<p>They sure are eye openers! eye poppers... befuddlers... It's one thing to understand intellectually the "lottery ticket" aspect of ivy admissions, but quite another to read the raw stats and the decisions. Harvard in particular... seems like they are so determined to create a diverse class they only have room to accept "one of each kind", and there are several thousand different kiinds!</p>
<p>It's funny you should say that in light of this Globe article that came out a few days ago. Apparently all those brilliant and unique individuals with all of their special and interesting traits don't know how to share those traits with other people. Makes you think...</p>
<p>Comic Book Guy: Friendship, the final frontier.</p>
<p>That is what Harvard is all about. They accept students with an extreme interest in some area. Those students then spend four years working in those areas (usually extracurricular) with incredible resources, which in turn leads them into a career path. </p>
<p>For example, a Cambodian immigrant who started an English as a Second Language program in the Cambodian community during high school, comes to Harvard and spends four years managing an urban summer camp program in Boston for Southeast Asian immigrant children, and then leverages that into a career in public policy or government or non-profit management or whatever.</p>
<p>That's the great strength of Harvard; the undergrad academics are OK, but not really the focus for the university or the students. The flip side of this equation is that the college consists of 7000 students going in 7000 different directions, 100 miles per hour -- so of course there isn't going to be a warm and fuzzy sense of community, particulary because of the very urban, decentralized campus.</p>
<p>If potential applicants would research the school, they would better know before they apply if Harvard is right for them and if they are right for Harvard. The other thing people consistently overlook is that the "cello" slot at Harvard goes to Yo-Yo Ma. The actress slot goes to Natalie Portman. That's some serious competition. Being first chair violin in the Omaha Youth Orchestra doesn't count for beans. How are you going to wow 'em with your stats when their 75th percentile SATs are 1590?</p>
<p>There are still plenty of just "average" super student kids at Harvard without that kind of specialization. But, an awful lot of those "regular" lots are taken up by legacies, donors, kids from traditional feeder schools, diversity admits, recruited athletes, politicians kids, etc.</p>
<p>Comic Book Guy: Friendship, the final frontier.</p>
<p>ROFLMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>