Student's chance at Harvard

BuckeyeGC
Thu, 01 Oct 2015 17:50:16 +0000

So I’ve come across these forums once in a while for years, and I know there’s a lot of useful info here. This is my first post, because I’m dealing with a situation I haven’t really faced before.

One of the students at my school is looking to go to Harvard, and I think he can do it. But I’m not familiar with Harvard admissions (Most of our students find work or apply to Ohio State. One girl went to Case Western in 2012), so can you help me out?

Here’s some info about the student:

3.98 GPA
2160 SAT
He’s taken all our school’s AP classes (6) and some online courses.
Best student in his grade (small school, so about 50 students)
Low income (Almost all of our parents don’t make much)

Extracurriculars:

He’s a youth leader at his church and helps raise money for an orphanage in Guatemala
He’s a starting tackle on the football team.
For a while he took care of his grandmother when she was sick, and he handled it really well - I was proud of him for that, and I’ll definitely mention it in my recommendation.
He’s running our school’s honor society for the second straight year (he was treasurer in grade 10)
He had a project that made it to the state science fair last year. Will Harvard give priority to applicants who have success like in competitions like this?
He’s entering the Siemens challenge this year.
He also had a job last summer working for the local newspaper.
Also, in his spare time he has an aquarium where he’ll raise different sorts of fish.

I think his essays will be great, because even though he’s a “science” student he can write really well. He’s got one recommendation from a teacher who’s known him since he was in middle school, which should be really good, and another from his AP biology teacher. He’s asking his pastor to write one as well. Since this is Harvard, I’m going to have an English teacher help me with the language of my recommendation (won’t be difficult finding good things to mention).

Also, a short while ago the school received some documents from the “National Merit Scholarship Corporation” asking him to apply for finalist status. I wrote a description of some of his activities, and I think he’s working on an essay, which should give him a good chance. Will that help with admissions?

I don’t know if all this will be enough, though, because our school doesn’t have as many AP classes as some others. Is that bad?

What do you think his chances are of getting in?