<p>If she already knows what class she is sure to take, there is no reason not to talk to the prof during shopping period. Something along the lines of " Hi, I’m xxx, I want to take your class, but I’ve come down with mono. Will it interfere with my ability to keep up? I tend to feel very tired by late afternoon." I’m sure no prof would object and might be able to reassure your D and perhaps think of some accommodations.
Some things to be thinking of: avoid late afternoon sections or labs or evening ones (S had a film course with a film showing that started at 9pm). This is where telling the prof or TF well in advance would be helpful. If she is in a study group, see if it can be scheduled at a time before she crashes. Consider taking 3 courses instead of 4 if it’s allowed. Maybe her proctor has already alerted the freshman dean; but it does no harm telling the dean about this.</p>
<p>Marite - thanks I’ll pass that advice onto my daughter. Since she is still putting in sectioning requests, she can try and keep those points in mind as indicates her preferences.</p>
<p>Smoda - My son had mono over his winter break ( luckily) and was able to manage fine during his spring term once he returned to school. He “scheduled” nap time for himself just about every afternoon at some point and that helped a lot. Of course he didn’t take any early classes, but I can’t say that was due to the mono!
Everyone reacts differently; some feel completely better inside of a few weeks.</p>
<p>Smoda61 so sorry to hear about your daughter. What a blessing that you are close enough to help her, although I am sure it puts a strain on everyone. We wish her a speedy recovery.</p>
<p>Guitars - thanks for the well wishes. I also heard that transfers are now being permitted. I believe that I heard it from my daughter.</p>
<p>Ronsard - we are very fortunate to live so close. It is chewing up time every day - an hour in the morning for my husband and then and hour in the afternoon or evening for me. It has seemed like the best thing, both for my daughter and her roommates. She is hoping to begin sleeping on campus tomorrow night. She’ll give it a try and see how it goes.</p>
<p>Ruar12 - I would not state that my daughter’s EC were stellar but they were all commitments that she did for years and were not for the sake of resume building. If you go through the 2013 admitted student thread you should be able to find her profile as I posted it last year (typo’s and all). I think that she had heartfelt recommendations and a very good alumni interview. I do know that in the end it has to be the interviews that made the final difference - she ended up being asked to come in for two additional adcom interviews in March. I am guessing she was on the edge and the interviews tipped her in.</p>
ruar12, if you look at the left sidebar, you will see the topic “Stats Profiles.” Click there and scroll to the bottom. You can do a “college search” for Harvard. Then you can specify “accepted” or “rejected” and look at the stats of students who reported their results last year. Some accepted students reported a 3.9 GPA, and some rejected students reported a 4.0.</p>
<p>If you look at the top of the Harvard threads here, you will see “Official Harvard U. 2013 Decisions Thread.” Many students–accepted, rejected, wait-listed–completed a template including the information you are requesting, and more, such as extracurricular activities.</p>
<p>If you have not already seen the posts that the Harvard Dean of Admissions wrote for the Choice blog at the New York Times last September, you probably want to see those. We are told not to post links to blogs, but you can find the posts easily by going to the NYTimes site, finding the Choice blog, and searching for William R. Fitzsimmons.</p>
<p>This comment WRF made may be of some interest to you: “While we value objective criteria, we apply a more expansive view of excellence. Test scores and grades offer some indication of students academic promise and achievement. But we also scrutinize applications for extracurricular distinction and personal qualities.”</p>
<p>Hello everyone. I have been reading this thread for a while. Thank you everyone for all the valuable information. My S is a sophomore.
Sorry to go off topic. I have a question about summer school. Does anyone know if Harvard accepts credits from summer classes taken at another college?</p>
<p>"All candidates for the Bachelor of Arts or the Bachelor of Science degree must pass 16.0 full courses and receive letter grades of C– or higher in at least 10.5 of them (at least 12.0 to be eligible for a degree with honors). The only non-letter grade that counts toward the requirement of 10.5 satisfactory letter-graded courses is Satisfactory (SAT), given in Freshman Seminars and certain tutorial courses; only one full senior tutorial course graded Satisfactory may be so counted.</p>
<p>“Courses taken either by cross-registration or out of residence for degree credit will not be counted toward the letter-graded course requirement unless they are applied toward concentration requirements or the requirements for the Undergraduate Teacher Education Program (UTEP).”</p>
<p>How do you read this requirement? If a summer course taken elsewhere constitutes an “out of residence” course, then it looks like they usually will not count the course credit. Is that right?</p>
<p>This same page says, “Exceptions to the rules may be made only by special vote of the Administrative Board of Harvard College or by those administrative officers or committees to which the Faculty, for certain matters, has delegated authority to act on its behalf.”</p>
<p>This page also describes course requirements for Junior transfers.</p>
<p>Quill Penn- thank you much for the info. A quick glance at the rejected stats does not seem to give any indication as to why the student got rejected vs why another got accepted. Maybe it was their stellar essays or their fantastic ECs.</p>
<p>On a slightly different topic, an observation I made when listening to college counsellors at my kid’s school, was they all tend to come across as people who want to sound “witty/comic/funny/humorous”. They all give examples of student essays that were “funny”. It appears that the more you can make the admissions counsellors laugh, the better chance the kid has! Imagine a Harvard adcom noticing students only because he had a good laugh on their essays! I hope this is not true, and that humor is not a pre-requisite in an essay or to be noted.</p>
<p>This whole admissions process seems like a charade-the focus on essays, the focus on “leadership” roles, etc. If Harvard(or any other top univ for that matter) is admitting 2000 students every year who are all “leaders” when they join, then what happens to all these “leaders” when they graduate? Is Harvard,and every other top univ graduating thousands of leaders every year? Or all these “leaders” becoming average-joes after 4 years? Do the passions displayed by entering students on their essays get strengthened at Harvard, or are they dulled over time?</p>
<p>Yeah I know, but we will still continue to play our part in this game Sorry for the gripe!</p>
<p>Thanks, QP.
“Courses taken ------out of residence for degree credit will not be counted toward the letter-graded course requirement unless they are applied toward concentration requirements ------” Does it mean that the course taken at another college will be counted if it is applied toward concentration requirements? I am very confused.
The course that S is planning on taking is not through summer study abroad program but it is required under his concentration.</p>
<p>Thank you for bringing up this topic. I am also confused by the requirements and seem to have misread the Student Handbook in that last post.</p>
<p>First, I should avoid any discussion of the Core requirements, since our freshman is meeting the new General Education requirements, and I only clutter my brain by paying attention to the old Core.</p>
<p>Because my son is looking at a double concentration, with Music as one of the subjects, I looked at the Concentration requirements for Music, as described in the Student Handbook.</p>
<p>“Students who have taken college courses in music at other institutions may receive concentration credit for work done elsewhere. This ordinarily involves a written petition to the faculty and may require taking an examination in the materials of the course for which credit is requested.”</p>
<p>Do policies on accepting outside work vary depending on the concentration? This looks like a question for the student to ask the department.</p>
<p>ruar12, I think trying to second guess the admissions office is probably a thankless task. I’ve been through the admissions process with two children who applied to a range of schools, and it remains a mystery.</p>
<p>I’m a current Harvard freshman and haven’t been to CC in a while, but since its shopping week and I’m done shopping, I wanted add what I’ve learned about how to get in here. I didn’t know how I got in - it was a big reach, just under 2200 sat, no hook (athletics, URM, etc), good grades but not straight A’s. I was initially waitlisted at three top 10 schools, but got in off all 3 waitlists and chose Harvard.</p>
<p>Since I’ve been here, most freshmen I’ve met are people who invested their time wisely and made the most of their God given talents in their first 18 years. I really think it comes through in your application whether you squandered your elementary, junior high and high school years or spent them developing skills, whether in a sport, hobby, club, service to others, etc. You can’t just start in high school and become a top soccer player, musician, etc. You have to start young and stick with it even when you want to quit. That’s what I did, and I had little time to goof off, basically starting in kindergarten. I wrote very plainly and earnestly in my essays about my successes and failures along the way and what I learned from them - one essay was about how I couldn’t get an “A” in any advanced math classes but took them anyway. I didn’t try to sound perfect - I was just honest about what I did right and wrong. So now I’m here and fully engaged and loving my extracurriculars and my classes - still no time to goof off. The hard work and persistence were definitely worth it - this is the best school and the most rewarding time of my life!</p>
<p>Ruar12 - My daughter’s essays did not make anyone laugh. In fact, one was a tear jerker. You’ll probably find more people in the same boat as you are right now over in the Parents Forum. Quill Pen is right; it’s not worth second guessing Admissions. Most of us probably have no clue why our kids were selected and neither do they!</p>
<p>This thread is frequented largely by current and alumni parents (and some students) dealing with situations that affect their current Harvard students.</p>
<p>I certainly have know clue. My daughter is a great kid and was a very strong student in high school. But I’ve always sort of thought that God or some other mysterious force reached in and plucked her out the thousands of other terrific applicants and sent her to Harvard.</p>
Sorry for the gripe!</p>