<p>Hey-</p>
<p>Kaavya Viswarnathan is from my school- Academy for the Advancement of Sci & Tech. I'm a current junior, and honestly, im a taaaaaaaaadddd worried about our school's reputation (or smudged reputation) in terms of Harvard adcoms? Legitamite reason to be worried... or just being paranoid>?</p>
<p>Paranoid. You will be judged as youself otherwise Harvard is not Harvard. If Harvard really discriminates your Academy, you certainly deserve better place to study.</p>
<p>I think you might have a legitimate reason to be worried. If the admissions officers think that they have misjudged the character of Kaavya (not saying that they did; just saying that THEY might decide that they have) then they will probably be more wary about trusting recs/etc. from your school. I'm not saying that this will be the case, but it's quite possible.</p>
<p>I say this because I know a (public) high school that regularly places 5-6 students in Harvard annually. Last year an alum of this high school got in trouble at Harvard for cheating and was actually asked to leave. Admission to Harvard that year dropped -- only 3 were admitted. This was not a sub-standard class either; 10 were admitted to Yale.</p>
<p>Having said that though, who can really know? There's nothing you can do to change what happened so there's no use wasting energy worrying about it. All you can control in this situation is your own application, so stop speculating about how your school's reputation will be changed or unchanged in the eyes of the Harvard admissions officers.</p>
<p>Was this post necessary? Go outside and have some fun or something.</p>