She mentioned that all admission decisions are by consensus. She named the regions of the country that she is responsible for reviewing applications from--quite a varied list. She says admission files are first discussed in regional subcommittees, so that students are initially compared with other applicants in their region, but each admission officer knows several places, so that they can have an overall context and broad perspective. The admission officer mentioned that Harvard has gone to a single-deadline admission system, because the previous system of having an early round advantaged students from certain regions. [It sounded to me like the admission office thinks that this year's experiment with a single-deadline system was successful and that it won't be changed back to having an early round.] </p>
<p>The Harvard admission committee attempts to admit students who will be happy at Harvard because they are well prepared. Transcripts and teacher recommendations are the most important element of the application. Applicants are expected to submit three SAT II scores--Harvard is one of the few colleges to require that--but they can be ANY three SAT IIs. The applicant should have been consistently engaged, taking a rigorous courseload, and successful according to the applicant's opportunities. </p>
<p>Quite a few questions came up about admission requirements. Harvard has no preference for IB courses over AP courses. Challenge yourself. Take what you care about. Senior year grades matter; be consistently engaged. Two letters of recommendation should come from core academic teachers--that's more relevant than possible supplemental recommendations from a coach or a music teacher. The essays are important too: write about what you care about. You will not be rejected just for a few errors in spelling, grammar, or punctuation, but remember that Harvard is not spelled Y-a-l-e. There is no minimum required test score and no minimum required GPA. </p>
<p>A parent asked, "What happens if a student takes the SAT more than once?" The admission officer answered, "We see everything, but we only consider your highest scores, whether it's each section of the SAT I or any SAT II tests you have retaken." [This is now the fourth time in a row I have heard that answer from a Harvard admission officer for that Frequently Asked Question.] </p>
<p>One parent noted that the admission officer had said she is one of thirty-five admission officers in the office, and that in the current year 27,000 applications were submitted. "What kind of workload is that, almost 1,000 applications per admission officer? Do you have some kind of triage system for quickly setting aside many applications?" The admission officer replied, "We read EVERY single application. Every single name comes up in committee." She acknowledged that some applications are given more time than others, but all are read at least twice and considered in the regional subcommittees. Another question followed up by asking how a student's region is defined if the student has a home town in one place but goes to high school in another place. The answer is that the student is considered in the region of the student's high school. A high school student asked again a question about retaking tests. "If you take an SAT II test, and you're not satisfied with the score, and you take it again, what happens?" Again the student was told that the highest score would be considered. </p>
<p>By then the time was nearly up in the information session. The admission officer briefly mentioned financial aid. She said that if a student is admitted, Harvard will make it possible to attend. "If you don't like the weather, maybe don't apply. Or don't apply if you don't like the Red Sox. But NEVER, EVER think of not applying because you think you can't afford Harvard." </p>
<p>After the information session, we went back out to the reception area to start a tour of the campus. That afternoon the governor of Massachusetts was telling people to go home from work early to avoid the winter storm afflicting the northeast. But six Harvard students were ready to lead the tour groups, and eventually five tour groups set out, with the student guides remarking that that day was lightly attended, and slogged through the slush on the sidewalks to see the campus. The guide for the group that my son and I followed was a senior from New York City. He said he was majoring in modern European history and had taken several language classes. He thoughtfully kept us in several warm, indoor locations during much of the tour. We first went to Harvard Hall on the Yard, and he described the undergraduate housing system in additional detail, and also told a story about the earlier building with that name on that site burning down in the 1700s. He made me laugh when he described the housing questionnaire sent to admitted students, "And you can't lie [about sleep habits and the like] because they ask your parents the same questions." He was very pleased with his first-year roommates and considers one of them his best friend at Harvard. He is also very proud of his upperclass house. </p>
<p>Next we went to Science Center, which was very convenient to me and my son, as he was set to attend the Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament there the next day. The tour guide told us about the computer labs in Science Center and described how large classes are divided into "sections" for discussion of the course content. Then we went to Memorial Hall to see the Annenberg Hall dining room for undergraduates, but unfortunately that was closed because of some diplomatic event on campus. We were able to converse in the building entryway about the guide's sports involvement: "I'm 5' 7", so I'm not a varsity athlete, but I like to be involved in intramurals." He mentioned that he likes to play tennis with classmates, and says every which kind of sports from Frisbee to soccer is available to play on a recreational basis. Then we went to the covered upper platform in front of Memorial Church to look across the plaza where Harvard commencement ceremonies (and freshman welcome ceremonies) are held. The guide pointed out how convenient it is to walk from first-year housing around the Old Yard to the classroom buildings where most freshmen take most classes. He also told the very interesting story of how he developed an interest in the Italian language by attending summer programs in Italy with lavish grants from Harvard, which allowed him to turn his history concentration (which his dad feared would be a major with bad job-market prospects) into cool job offers. The guide said he wanted to do something "mainstream, but creative," and he received an offer from Google but accepted an offer from the New York City headquarters of an Italian high fashion company, where he will be able to keep up his Italian in a corporate environment and develop new ideas with other creative individuals. He was very grateful for the convenience of being recruited on-campus for postgraduate employment. All in all, he thought he had blessed with great opportunities by attending Harvard. </p>
<p>Please ask follow-up questions as needed. This was my first visit to Harvard's campus since November 1998 (probably my sixth overall) and my son's first visit to New England ever. I've tried to write down most of what I noted or readily remember from the information session and tour, and I'd be happy to discuss other impressions I have of Cambridge, MA and Harvard specifically with those of you who know those places well and those of you who have never seen them.</p>
I stayed in Cabot on the Quad with a friend of mine who’s a sophomore there. It is a pretty long walk from Harvard Yard (if you miss the shuttle :p). Did you get a chance to see Sander’s Hall (often called “Sandel’s Hall” after Michael Sandel)? Oh my, I could go on for DAYS about Harvard, but to wrap it up I just want to say this was a refreshing read. It’s something I can definitely relate to and picture in my mind. Hopefully soon I’ll be receiving that thin envelope saying I’ve been admitted! Good Luck to your son!!! :D</p>
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