<p>So I hear a lot here that people that get in harvard apart from being well rounded and very good in all academic areas they have something they pursued with a lot of effort. So like what do you think got you into harvard (people admitted or attending)?? Could you also post your stats like people do in what are my chances?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Did any of you who got in also applied for financial aid?</p>
<p>Yes. I qualified under the new Financial Aid Initiative and my family doesn't have to pay a cent. To answer your question, I don't know. I can tell you what I did (which is in the Deferral Reversal thread) but I don't know how I got in.</p>
<p>xjayz, you don't have to pay ANYTHING? My family makes under 30k and has no assets, so my parents don't have to pay anything. But somehow, they still expect ME to pay around 2,000 dollars a year, on top of work-study, for about the same amount. I don't even have a job, and I can't have one during the summer because I'll be away. I thought my family would defnitely have qualified under the new FAI. Are you expected to pay, too, or should I call them up and ask? </p>
<p>I don't know what it takes: </p>
<p>I am not the world's greatest conversationalist, so my interviews weren't all smooth and polished. Most questions I answered in two or three sentences, a couple questions with just one short sentence. I actually wore jeans to one of my interviews. What I did show during my interview was that I was an actual, genuine, nice human being. Oh, also, I think I got very excited when talking about some essays that I wrote about, which was pretty good. </p>
<p>My sat score is good but nothing extraordinary: 1500. This is about the average applicant's sat score. </p>
<p>My grades are good. I've gotten mostly A+s and some As. One A-. I took all honors in 9th and 10th and all IB in 11th and 12th. I am the valedictorian. I've also swept the school awards each year. </p>
<p>My extracurricular records are decent but again, nothing extraordinary. I've just been doing what I have been enjoying. I do Chorus (area all-state), Band, Yearbook (art and layout ed.), and Track. These are things I've been doing since middle school. In high school, I joined Newspaper (writer), peer leadership, and Amnesty Int'l (president). I also volunteered at the local nursing home for the past three summers. As you can see, everything is at the local level, and I have only two leadership positions, and for one, I'm not even the "head honcho", only second or third in command. I never did these things to get into college. When I joined yearbook in 7th grade, I definitely wasn't thinking about Harvard. </p>
<p>Also, I am asian. I am not a recruited athlete. I am not a legacy. I live in New York, for god's sake. </p>
<p>Looking at this, the only thing I could have gotten "points" for is my good grades. However, most applicants have amazing grades, so that probably wasn't enough. If anything else, it had to have been my essays, which the adults who read them loved. I never read the recommendations, but my teachers like me well enough. </p>
<p>Maybe they picked me because they thought I seemed like a nice person? </p>
<p>I'm just a normal person who gets good grades and does a few extracurricular activities without getting any national recognition for them, so I guess you really don't have to be too amazing to get into Harvard. Or maybe they have a different idea of "amazing" than what many people think.</p>
<p>Okay, so the short response to your question, in case you don't want to read all of that is: </p>
<p>It doesn't take anything specific to get into Harvard.
There isn't too many things that I pursued with a lot of effort. I put decent amount of effort into my school work, and I had a fair amount of commitment to my ECs.</p>
<p>Sorry, suburbian. I did not phrase my response correctly. There is that student contribution, right? I don't know how much it is, I believe it is 1,800+ dollars, which I will probably pay from the money I had made from private tutoring throughout my senior year.</p>
<p>Do you think my parents are allowed to pay the amount expected of me through work-study/loan?</p>
<p>I wondered that as well. I'm calling the financial aid office this week. By the way, are you going to take part in any of the Pre-Orientation Programs? I think I'm going to do the Dorm Crew.</p>
<p>not wishing to barge in on the conversation, but thought i could be of some help -- suburbian, the FA office only specifies what they estimate your WS/Loan contribution should be. How you meet it is entirely up to you -- all Loan and no WS, and WS and no loan, or having your parents give you cash. In the end Harvard never sees that money -- it's kind of for yourself. Pretty strange, I know.</p>
<p>Questions like this can be asked and answered on the Yahoo Group, and in the knowledgebase portal prefrosh.net set up for new admits :)</p>
<p>Congrats again, and welcome!</p>
<p>Dorm Crew...have fun! Most of the programs have acronyms like FOP (First-year Outdoor Program), FAP (First-year Arts Program), and FUP (First-year Urban Program). I called Dorm Crew FEP (First-year Exploitation Program). You do get to meet people but it's while doing really sucky physical work (scrubbing toilets is nothing compared to showers...getting the soap scum off a shower that probably hasn't been scrubbed in months is no fun at all); I was never so glad for Friday to roll around. There are good Dorm Crew gigs to be had, especially if you're working reunions, but FEP is probably the worst of them all, not to mention that you have to move into temp. housing and then move out again at the end of the week (true of all the preorientation programs, but more of an insult when you've spent the week doing physical labor).</p>
<p>Here are my numbers: 1470/(35)/800/780/750, 1/379, 3.94 UW, 5/5/5/5/5/5</p>
<p>My opinion is that once you've reached the academic average of Harvard applicants, the things that really matter are the intangibles: essays, ECs, and interview; having 1600/800/800/800, 4.0 UW, 5's on 10 AP tests, and valedictorian doesn't really matter as much; I got two A-'s and a C+ my freshman year.</p>
<p>I had quite a few officer positions in various clubs at school, but none of my ECs were national or even state; all of them were local. I was president of Latin Club, co-captain of the quiz bowl team, and treasurer of the multicultural club and NHS. I think my most important EC (in the adcom's eyes) was being founder of the MUN club at my school; it's certainly been the most work. I don't suggest you start a club because it'll look nice on a college resume though; I did not have that in mind when I founded MUN.</p>
<p>Everyone knows that Harvard could fill up its entire class with white males aspiring to be doctors and lawyers, but obviously it will never do that. The object then is to be unique. This is why essays are so important; I think strong essays will make up for weak ECs, but not necessarily the other way around. I think it's safe to say that I was the only Asian applicant out of the 20,000+ total that took Elementary Polish I (although that was hardly in my mind when I wrote it):</p>
<p>"I decided to take Polish I at a local university. People ask me why I decided to take Polish, a useless language in their opinion, and it is for the same reason I decided to take Latin, another so-called useless language: I enjoy taking on a challenge."</p>
<p>Was my decision to take Polish a major factor in my acceptance to Harvard? It very well could have been! It was one way to differentiate myself from the crowd of applicants (although again, that was not in my mind when I signed up for it).</p>
<p>Oh, and I do think race plays a role. But you can't change your race, so there's no point in worrying about that. Geography plays a role too. I do think it helped that I came from Michigan, and not Detroit to boot. But I doubt you'll be able to convince your parents that moving to North Dakota will help you get into Harvard....</p>
<p>white girl, from suburbia, with straight a's/good test scores - i honestly think that i got in b/c of things like interview/essays they are looking for people, not necessarily just stats....try to make yourself appear as real as possible</p>
<p>suburbian, two grand a year is nothing...you do not have to meet your contribution in cash---you can take a loan. Four years from now you'll owe eight grand, which will be a drop in the bucket. Most 22 year olds owe that on a mastercard.</p>
<p>It takes a TON of luck. Back in the day, if you played sports all year round, got a 1500+ on your SAT's, and were committeed to a number of ec activities, you had a very good chance. Now, thats just the bare minimum to even be considered. If you have all that stuff, your chances are still not good-like 1 in 10. The only things that will really help are being so good at a sport that Harvard wants you on their team, having a family legacy, or being a urm.</p>
<p>Phoenixy, so do you suggest something else?</p>
<p>^ I guess it depends on what you're used to. I do theatre technical work, and as a result spend a lot of time rigging, being a scaff monkey, lifting, cleaning, etc. I probably wouldn't "enjoy" the work I'd do for Dorm Crew, but it wouldn't be particularly hard going for me. But if you're used to less demanding work, you'd probably find it quite difficult work.</p>
<p>The only thing I could say now after finishing (or almost finishing) the process is that I dont know. I applied to five schools with similar statistics but different vibes, and was accepted to two (penn huntsman and harvard) but waitlisted at the other three (princeton, columbia, and gtown.) no rejections. I sent similar applications to all, and interviewed for all but columbia. Ironically, I didn't think my harvard interview went that well, but I guess it did. And I loved my pton interview and app, but i got waitlisted there. As far as my strengths and weaknesses...I would say I'm both well rounded and well lopsided-I am good at the things that aren't my strengths, but I definitely stand out at one or two things-the things that I indicated I wanted to pursue at my schools. But honestly, I can't really say why I got in or didn't. I would definitely recommend to anyone who wants to go to an elite school to apply to more than one or to apply ed, because you may get in where you don't think you will or get rejected/waitlisted where it seems like a sure thing.</p>
<p>Hope this makes sense...youre all welcome to add on/criticize/adjust, whatever...</p>
<p>great advice here.. does having work experience while in school in like a bank will be any advantage? or they only care for more academic related stuff.</p>
<p>I have no idea what made them want to accept me. The only things I could think of were these:
1. My essay (and presumably my recs, although I didn't get to read them) indicated strong academic passion and curiosity and a certain quirkiness.
2. My strongest EC is music; I have been playing the cello since I was four, and I'm in a prep program at a conservatory.
3. I'm planning to major in Classics, so maybe that helped.</p>
<p>Other than that, I have no idea. I'm sure there are plenty of people who do similar stuff and didn't get in. I think it's entirely random, really, because I'm certainly not the best qualified applicant around here.</p>