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<p>I apologize if I came off arrogant or condescending. That wasn’t my intention, rather, to address a series of laughable ad-hominem remarks by a particular poster. </p>
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<p>As mentioned before, like it or not, SAT scores along with academic profiles are the most objective and reliable metric of evidence that would shed light into an applicant’s true work ethic or intellectual potential. </p>
<p>The counter arguments I’ve been reading in this thread all point to how Harvard doesn’t want a bunch of people with same interest, same top SAT scores, no diverse viewpoints, or homogeneous racial/cultural composition within its student body. However, 1) individuals with top SAT scores are different and unique from each other too, and they also do have their own personality and viewpoints, 2) anyone can lie about non-academic elements of his/her background when applying to colleges and can get away with it very easily, hence implying illegitimacy of the system that places heavy emphasis on such factors as an individual’s ‘personality’, ‘character’, ‘uniqueness’, or ‘leadership potential’. </p>
<p>Seriously, how can Harvard possibly tell if a given applicant in question is: 1) being honest about his/her background in application and that the application essays which are capped at 500 word limit, along with mere two letters of recommendation and a laundry list of unverified extra curricular lists, are truly the accomplishments of that individual? Certainly, Harvard doesn’t care to check if such individual was indeed the captain of varsity basketball team at his high school or not, as that individual may claim on the application, 2) how can Harvard admissions staff clearly judge an applicant’s character or leadership abilities or ‘uniqueness’ or whatever by just glimpsing through 500 word personal statement? Last time I checked, Harvard doesn’t even conduct interviews of its applicants (aside from informal alumni interviews that aren’t even required for the process). Can they really reasonably judge an individual’s ‘soft factors’ or those non-academic credentials?</p>
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<p>Well, like I said I am done with college anyway. Trust me, I knew a fair share of people who had very disapproving views of how some top colleges such as Harvard handle admissions, and many thought that it was bull $hit that a school like Harvard would overlook an 27 ACT score for being black or possessing brute athleticism. Maybe you won’t find many people to express their disapproving views in a crude way in real life, but that may be because this is a sensitive topic and people don’t want to appear politically incorrect in real life by speaking out about this kind of topic.</p>
<p>Even at my college (an Ivy), many people I knew (secretly) made fun of many of sports athletes or some URM students for being ‘dumb’ and believed that they should not have gotten into our college to begin with. I was shocked, when I was TA’ing for one intro seminar course during my senior year at college, one student had so many basic spelling mistakes that it honestly looked like it was written by a 3rd grader. Yet, this kid was at an Ivy, and he was black. I don’t mean to be racist, but I did think, at the time, that the only reason he was there was due to color of his skin. True, those with disapproving views of how admissions are handled at top colleges weren’t going to march into those athletes or URM students and express this sentiment directly, but nevertheless this sentiment exists.</p>