<p>Hi, I'm interested in what all of you who have been accepted into Harvard have accomplished in your high school years. I am curious to know how much harvard demands of students. For example, do they focus more on pure grades and SATS, or do they also view records of competitions and community service more heavily. Also, is playing sports, a hobby or an instrument significantly important? How about the all crucial college essay-> does that make the biggest difference? Any advice is greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>One word: PHENOMENAL!</p>
<p>Harvard maintains it's mystique by only picking the "top" student in a school, even if it means passing over better qualified number 2 and 3 people at another school next door. Of course there are occaissional exceptions, but it's the core of their silly game. Also, if the student they pick goes to Yale, they blackball that school for a least a year. They are very petty, and it explains why Yale and Princeton have more satisfying and capable student bodies. I figure it's a lottery getting into any of them, but at least at Y and P I will be judged on my ability rather than where I am on the pecking order at some crap high school.</p>
<p>Mensa, where exactly are you getting this information? What is your affiliation with Harvard? Are you an applicant (I strongly doubt you are, considering how much you seem to hate Harvard)?</p>
<p>I'm just curious why you waste your time coming to this message board everyday to bash Harvard. What gives?</p>
<p>keta...basically to be accepted to harvard, u have to be a-m-a-z-i-n-g, or basically be god-like</p>
<p>
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keta...basically to be accepted to harvard, u have to be a-m-a-z-i-n-g, or basically be god-like
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</p>
<p>You can be amazing or godlike. You can also be totally unique and irreplaceable.</p>
<p>Or, you could be just like most of the "very qualified" applicants who are rejected, except have an 'undeveloped hook'. Your dad could be a professor there, your mom's law partner could be a college trustee, or you could be a URM of some sort. You could also have your last name on the side of a few buildings.</p>
<p>If you have a hook that's more 'developed' - in other words, you're a recruited athlete, virtuoso clarinetist, or magically gifted mathematician - well, you're amazing already.</p>
<p>Joey</p>
<p>sunglasses, I have no affiliation with Harvard. I think it is the most prestigious school in the country. I would consider going there for grad school. But I won't risk my EA shot on a school that plays admission games. It takes students too much for geographic diversity and the bogus factors I mentioned . the undergrad experience is not up to its rep. Although I am not a URM, I do commend them for taking the lead on affirmative action, because the URMs change the undergrad culture.</p>
<p>mensa, you still haven't fully answered sunglasses's question. </p>
<p>where are you getting these seemingly outrageous facts? can you cite them?</p>
<p>If you don't believe me, ask students at public high schools in the suburbs of NYC, where I used to live, about their experience with Harvard's admissions.</p>
<p>Mensa's information about Harvard's blackballing schools where students choose Yale over Harvard is flat out wrong as is his idea about how Harvard will choose only valedictorians even if other students seem more qualified.</p>
<p>Mensa is right about Harvard's taking geographic diversity factors into consideration.</p>
<p>my information is anecdotal, I admit. what is the basis for your view on this? and anyway, how would i reconcile this with what I have heard and also seen at least once. I'm not saying I can prove this, but there are reasonable grounds for suspicion. you just don't see nearly as many multile admits at public shigh schools from H as you do from Y and P, and while H is more selective than Y or P, it's not nearly enough to explain the pattern. I would welcome stats on this. I would welcome stas because it is an impediment to applying there ea, wasting a chance if they take someone ahead of me.</p>
<p>I started alumnni interviewing more than 12 years ago, and have talked directly with adcoms and most of the admissions staff, and haven't seen any evidence of the phenomenon that you describe.</p>
<p>In the area where I live, I have seen Harvard take students who were not valedictorians while passing up valedictorians whose ECs were not as strong.</p>
<p>There also are some public schools where as many as 30 students a year get accepted to Harvard. </p>
<p>I personally do not think that applying EA gives anyone a tip into Harvard. This also is what Harvard adcoms say. Thus, if you want to maximize your chances of getting into a top college, apply ED or EA to a college where taking such action does boost your chances of admission.</p>
<p>Mensa-My high school (in Ohio, public) has had right around 1 Harvard admit every year. This somewhat supports your "only taking the top student" idea (although I doubt more than one person applies each year). However, two or three years in a row the person who got in turned Harvard down (one for Yale, one for Princeton), and people keep getting in. So my anecdotal evidence "disproves" your blackballing theory.</p>