<p>^ You have to not just accept but also attend for the laziness + pride to kick in.</p>
<p>Which is why, for the 2nd time now, I declined my offer of admission from Harvard. ;)</p>
<p>i think it is funny how almost all of them (the profiles on the link) will be going to MIT except one at Harvard, lol.</p>
<p>One of my room mates this year was a guy who hadn’t made the USIMO team, yet was considered in the top two or three of all math students in my year. When I mentioned him to other kids in Math 55, the general response was “Yeah, he’s REALLY smart.” But he didn’t like math competitions- he was better at advanced theoretical math, and he helped disprove a theorem in high school.</p>
<p>Harvard only needs so many brilliant advanced math students to balance its class, and not all of them will be the obvious ones.</p>
<p>It seems as if this is a common trend</p>
<p>proof:</p>
<p>[Tanya</a> Khovanova’s Math Blog Blog Archive What Does It Take to Get Accepted by Harvard or Princeton?](<a href=“Tanya Khovanova's Math Blog » Blog Archive » What Does It Take to Get Accepted by Harvard or Princeton?”>Tanya Khovanova's Math Blog » Blog Archive » What Does It Take to Get Accepted by Harvard or Princeton?)</p>
<p>That is a bitter mother ranting. Perhaps her sense of entitlement was passed down to her son and expressed in his essays which mom deemed “irrelevant”. Or perhaps his GC hinted at possible character shortcomings, or he was just one-dimensional. It is interesting how she questions P and H’s financial aid policies- which clearly had nothing to do with his rejections. He has the MIT admission- she should be celebrating.</p>
<p>I see this completely differently, fauve. The student in question made it through Math 55 at Harvard–the infamous course with the 60-hour per week problem sets–when he was a high school junior. If I ran admissions (which, obviously, I don’t), this would actually entitle the student to Harvard admission.</p>
<p>Even without the math 55, winning the USAMO twice (and once in sophomore year) should pretty much entitle this person to admission.</p>
<p>I highly suspect that Harvard math department is behind these decisions, because some of the prominent members of Harvard math department are very dismissive of competition winners as mere “good test takers”, and complain that many of these IMO winners not capable of doing real problem solving and that they tend to drop out from graduate study easily.</p>
<p>^ But the student in Kelvinator’s link succeeded in Math 55.</p>
<p>Sucess in Math 55 is also a proof of good test taker, not a proof of real problem solver.</p>
<p>^ From all that I have heard about that class, it seems that it is indeed a good indicator of problem-solving skills. Anyhow, how, then, would one go about indicating that he or she is a good problem solver?</p>
<p>By tackling real unsolved math problems.</p>
<p>The USAMO is the ultimate high school problem solving contest. It doesn’t take good test-taking skills (6 problems in 9 hours over 2 days hardly takes test-taking skill), it takes exceptional problem solving skills.</p>
<p>Quant- Clearly, no one is entitled to be admitted to H based on one course/subject, no matter how brilliant. Messy, unmeasurable factors such as character and maturity can derail the most likely candidate.</p>
<p>Ok, I agree on that fauve. There could be disqualifying issues of character problems or immaturity, with some individual. I really meant that it constituted an entitlement on an “other things being equal” basis. Math 55 at Harvard is in its own category. Anyone who is not familiar with it should look it up. If marite had not left the boards, she could have told people what it’s like. It’s far from just being an indicator of “test-taking” skills.</p>
<p>I agree that solving real mathematical problems that have never been solved would be an excellent indicator for Harvard admissions. I would guess, however, that the number of high school seniors who have already solved a significant, previously unsolved mathematical problem of their own identification would fill fewer than 20% of the seats in Math 55.</p>
<p>I agree with QuantMech that success in Math 55 as an 11th grader ought effectively to entitle the student to Harvard admissions. So, for that student not to be admitted, I can frame three rational hypotheses (none of which excludes any of the others):</p>
<ol>
<li><p>A character issue the size of Texas. Well, maybe only Rhode Island.</p></li>
<li><p>They checked with the math department, and the math department said don’t admit him. Even if this wasn’t the main reason he was rejected, I have to believe that the math department got a call, and the response was no more positive than “we don’t care whether he’s admitted or not.”</p></li>
<li><p>Harvard admissions is even more inscrutable than I have ever imagined.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I think #2 is the best explanation, and then Princeton really didn’t care about Math 55.</p>
<p>From what Sergei’s mother said in her comment, there was quite a bit of entitlement in the statement. I speculate that her son’s essays may reflect some of his parents’ view: Two US teams (albeit not the final team member), I am that talented. If her son’s application is not backed up by Math department, rejection or waitlist is almost certain. </p>
<p>On the other hand, MIT is his first choice, and MIT math department is bigger, more productive and higher impact that Harvard’s. I don’t understand what his mom whined about, bruised ego?</p>
<p>I agree with your analysis, Harvardfan.</p>
<p>This surely comes down to hubris. If you read the mother’s other posts then it is fairly obvious that she has some arrogance based issues namely her many posts about her sons obvious mathematical talent. Don’t get me wrong, the guy is a genius, but this sense of entitlement may have been observed via the blog . Also Several of her blogs are blatently feminist, so maybe she annoyed someone over at the Harvard math department?</p>