| i hate to rain on the parade here, but of the harvard acceptees i have talked to this year, i have been less than impressed. about 4 of the 9 kids admitted to me that they lied on their applications because they thought it was the only way they could get in. the other 5 were top achievers, one winning the state award of top volunteer of the year. i was expecting these students to be the smartest in their high schools and have lots of colleges welcoming them for the class of 2012. only 3 of kids had been accepted to other top schools (caltech, stanford, chicago specifically), but some said that the next best school they had been accepted to was ranked in the 20-30 range on USNews (tufts, boston college, vanderbilt, brandeis, and usc specifically). i still admire harvard for getting a very broad range of students for a well rounded class, however i feel that either harvard does not try to get the smartest students, or the admissions office is getting tricked. |