<p>I’m speaking of the type of student who is amazingly gifted academically but doesn’t seem to possess leadership skills or even people skills for that matter. The stereotypical uptight and stone-faced kind of nerd who rarely speaks.</p>
<p>A student who fits this profile was the top student in a neighboring school last year and was rejected everywhere but his safety (rejected by MIT, Caltech, Harvard, and Princeton), much to his chagrin.</p>
<p>Obviously it’s very unlikely that an applicant without redeemable qualities besides great numbers will be accepted to HYPSM but I can’t imagine that they would reject someone who they deem to be one of top applicants in terms of pure academic ability.</p>
<p>So my question is this – at what point does amazing academic ability make up for a lack of personality at HYPSM?</p>
<p>Disclaimer: Obviously everyone possesses a personality. What I really mean is that he was boring and unsociable to the point that he couldn’t hold conversations with normal humans.</p>
<p>I’d say very very low unless they have something like USAMO or any other sort of significant academic achievement outside of school. Just being very good in school with high test scores isn’t special at all.</p>
<p>Right…I forget the exact number, but college counseling at my son’s school said that Harvard turned away x-thousand kids with perfect gpa’s and sat’s.</p>
<p>This guy was beyond the profile of a perfect GPA and SAT type of student academically, I believe he took Calc AB in freshman year and completed several years past Calc through the mentorship of the head of his school’s math department (it’s rare but you can design a course with a teacher in our province if the situation warrants it).</p>
<p>I’ve heard some other crazy things like how he took up programming one year and finished all of the programming classes offered in one school year (4 in total I think, at least that’s how many we have at my school), even outgrowing his teachers.</p>
<p>The questions still stands… and what does “very very low” mean? Did you not read the question?</p>
<p>Edit: Sorry for being annoyed but I didn’t ask “will just having great grades get you into HYPMS?” here. </p>
<p>My guess is that to make up for this anti-hook (being a person of the sort I described – the sort top colleges typically don’t like to accept), one would pretty much have to be internationally renowned in some way whether it be fame as a prodigy or as a winner of a big skills competition (like USAMO).</p>
<p>Is it that rare though for some people to take advanced math courses like that? My son’s roommate at bs was also taking AP calc as a freshman…and continued on from there. Because it’s a college prep school, they have an array of upper level math courses beyond AB calc. There were 4 or 5 freshmen in my son’s honors precalc class last year as well. All Asian students, I might add.</p>
<p>If by “numbers” you mean “achievements not requiring people skills,” as you seemed to clarify, then yes. There are some people without people skills at Harvard. Probably a minority though.</p>
<p>Winning USAMO does not involve dealing with people, but winning Intel/Siemens does. You need to verbally present to the judges and convince them what you have is a gem. I doubt a person who has trouble talking to others would be verbally convincing.</p>
<p>How about asking the question the other way around. Would winning IMO or Intel/Siemens make up for a low GPA?</p>
<p>I think the OP is making a false distinction.
Forget about the broad-shouldered natural born leader types at Harvard. High achievement in *academia<a href=“or%20commercial%20RDT&E”>/i</a> is not just a matter of having precociously advanced cognitive ability. It takes creativity and communication skills, too, don’t you think? </p>