How Holistic is Harvard?

[medadvice]

The dean of Harvard state that 85% of the applicant pool is qualified to handle the work and the foundation of every application is personal qualities. But does that mean that for 85% of the applicants, they have reached the GPA/SAT threshold and that test scores do not matter for them: ie, two students are academically qualified, but the reason one gets in an not the other is not because one had a higher GPA/SAT, but because of other reasons. For 85% of the applicants, are there acceptances judged based on extracurriculars, essays, fit, personal qualities, interview/reccomendations? I have heard explanations for both the yes and the no but am unsure which is true. The Harvard dean makes it seem more holistic and less on GPA/SAT, but I feel as if this is too good to be true or he’s just being nice.

[BldrDad]

I think the truth is more nuanced - if you are in that 85%, the stronger your academic qualifications (and this extends beyond GPA and test scores), the less holistic the application process. William Fitzsimmons has stated that a small percentage of the class is accepted because they are academic superstars - but for most case, admissions decisions will definitely be holistic.

[medadvice]

Yes, but you see 2400, 4.0, valedectorians rejected all the time

[BldrDad]

Exactly - as I said, strong academic qualifications go beyond GPA and test scores.

[gibby]

One of my favorite quotes about the college admissions process is from the book What You Don’t Know Can Keep You Out Of College by Don Dunbar

If the admissions office door has four locks on it, the first two keys are test scores and school record, and the third is special talent or some other accomplishment or quality. What is the fourth key? It’s “character.” An old fashioned word, it means the way you develop your inner qualities: intellectual passion, maturity, social conscience, concern for community, tolerance, inclusiveness and love of learning.

After all the GPA’s, test scores and EC’s have been tallied and compared, the holistic process all comes down to “character.” And Admissions learns about an applicant’s character through their teacher recommendations, guidance counselor report, interview, and essays. Here’s what Harvard says:

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.

Students’ intellectual imagination, strength of character, and their ability to exercise good judgment — these are critical factors in the admissions process, and they are revealed not by test scores but by students’ activities outside the classroom, the testimony of teachers and guidance counselors, and by alumni/ae and staff interview reports."

“Personal qualities and character provide the foundation upon which each admission rests. Harvard alumni/ae often report that the education they received from fellow classmates was a critically important component of their college experience. The education that takes place between roommates, in dining halls, classrooms, research groups, extracurricular activities, and in Harvard’s residential houses depends on selecting students who will reach out to others.”

[medadvice]

So Gibby, does that mean that 85% of the students have already unlocked the first two locks of Harvard, ie, GPA/Test scores?

[gibby]

^^ I would think so, yes.