<p>Kenzaburo,do you see the larger point that no matter how appealing the students might be, the admissions office doesn’t accept all the students from the same narrow category of Harvard professors’ children? There are also some 10,000 teaching appointments at the medical school, apparently. </p>
<p>I’ll try to wrench the discussion out of the circle. </p>
<p>I recommend people read it–because your comments will sound awfully funny if you don’t. At any rate, the members of the '76 women’s crew team at Yale have gone on to be very successful. </p>
<p>A history professor at West Point
Olympians
doctors
attorneys,
professors
the owner of a WNBA team
a taekwondo world champion
systems analyst
the head of an all-female plumbing company
crew coaches
teachers
head of orthopedic surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville
documentary film maker
the International Counsel for Alexion Pharmaceuticals</p>
<p>Were these women successful in life because they had high (enough) test scores and graduated from Yale? Or were they successful in life because they were smart (enough) to be accepted, and also had grit and character?</p>
<p>Because they were athletes, and at the time women’s crew was not as widespread as it is now, I would assume that they didn’t all score 1600 (old scale) on their SATs. Would you rather have people who posted higher scores?</p>
<p>I think most arts & sciences colleges would prefer that it would
not be very difficult for their students to change majors. Or, more importantly, for students to select majors
they want, in the first place, after sophomore year and not before.
They would probably rather, to the extent feasible, allow their students to be happy there.</p>
<p>And they probably try to increase the chance of that happening by engineering who they accept
in the first place, via their admissions process , withiin reason. Though this will be imperfect hence further measures might be needed.</p>
<p>They could possibly do something different. </p>
<p>The schools have enough students for their Classics department - otherwise, it is going to be cost prohibitive to keep the program going. That is why you see so many colleges giving up majors like Classics, Linguistics, Gender Studies, etc. because kids come in so focused on STEM that these other departments can’t be maintained. It is only schools with larger endowments (generally speaking) that have the luxury of having these somewhat esoteric majors. A quick look at college websites will show this to be true.</p>
<p>There are plenty of schools which will accept you based solely on your SAT/ACT scores. Oops - those are not the schools everyone is clamoring to get into. Are Asian students (or anyone else for that matter) suing to get into any other school where they are 5, 10, or 15% of the student body? Then why Harvard - just because it’s Harvard I guess. Oh the problems of being the number one school in the nation.</p>
<p>I complain to my wife all the time that those Hollywood types get to define merit even though I am just as good as or better than Robert De Niro. Where’s my Oscar?</p>
<p>From our friends at Yale:
*Yale Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Jeremiah Quinlan said that it is impossible to properly compare applicants using test scores and other numbers.</p>
<p>“It is convenient for conversations to revolve around SAT scores because a test score is a number, and a number gives the illusion of precision, but admissions applications are never that simple,” Quinlan said.</p>
<p>Quinlan added that while various background characteristics can be a positive factor in an application, this factor still depends heavily on everything else the Admissions Office finds in the application.*</p>
<p>@Periwinkle, nice post! I don’t know if others noticed this: When Kiesling, who also coaches the Army men’s novice crew… It is great (and unusual) to see a woman coaching men’s sports in any capacity. You go sister!</p>
<p>@kenzaburo, when you act in a movie, then your merit on that scale will be judged. Until then, thanks for the laughs. Your analogy has no relevance so I don’t see why you continue to trot it out. </p>
<p>I know one segment of the “Asian” classification well and suffice it to say that among the top achievers who have gotten into top 20 schools, very rarely have I come across people who want to be non-STEM majors. Some have gone to college and changed majors but very few declare upfront to be majoring in liberal arts (I am going to be an actor, writer, lawyer planning to be a poli sci major are very uncommon). Many of the kids who got “into” Harvard and did not go are premeds or engineering/CS majors as well as those who did not get in either.</p>
<p>I am still waiting for that famous Asian writer/actor/director who is going around complaining he/she did not make the cut at Harvard. On the other hand, one of the few well known film directors from India is a Harvard alum (I wonder if people give her money to make films because she went to Harvard since her films are weird).</p>
<p>Since many here seem to want Harvard to be NBA, let us get that analogy right. The meritocracy of Harvard can handle only so many people who want to play point guard position. I have no love for Harvard since my kid was rejected but I suspect she would have been admitted as a social sciences major!</p>
<p>However, it is followed up by how sure are you about your major. I wonder how many people pick Undecided and then say they are unsure about it when there are so many broad choices with no specific majors.</p>
<p>Are students committed to whatever they write there, or is it just their guess (or preferred insinuation)?
At my alma mater, at least, majors were not declared till sophomore year, so whatever we were asked for on our application would not be binding. I’d be surprised if H was different, but I don’t really know.</p>
<p>I know D2 had to indicate a likely major on the application for her school, but all it did was dictate her first-year advisor.</p>
<p>Hope that guesstimate doesn’t use race, as that would be illegal. Anyway, how do you know? Any H adcoms here want to clarify? Otherwise it’s all speculation based on personal bias.</p>
<p>You’re right. My D started off saying Classics. Now leaning toward Literature. Sure she’s not going to wake up in 3 semesters and declare herself a math major.</p>