<p>The YouTube series produced by Harvard students called "On Harvard Time" is sometimes funny and/or crass but one recent video called "Harvard Admissions Dean Fitzsimmons Interview" is somewhat informative for anyone applying to Harvard.</p>
<p>It's a 9 minute video with lots of joking around but 2 minutes and 30 seconds into the video Dean Fitzsimmons summarizes how Harvard selects students for admission in plain simple language which with my limited experience (one kid at Harvard) I think is fairly accurate.</p>
<p>He says......Harvard gives out 2,100 acceptances each year.</p>
<p>250 acceptances are given to kids with non-academic "distinguishing excellence" at a national and international level (I read that to mean olympic athletes, Yo-Yo Ma types, etc.).</p>
<p>Another 250 are given to kids who are academically unusual (these are not just the smart kids we all know, these are the brilliant kids who may be future Einsteins).</p>
<p>And the other 1,600 acceptances are given to what Harvard calls "good all arounders at a very high level" (I guess that's how my kid snuck in). Joking aside, my kid never expected to be accepted to Harvard because he thought everyone there was an Olympian or an Einstein. But when he got there he found lots of kids who were good writers but not necessarily good at math and kids who were good at math but hated writing and kids who were high school class presidents but just OK at math and writing. In other words, kids who are solid students but they're not going to blow your socks off if you meet them. And they are the majority of the Harvard students. So if a kid can ignore and not try to compete with the 500 world class exceptional kids you'll find the majority of the Harvard student body to be just normal above average kids, which is encouraging for both applicants and kids who find themselves going to school there.</p>
<p>Check out the interview video at..............</p>
<p>YouTube</a> - Harvard Admissions Dean Fitzsimmons Interview (On Harvard Time)</p>