To those denied admission:

sadovaya
Wed, 13 May 2009 12:37:49 +0000

My son was just accepted to Harvard (granted off the waiting list). He attends an international school in England. Few students apply to Harvard and the school discourages the collecting of extracurricular activities. He played rugby, was in band and was active in the tutoring program. That was it. He has, however, made the most of his international experience wherever we may have been posted and has taken challenging courses, including 4 years of Russian.

He was accepted at Brown, UChicago, Georgetown and Williams. His SATs were 2200. He has a 3.8 GPA.

You don’t need spectacular spec’s to get into Harvard. You need to be genuine and stand out in some way.