<p>I haven’t read ‘The Chosen’, but I realize that Harvard used to accept a pool of students whom they feel that would definitely not compete for the best in academics, but instead, add to Harvard other qualities (arts? athletic skills? physical beauty) that make other Harvard students ‘feel good’. They’re termed as ‘the happy bottom quarter’.</p>
<p>Just a few questions:</p>
<p>Does Harvard still has a modified form of ‘happy bottom quarter’?</p>
<p>If yes, is anyone aware that they’re in the ‘happy bottom quarter’? How is it like to feel great even if one is less able than the other students, in terms of academics? Do they manage to ‘beat the odds’ and end up excelling and exceeding their academically stronger peers?</p>
<p>Although not directly relevant, how Harvard knows despite getting some students with less-than-academic stellar records, they will appear to be intellectually rigorous? How does Harvard know they will definitely have the best and the brightest students in the world - is it through grades/test scores, or by results in international competitions, like those in debate, creative solving or in science/maths?</p>
<p>Harvard has a bottom quarter, of course. We are not Lake Wobegone. But I don’t think that they admit us knowing that “oh, this kid’s amusing and gregarious and definitely the bottom 5%.” I think that we sift ourselves into deciles over the course of our time here, and that it would be hard to predict at the outset who would end up where. I don’t think your “do they end up beating the odds?” question makes sense, then, because even people who end up realizing that they are at the bottom probably wouldn’t have realized it when they were coming in, or that the admissions officers knew that they wouldn’t do as well as the others.</p>
<p>As for how they stay happy, I do not think that I am in the bottom quarter. If I am (which is unlikely), I’m happy because I don’t think that I am. That’s one way. My friends who seem more likely to be at the bottom tend to have other things they’re really passionate about, and it’s that that they derive their sense of accomplishment from. For instance, one of my friends is working really hard in one of the dance groups. She just started, so she’s not that good yet, but it’s one in which she has a decent chance of getting quite good before she graduates. Another of my friends is Ace Reporter for the Crimson. (Well, one of a few.) At least the second of those could be top quarter if she tried, but she’s too busy reportin’ and janks. So it’s a choice, and she’s happy.</p>
<p>As for why they make the admissions decisions that they do, all of the criteria you listed are used. I doubt anyone outside of the admissions office could tell you the weight they give to each kind of thing, though.</p>
<p>Harvard admissions did used to talk informally about the happy bottom quarter roughly 50 years ago, but not in recent memory. That was in an era when there was a much larger gap, in terms of academic promise, between the top and bottom of an Ivy class than is the case now. The best then were as good as the best now, but the weakest then wouldn’t get in now. </p>
<p>Harvard doesn’t know that it will have the best and brightest students in the world. But it selects its class from a large group of very talented applicants, almost all of whom are crowded into a narrow area in the right tail of the secondary-school, achievement distribution. Even the students at the bottom of a newly accepted Harvard freshmen class, based on grades and test scores, were very strong students at or near the top of their high school class. </p>
<p>Grades and test scores don’t predict academic achievement at Harvard very well, partly because of limits in the validity of the measures, and partly because there’s so little variation among accepted students. (Would you expect that the difference between, say, 2310 and 2330 on the SAT composite would turn out to predict much in terms of Harvard grades?) So even students who are relatively weak based on their secondary school records, may be high achievers at Harvard, and the bottom quarter of a Harvard class will include some students who were high school valedictorians. </p>
<p>But everyone who gets into Harvard can handle the academic challenge – if they’re motivated and willing to work.</p>
<p>The best analogy I’ve heard for admissions at the ultra-selective schools is that of casting a musical theatre production. When 2/3 of your applicant pool is equally qualified but you can only accept 6% of them, there has to be a rationale for selecting one qualified applicant over another. When it comes down to the the extra added qualities that an applicant might bring, there is some luck involved - just as there is for a tall soprano when the school play calls for a tall soprano and not a short alto.</p>
<p>I think that the Ad Com doesn’t , as they wrote in The Chosen, consciously think of an applicant as “happy bottom quarter” but Harvard says explicitly that it is looking for lopsided individuals to make a well rounded class-- that means great athletes, writers, dancers, oboists, politicians–you name it. Harry Lewis, the former Dean of the College, has written extensively about “outcomes” and academic standing and has shown that regardless of the criteria one selects, unless one is looking at potential as an academic that GPA has no statistical correlation with “success.” </p>
<p>Harvard wants a proven track record of excellence at a very high level in whatever field. They are not looking for a class all of whom will be crushed if they do not make PBK as a junior. That being said, the Ad Com has a very good record of predicting an incoming class’s summas at graduation. Not perfect in both directions of course, but an impressive predicitive ability.</p>
<p>Harvard is delighted if a graduate becomes a great writer for the Simpsons, a political leader, a community organizer, a successful business executive, a composer, a terrific cellist as much as if it produces tenured faculty of the next generation.</p>
<p>There are plenty of bottom quarter seniors who get great jobs through their people skills, social and business connections, and from their internships and job experiences. They did not spend every minute studying, but immersed themselves in the finance club, women entrepreneur club, Harvard Student Agencies, Institute of Politics, The Crimson newspaper, final clubs, sororities, athletics, etc. Some have already started new companies before graduating. Some are headed to trading on Wall Street. Some will go to Teach for America or the Peace Corps . Harvard never dictates one path to success.</p>
<p>I don’t know how/to what degree Harvard plans it, but I’d say that there IS a happy bottom quarter, intentional or not. Some of the people who are utterly committed to music/sports/politics are stealth summas who surprise everyone at graduation, but more of them prioritize the activity even at the expense of their classes, and know that they’ll be just fine as B students with the right training and connections for their career/grad school.</p>
<p>It’s the bottom 5% or so that I worry about – there are always kids who get to Harvard and get mired in personal problems, family drama, whatever. The people who are really at the bottom are not so happy.</p>
<p>It’s so weird how at top private colleges, being a B student puts you in the bottom quarter. You know, considering that college is supposedly harder than HS, you would expect B students to be the norm, especially since we/they have rigorous academics. Seems almost as if the standards between a good HS and a top college don’t change but so much, which explains why many find even a top college much easier than expected. Just strange.</p>