<p>there is tho 
How can you not play sports in HS??? The human contact, the relationship with people, the way you work in a team… And you have to try and be healthy. I believe that without sports you are not complete. If you are not competitive in soccer, tennis, basketball or volleybal, pick a martial art, or something… I did 5 years of taekwondo too and I just realized I forgot to put that on. Lol. That’s ok tho, because I played varsity soccer and now I am doing some tennis… I am working out a lot too, which I also didn’t put. The point is if you have a 4.0, develop yourself physically, too. The man of the 21 century is healthy and fit. Ergo Harvard cannot have the reputation of enrolling pansies.</p>
<p>^^That’s not true. Plenty of people have gotten into Harvard without sports.</p>
<p>Also, many have stressed that one does NOT have to be val/sal to be admitted. But approximately how many people, that fall out of the, let’s say, top 5% of their class, get admitted? Top 10%? Etc? If anybody can find a page with these statistics, it would be most appreciated.</p>
<p>I’m asking this because I’m ranked approximately 20/500 in my class, and I have never heard of anyone ranked that low be accepted. Assuming my extracurriculars and SAT scores are competitive (2300+ SAT I, 750+ SAT IIs), would my rank immediately ruin my application? Thanks!</p>
<p>I am sure they have. The student body is well rounded, but it is one of the four dimensions whether people on this board can justify it for themselves or not. Most importantly, it is a separate part from ECs! So it must be important. I personally believe that personality is more important but still… If I get in I want to play a lot of sports. Intramural everything. My house is going to have a crazy team! 
Go {…}!</p>
<p>gxing, Harvard does not publish those statistics but Brown and Penn do. Presumably Harvard’s numbers are even considerably lower. Here are the links:</p>
<p>Brown:
<a href=“Undergraduate Admission | Brown University”>Undergraduate Admission | Brown University;
<p>Penn:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.admissionsug.upenn.edu/applying/profile.php[/url]”>http://www.admissionsug.upenn.edu/applying/profile.php</a></p>
<p>How can you not play sports in HS???</p>
<hr>
<p>Very simple…</p>
<p>lets see…</p>
<p>doing publishable research that I am extremely proud of.</p>
<p>or playing a sport or two in which it is primarily useless.</p>
<p>hmm…tough choice.</p>
<p>Thanks, stambliark.</p>
<p>
</snip></p>
<p>Not everybody has time to play sports in high school. I know that I don’t, and I have many pursuits that are far more important to me. As for “human contact” etc, I participated in several academic competitions at the national level, thus getting that competitive aspect that you claim to be necessary. And about staying active and getting exercise? Many of us can do that as part of our weekly routine, be it hiking, going for a walk, riding a bike, or going to the gym.</p>
<p>Sports are the right choice for some people, but not for everybody. There are plenty of people at Harvard and similar institutions that haven’t set foot on a playing field in their lives.</p>
<p>sports should be just lumped into ecs instead of being its own category</p>
<p>not according to the athletes…</p>
<p>“It goes without saying that the personal cathegory is the most important cathegory. Those with a rank of 4 or worse on the personal scale had, have a rejection rate over ninety-five percent. Those with a personal rating of 1 have a rejection rate of less than 3 percent.
Rumor has it.”</p>
<p>how plausible is this?</p>
<p>not very cause its a rumor?</p>
<p>sometimes rumors can derive from a plausible source, and one can often find rumors with some degree of truth. </p>
<p>eh, anyway, i was just curious.</p>
<p>well obviously if the person is being recruited then it should be taken into account, but in general, sports are like every other ec. theyre not special</p>
<p>eh. having a high SAT score and high GPA is extremely important to harvard, or for any college for that matter. i highly doubt that your EC’s and essay could make up for a medicore score and GPA.</p>
<p>and i totally disagree with how the topic started said that having an SAT score above 2250 will make no difference. that’s … ridiculous. obviously having a 2300 is better than having a 2250. if two people have the similar ec’s… they’ll pick the applicant with the higher GPA and SAT score.</p>
<p>i have also heard from numerous people knowledgeable in the whole college acceptance area… that your high school transcript is the most important part of your application. but [shrug] whatever floats your boat i guess.</p>
<p>if two people have similiar activities and essays, and scores separated by any amount of points i think they will both likely be rejected</p>
<p>What if they’re both amazingly qualified?</p>
<p>Aren’t athetics extracurriculars? It seems contradictory to me.</p>
<p>I think what fae was trying to say was that if 2 people have similar activities and essays, they are not unique. However, if they are both amazingly qualified, as gxing has stated, then those applicants may be accepted. Nonetheless, I believe Harvard acceptees should be extremely unique.</p>
<p>hehe, with so many people trying to be “unique”, isn’t unique quite the norm these days? and if the previously non unique norm is still considered the norm, then what truly is unique? damn, i liked it better when people just took entrance exams</p>
<p>Unique, by definition, means one-of-a-kind. Therefore, no too applicants can be similar and unique at the same time.</p>