Is Harvard about numbers or heart?

Colleges & Universities Harvard University
1

<p>I’ve heard some stories of people with <3.5 GPA and an average SAT score with little extracurricular activities get into Harvard. One of my mother’s friend helps students with their applications and told me it’s really important to show heart in an essay, and that it’s truly the most essential part of an application.</p>

<p>Hearing these things, is Harvard looking for numbers or for heart? If a student with average grades shows great passion for the school or a subject, are they more likely to get in verses a student with high grades who writes apathetically?</p>

2

<p>There is no magic formula to gain admission to Harvard. Although some students are accepted with <3.5 GPA, that is certainly not the norm. Most accepted students have both numbers and a heart. I posted the below on another thread, but I think it would be useful to this discussion, as well.</p>

<p>Besides a transcript with demonstrated course rigor, a high GPA and great test scores, all selective colleges (Harvard included) are looking for “character.” It’s an old fashioned word, meaning the way you develop your inner qualities: intellectual passion, maturity, social conscience, concern for community, tolerance and inclusiveness. </p>

<p>Most of those details are revealed in recommendation letters, guidance counselor reports and essays. </p>

<p>The below came in an email last March from Middlebury College to all applicants, but it could just as easily have been written by Harvard, Yale and Princeton:</p>

<p>"WHAT WE VALUE AND WHY
Admission to Middlebury, as at other highly selective colleges, is based upon academic ability and achievement, with great interest also given to community, citizenship, leadership or other talents. We seek students who will not only perform at a high level in the classroom, but who will also contribute positively to campus life through strength of character, involvement in co-curricular activities and commitment to our special institution. Should you be admitted and eventually enroll at Middlebury, we wish for you a roommate who will care about you as a person and who will reciprocate the friendship you offer. We want you and your neighbors in residence to be stimulating, thoughtful individuals from a variety of intellectual, geographic, socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. We hope that you and your classmates will carry discussions beyond the classroom to the residences and dining areas, applying ideas under discussion to your own experiences and opinions in ways that would challenge your thinking. And we also hope that you would anticipate each day as a new opportunity to learn and grow from your contact with faculty, staff and students alike. We review each application looking for the personal characteristics that will foster this kind of learning environment.</p>

<p>Each admission decision made at Middlebury is based on as complete a picture of the applicant as possible, but it is essentially subjective. Because of this, some decisions are difficult to understand. Why did we admit a student ranking #7 in her class while not admitting the #4 student? Why did we take a student with an ACT score of 28 while not taking a classmate with a 32? The answer is that not all of the qualities that we seek and that you possess can be neatly wrapped up and stamped with a number."</p>

3

<p>I mean, Harvard has enough high-scoring applicants that they can look for both numbers and “heart.” And when the applicant doesn’t have numbers, they tend to have both “heart” and really, really impressive extracurriculars. Obviously, there are exceptions, but very few people get in based on “heart” without both numbers and ECs. I would guess that the ones who don’t have numbers or ECs are doing something with their time that still impresses the admissions people, like supporting family through a difficult situation. I’d also guess that that <3.5 GPA is the result of an extremely poor freshman/sophomore year, but 4.0 since mid-sophomore, or at least, by junior year. </p>

<p>If there isn’t indication that an applicant can do the work, no matter how much heart they have, they’re going to be rejected. It wouldn’t be right to let somebody who’s as wonderful a person as all that come in and then have to drop out because of poor high school preparation, while they could have been aces at somewhere with slightly lower expectations at the beginning.</p>

4

<p>Its a numbers game- there are so many applicants so the few that get in have both outstanding numbers and heart… why would they take great numbers and amazing heart when they can have outstanding numbers and amazing heart? Thats what it comes down to… you have to have numbers… they’ll say " we look holistically, which they do, but u have to have the numbers …"</p>

5

<p>Numbers and heart >>>>> Numbers > heart</p>

6

<p>I have to agree that Harvard is decidedly not about heart-without-numbers.</p>

7

<p>If you don’t have the numbers, don’t apply. Ivy League schools are about the numbers first. The heart comes in to differentiate most of the applicant pool because they are GOD-LIKE geniuses.</p>