<p>Daughter was fortunate enough to get accepted to Harvard this last Fall. The description provided here is very accurate. One thing you might wish to consider, however, is that in reality, most students elect not to waive a year of college at Harvard due to AP courses and the like. Harvard requires that if you waive a year of college you have to finish Harvard in 3 years and most students like my daughter didn’t want to have that kind of pressure and miss out on a full college experience. Daughter is pre-med so it was tempting, but when all things were considered we decided against it. Advanced placement is a different issue. D placed into Level 4 Spanish but decided to take Level 3 so she wouldn’t find it too difficult. So far, it is not bad at all. So advanced placement is probably definitely worth considering. With regard to the SAT II tests, I had not heard that before, but looking at my D’s credentials, her SAT IIs were very high and she took about 5 SAT II courses, her APs were all 5s, but her SAT and ACT test scores were not perfect, we did emphasize however, that she took the tests only once so the school would know she wasn’t one of these kids who has tutors every night and keeps taking the test over and over until they get the score they want. I think it is true that the SAT IIs and AP tests are a better standard for admittance. And yes, she did review the standard books somewhat prior to the AP tests and SAT II tests, although most of her friends did not. Good luck.</p>
<p>Thank you Tokenadult :)</p>
<p>Thank you for this information, it was very insightful.</p>
<p>Some info on SAT2’s from Harvard’s website for those who haven’t seen it: [Harvard</a> College Admissions Office: Prospective Students](<a href=“http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/prospective/applying/requirements/satsubjecttests.html]Harvard”>http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/prospective/applying/requirements/satsubjecttests.html)</p>
<p>Thanks for the link from the Harvard admission office about SAT Subject Tests. </p>
<p>[Harvard</a> College Admissions Office: Prospective Students](<a href=“http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/prospective/applying/requirements/satsubjecttests.html]Harvard”>http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/prospective/applying/requirements/satsubjecttests.html)</p>
<p>
Back in my day while you had to do your BA work in 3 years if you accepted sophomore standing you could stay for the fourth year and get an MA. Is that still true?</p>
<p>^ I believe so.</p>
<p>OOH, MAN, site search on the Harvard site is bad, and the website keeps being restructured. But here is the link about advanced standing, found by Google, but NOT by Harvard’s site search. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~advising/advanced/HANDBOOK%20TEXT%2008-09%20FINAL%2009_16_08.pdf[/url]”>http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~advising/advanced/HANDBOOK%20TEXT%2008-09%20FINAL%2009_16_08.pdf</a></p>
<p>mathmom - yes </p>
<p>relevant excerpt from link:</p>
<p>"
• Unique to Harvard College Advanced Standing students is the
opportunity to apply for a fourth-year master’s degree. </p>
<p>Several Harvard departments or committees offer a master’s degree program
to students who accept Advanced Standing: </p>
<p>Applied Mathematics*<br>
History of Science
Applied Physics*
Linguistics
Astronomy
Mathematics
Chemistry
Near Eastern Languages<br>
Comparative Literature and Civilizations
Physics
Computer Science*<br>
Regional Studies: East Asia
Earth and Planetary Sciences
Regional Studies: Middle East
Engineering Sciences*
Statistics
German </p>
<p>*S.M. offered through the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. For
further details contact the Academic Office, Pierce Hall 111, (617)495-2833,
Ellen Holloway, Academic Programs Administrator, (617)496-1524,
(<a href=“mailto:ehollowa@seas.harvard.edu”>ehollowa@seas.harvard.edu</a>) or Dr. Marie Dahleh, Assistant Dean for
Academic Programs,(617)495-1485, <a href=“mailto:mdahleh@seas.harvard.edu”>mdahleh@seas.harvard.edu</a>.
Advanced Standing students interested in the fourth-year master’s degree
programs ordinarily take the Graduate Record Exam and apply to the
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences by December of their third year.1
Admission is often quite competitive and the programs very rigorous. (Any
Advanced Standing student who is not accepted and decides to remain in the
College will need to rescind Advanced Standing by filling out the rescission
form available on the Advising Programs Office website at
[Advising</a> Programs Office of Harvard College](<a href=“http://www.fas.harvard.edu/advising]Advising”>http://www.fas.harvard.edu/advising).) Most departments require eight
graduate-level half courses with a minimum grade of B for the master’s
degree. Successful A.B./A.M. or S.M. candidates receive both their
bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the end of the fourth year. They continue
to live in their Houses and register as undergraduates, even though their
fourth-year programs are devoted mainly to graduate study."</p>
<p>DS current planning major in CS, master in CS, minor in govt</p>
<p>thanks, I was too lazy to do the search - anyway, it always seemed like the answer to those who didn’t want to miss out on a year of Harvard. :)</p>
<p>Why would they say that there isn’t a Greek system? Harvard has three sororities.</p>
<p>The sororities, final clubs and fraternities are not “officially recognized” by Harvard because the groups discriminate on the basis of gender (as well as other factors). Then Harvard told the final clubs they had to go coed or lose official recognition, they chose to go the independent route. (Harvard turned off the university steam heat to the buildings as well!)</p>
<p>“Standardized tests are comparison tools. The better predictors are SAT II Subject Tests and AP tests. They are more important than the SAT I or the ACT. You may have read that colleges are expressing doubt about standardized tests, but I’ll give you a clue: We won’t be cutting back on tests. We might require five SAT II tests. Those are less coachable than the SAT I. Working hard as a student is more important than taking tests.”</p>
<p>FINALLY!!!</p>
<p>I always thought SAT I should NOT be a factor when it comes to admission. Hope Harvard removes it from a requirement next year, and asks for five SAT IIs (yeah, I know it’s too much, but if you worked hard and know the material, you’ll be fine).</p>
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<p>Harvard itself says it has no Greek system because the sororities have no official recognition. And what presence they do have is pretty lame because they are not residential in nature. The women who join continue to live in their Houses with their blockmates rather than with their new “sisters.” Thus the sororities are reduced to the level of unofficial, off-campus clubs.</p>
<p>Following up on a couple of comments above: </p>
<p>a) Harvard’s William Fitzsimmons was on the study group that recently decried the SAT Reasoning Test, but as coureur has correctly pointed out in other threads, just because some people express doubts about the SAT Reasoning Test does not mean that Harvard will drop the SAT Reasoning Test as one test (alternatively with the ACT with writing) required of all applicants. (By similar reasoning about slow changes in large organizations, I don’t predict that Harvard will require five SAT Subject Tests of all applicants any time soon.) </p>
<p>b) The answer that Harvard has no Greek system, given at an information session in Minnesota, simply means that Harvard has nothing at all like the pervasive presence of Greek fraternities and sororities near campus in a Fraternity Row that the University of Minnesota has. I don’t suppose it has an officially recognized Pan-Hellenic Council like Minnesota either. That was the context of the remark, as my notes above make clear.</p>
<p>Reading through this thread may answer some questions for current applicants.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Perhaps publicly for H, but Michelle Hernandez wrote about the value of test scores in her book 10 years ago.</p>
<p>bump bump</p>
<p>btw i am just curious if other top schools like MIT and Yale also seem to place more emphasis on SATII than SATI? thanks!</p>
<p>I think MIT’s admission process is a good bit different from Harvard’s. The two great research universities in Cambridge, Massachusetts do have cross-admits, of course, but they seem consciously to look for a different mix of students in each year’s entering class. </p>
<p>Good luck in your applications.</p>