How to get into Harvard

davida1
Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:09:40 +0000

It is shocking to me how many students still don’t get the admissions process at top colleges. When people see students with top stats get rejected they think you just need higher stats to get in and ignore the students without hooks and lower stats that get in. The reality is that the admissions process is a human, individualized process. The admissions officers are PEOPLE and they read your entire file (contrary to popular belief). You have to provide them a compelling reason to accept you because there are thousands of applicants with top stats and they can only accept a few of them. They don’t just want students with the highest stats possible (or you would see that in their profile of admitted students). They want diversity in all its forms, they want students that show passion not just about doing what is necessary to get into a prestigious college. Yield is still a factor as well; few colleges want to accept students that they think will go somewhere else. Sometimes that means accepting students with a weaker profile so that an institution makes sure it is the best that a student got into so he/she will be more likely to go there.

The academic evaluation is to see whether or not a student is ready to do good college work at their school. That doesn’t require a 2300, 8 AP exams with 4’s and 5’s, 750+ only SAT II scores, and a 3.9+ unweighted GPA, etc. even for the Ivies. That is above and beyond what you need to be prepared to do good college work at top schools. The reasons why students with these stats get in is because it shows that they are academically dedicated, smart, and driven, but it is only a bonus not a prerequisite, and students get in without this.