Student's chance at Harvard

renaissancedad
Thu, 01 Oct 2015 18:41:57 +0000

As a non-hooked applicant (assuming he’s not recruitable as a football player, and he would know it by now if he were), your friend is on the low side for Harvard in terms of his SAT scores and ECs. Harvard and other top schools certainly take into account the resources available to a student and how he/she has made use of them, and it sounds like your friend has done a great job given the opportunities available to him. But it will be hard to stand out.

If your friend is truly interested at applying to Harvard and other top schools I think it’s worth a shot, but he has to think hard about how to present himself in a way that will get their attention. He needs to make the case that if he had had better opportunities - such as those that Harvard or other top schools would provide him - that he would have shined that much more brightly. He will be competing for admission against national (not state) STEM fair medalists, and people with similar such achievements in other areas.

Why in particular is your friend interested in Harvard? What in particular makes you think that it would be a good fit for him more than the 2 dozen+ really superb and highly competitive universities and LACs out there? I would suggest that a student such as you describe might be overwhelmed in the highly competitive environment of a place like Harvard, but might thrive at a place like Williams where he would get more faculty exposure and potentially shine (and where his athletics might also be of interest).