<p>There is no equation for these things. Your chances at harvard will not improve y applying to early to cornell nor vice versa. Apply early where you want to apply early but don;t obsess over which scenario will give you a better chance, there really is not way of telling.</p>
<p>so would you reccomend applying ea to harvard, even though it might be a throwaway? harvard is my number one pick so i might as well try. if i cant get in, ill have a lot of time to apply elsewhere. thanks. ya know, im a junior i have no clue why im worrying about this now. i should relax and try to get good sat scores.</p>
<p>omg sharkbite, you're only a junior? I would have never known ... but yeah, relaxation is a good thing, enjoy it now as a junior :)</p>
<p>lol in my immature mind junior year is harder then senior year, but i dont know i havnt been a senior. i havnt even taken the sat yet (but im doing bad on practice tests) oh well.</p>
<p>shark_bite I thought it would be too. Once you get into balancing clases, applications, a job, senioritis, and all the parties you get invited to, however, it is a very different story. I know that junior year was difficult but senior year is stressful, I'm not sure if that makes sense but thats how I see it.</p>
<p>could having an exchange student and returning with her to spain be a hook at all? especially if u learned from eachother and had a good relationship, etc</p>
<p>that sounds like a really awesome experience</p>
<p>yeah my aunts, uncles, and cousins moved here from india recently. they are all living with us. 3 families of 4 living under one roof. they are only living here until they get jobs/settle in, then they will move out. do you think that the adcoms would find this to be an interesting experience? is it worth mentioning somewhere on my ap? if so where? i dont think it really affects me, but i might as well ask.</p>
<p>If you don't think it affects you it probably won't make for a very interesting essay.</p>
<p>I echo these sentiments. Someone once said, "It's nice to be smart, but it's smarter to be nice." As one much older and wiser than the majority of you, I wish I could convey to all of you highly successful and incredibly talented applicants how very little it matters where you attend college. A well-designed, intelligent, retrospective study was done a few years back. The researchers first found the top, say, 50 people in many different fields of endeavor. Then they looked backwards at where they went to college, etc. They found absolutely no correlation between college attended and outward measures of success. The greatest predictor of success was a true passion for the subject, perseverence, and a mentor at critical junctures. I have a daughter DYING to get into a top tier school, and it breaks my heart. I see a beautiful, brilliant, multi-talented girl who is letting the process shape her interests. I am continually trying to impress upon her that she needs to be herself, do what she truly loves, and the rest will fall into place. I urge all of you to follow the same advice. FYI: a very wise admissions officer at the University of Chicago said they can instantly spot a resume that was built and designed to impress, instead of one that reflects true and DEEP interests. Think depth, not breadth. Best of luck to you all.</p>
<p>Wow....I needed that. Thanks je<em>ne</em>sais_quoi</p>
<p>yeah i bet when if i get into a top school i'll say that too. if i dont get into a top school, it will be a little while longer before i say that. i'll wait for success before talking about how going to one college over another doesnt matter. but now as a junior, im gonna do whatever i can to get in. (to be honest, im pretty relaxed so i dont have stress, but i'm not perfect enough to not feel disapointment.</p>
<p>What if you are truly passionate about the ECs you do but it looks like you are simply resume padding? I have actually (and stupidly) not done certain activities so I wouldn't feel like I had an excess because I am strongly against resume padding.</p>
<p>ya know, im not sure. i didnt do student gov because at my school its a waste of time. i had a good shot at pres, i just dont support my student gov. i dont want to miss class to decide what the theme for the dance should be. im sure that student govs at other schools are actually productive but at mine, its a waste of time. </p>
<p>i have a major prob, i had next to no ecs as a frosh, soph (i had tae kwon do, forensics (gold at state though) and track. this year, i went insane and am in many clubs, and i founded 2 (maybe another in the future) my grades back then were bad too, but then i worked hard and got a 5.0 (w). how can i explain this?</p>
<p>hmm, just wondering. I love the discussion here btw.</p>
<p>Harvard EA decisions come out by email on the 14th. </p>
<p>I do wonder though, how well do "hooks" work? Academic ones especially, like RSI. I went this last summer and it seemed like half of alum were Harvard, half MIT. So would it just make me more of the asian nerd stereotype, or maybe help?</p>
<p>Thanks a bunch!</p>
<p>You know I have a sneaking suspicion (although I certainly don't claim I know by any stretch) that things like NMSF or Finalist or RSI or whatever is great, but it's also something that is greatly prevalent among harvard apps. Not to say brilliance isn't treasured at an institution like harvard, but since so many of their applicants could easily be labeled as such, they have to ask "okay, well, brilliance is great, but what're they gonna do for us?" They want intelligent people that are going to not only awe people with their brilliance, but also contribute to university life--people that are going to be active in university activities, perhaps active enough to coordinate several themselves; they want people that are going to have an impact on the world, people that they can later say to future harvard hopefuls "ya know, so and so went to harvard..." And, a whole bunch of RSI kids or NMSF/Finalists are a dime a dozen...what are you going to bring to harvard that these other applicants are not?</p>
<p>(and none of that was directed at anyone specifically, more of a me-on-a-tangent...)</p>
<p>rsi isnt greatly prevalent on harvard apps
id say around 20-30 early and 40 in total</p>
<p>if you say so....</p>
<p>Yeah, I would never call RSI "dime a dozen" (although I might call NMSF that in the context of applying to Harvard). There is NO previous accomplishment that results in a lock on Harvard admission, but the rare accomplishments that come after lots of hard work sure help a lot.</p>