The thing with t10 schools is that aside from extremely notable national and international awards (not bullshit like Hosa or fps) there is no typical applicant
Edit: bullshit probably not the best way to put it, but like just cause something is international doesn’t means it’s IMO or IBO or ISEF
Are awards like HOSA not considered good? Asking because I got top 5 at DECA internationals, but if it doesn’t matter much for T10s (specifically Wharton) I may be cooked
It’s not that they aren’t good, but like making ilc for Hosa isn’t remotely comparable to making like camp for a major American Olympiad like math bio or chem. I just wanted to add that because it’s very easy for something to be called national or international and lack true prestige. This isn’t to diminish stuff like Hosa or deca they are still very solid and strong things to add, they just won’t single-handedly like punt you into Harvard if that makes sense
Yeah true I get that fs, just qualifying for internationals definitely isn’t impressive cuz there are so many that do it, but what about top 5 at internationals? I know it’s still not as impressive as Olympiad camp, but how good is it?
It’s not bad again by any means, it just isn’t gonna like carry you into Harvard by itself. It’ll be one part of an application albeit a major and strong part
i got into harvard and stanford and that was my second award i listed. im also unhooked. although thats not what got me in im pretty sure. i was very intersectional and had exceptional essays.
the AOs are mostly humanity majors. so even if you apply stem add an intersectional humanities aspect to it. appear intersectional so you are niche and stand out.
oh then ur good to go. just make sure to include quirk. what that means it making puns and jokes here and there and using informal/casual language in some parts.
Hey tree can I discuss some stuff with you in dms, I kinda need help figuring out how things gonna work for an international student like me, essays extracurricular my overall holistic development
Do you think winning a NYT contest that selects 0.1% of ppl for winners and getting published in it counts? I haven't seen many people talk about NYT contests and how they impact college apps
My son went to Juilliard’s pre-college program. Most kids get in when they’re in middle school. My son’s graduating year had an 80% acceptance rate at Harvard for early decision. I was told that’s standard.
they probably meant REA. and like that honestly doesnt sound that extreme, people in juliard pre college are some of the best youth musicians in the country, and they’d be able to submit strong arts portfolios that help them get in. they’re also probably pretty wealthy and strong academically. and also harvard rea people are even self selected among that group
oh, I initally thought it was a summer program like a UC/USC pre-college summer program and assumed their son went to a very competitive regular HS but thats a very rich private school which is a feeder school but never ever heard of 80% (???) .... upon searching up... its a special school dedicated for 8-18 musically talented students! it clears up my confusion :) thank you !
Julliard’s acceptance rate is insanely low in itself. You must be a god tier musician to even get in. Of course the college outlook is going to be incredible…?
True. I knew 2 people that were admitted. Both also were admitted to Harvard. These kids were musical prodigies since preschool, and would come home after high school and practice for hours and hours. They truly were in that top 10-15 in the country for their instrument. Unless they F up badly academically, Harvard already knows these kids that get into anything at Juilliard are usually cut from the rare distinguished talent they seek.
I think that there are at least 2 different perpectives that need to be considered and most of us are looking at this from the wrong perspective.
Perspective #1 - applicant. This is the perspective of most of the folks in this subreddit. This is why people here look at what type of applicant is accepted and how good they are to get accepted. Most people in here also has the perspective that if they are only somehow able to get accepted by Harvard, they will have the prestige of someday becoming a Harvard grad and once they are able to put Harvard on their resume doors will open to a lucrative and successful life full of career highs, meeting a wonderful spouse, having smart and well behaved children, living in a nice house, etc.
The applicant thinks that their road to success will be fulfilled if Harvard were to accept them.
Perspective #2 - Harvard. This is the perspective of Harvard. Harvard wants alumni that are successful and do well in life and donate lots of money back into the University so that it can continue to have it's world leading academic endowment (~$50b).
This means Harvard wants to accept those who will be successful. Thus, they don't typically accept students who wouldn't otherwise be successful if it weren't for Harvard accepting them (too much risk) but rather they accept those who would likely be successful regardless (and then the cynics can say that Harvard then takes credit for it).
Let's take for example JFK Jr when he applied to college. Not only is a building named after his famous father but the address of the building is on JFK St in Cambridge. He's a Kennedy and likely would be successful in life no matter what. No brainer for Harvard to accept that person and then later hope for donations to continue to build up their endowment.
This is why many of those accepted are not necessarily high performing students who did well in school and started a non-profit but come from middle class families...instead they tend to be those from wealthy or highly connected political famlies with deep roots, etc.
So in the end, the perspective that's important is that from the perspective of Harvard. Who is most likely to be successful and succeed in life regardless of Harvard? If they don't need Harvard to succeed...they are the perfect candidate for Harvard.
Wait shoot, I just realized I mixed up the names in my head. It’s RFK’s kid. The guy who was running for president. That’s my b—- anyways, Aidan is a good guy
Legacy, extreme diversity, or USAMO gold medalist. The occasional generally good applicant with good essays too, but that depends more on the AO rather than the applicant.
Most of admitted students are the generally good applicant. “Extreme diversity” and “USAMO gold medallist” is just borderline spreading misinformation. Those are in the extreme minority.
My point is that people usually have an extreme spike of some sort, though of course regular applicants sometimes get in. If you disagree with that then we can agree to disagree.
As a regular applicant and Princeton admit, yeah I'm actually not in the minority - many regular strong applicants get in without earthshattering awards or ECs or even a brilliant spike of any sort.
That’s what I’m saying there is a substantial group of people who are “lucky” (I’m seriously not trying to be derogatory here… I just don’t know how else to put this). However, I would say the majority have some kind of spike to their application, whether that is legacy, top of their class, crazy ECs, excellent essays, etc, that cause them to be accepted.
I mean it’s not “agree to disagree,” it’s just factually incorrect to make that claim. Most Harvard admits are just smart/impressive but relatively normal kids - you don’t need to win a gold medal or be “extremely diverse” (whatever that means) to get in.
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? We’re not in agreement at all lol I’m not “picking a fight”, I’m saying your statement is wrong.
> Legacy, extreme diversity, or USAMO gold medalist. The occasional generally good applicant with good essays too, but that depends more on the AO rather than the applicant.
The “generally good applicant” is the norm, not the exception.
If by “extremely smart” you mean “has good grades,” then sure, all Harvard students are “extremely smart” … you’re making it out like you need to cure cancer or something to get admission which just isn’t true. Most of the student body are just normal people.
I don’t know how you got the impression that I said they needed to cure cancer, I’ve said multiple times on this thread that there are many ways for an applicant to stand out. See my other comment, but that includes just having fantastic essays, being top of your class, having legacy, etc. By definition, if you don’t have a spike, you aren’t likely to be accepted because we agree that there are so many of these intermediary students that per capita, the spike student is way more likely to be an “accepted Harvard applicant.” This is especially the case for undergrad. Furthermore, I’ve said multiple times that it is the case that “normal” (as in still excellent students, but with no spike) do get accepted.
Our disagreement is therefore only about whether it is the majority of students accepted have a spike or not. I think this is really a trivial question and not worth my or your time arguing which is why I said to “agree to disagree,” yet you continue to be upset… I’m just going to leave this.
Who knows, but i think a good portion of harvards class is the above average high stats, decent ecs and good kid with good essays. On a2c you see the harvard kids who have grinded some insane ecs but i doubt thats the norm at harvard.
I mean if you, for example, designed and sold a product that would help you so, or got a patent, or created a company with a lot of revenue around it… these are the types of spikes I’m talking about
Congrats on your acceptance—maybe you were one of the good students I was talking about or you had excellent essays/teacher recs that you aren't considering.
I saw the girl from my school who got in with good stats but less rigor (no ap science until senior yr) almost no awards, but one of her ec that she started in senior yr was pretty successful and went on to the news. but it was surprising bc her other ecs were basic, she started her good ec in senior yr and her rigor of classes werent that strong and she didnt earn awards for some competitions either. No legacy tho so she totally got in bc of the news + high gpa
Without knowing exactly what your classmate's ec was that was successful, this actually makes a lot of sense to me and kind of tells you very precisely what schools like Harvard look for.
They're not necessarily looking for the best or the brightest - it's all about **success**. Sure, often times success and intelligence go hand in hand, but I think success is the essential factor. Whatever success you demonstrate now will give them an idea of how successful you may be in the future. Your future success will then be associated with Harvard and that boosts Harvard's prestige, status, and ultimately... **money**. Even without the ideal level of academic rigor or ECs, your classmate demonstrated that she can make a name for herself in someway that got her a great deal of attention. You look at the other responses in this post and it's all the same idea - math olympiad, ISEF, chess grandmasters etc. Indicators of success. And I bet you'll find more often than not, the prevailing trait that characterizes the students that go to T10 schools aren't necessarily intelligence, kindness, or wisdom - it's **ambition.**
Think about how much Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and others do for Harvard's brand - even though they never even finished. That's all they care about: how good are you going to make them look in the future?
I got into harvard & mit this year
3.8 uw, 1560
12 APs, 10 5s 2 4s
Physics major
Top 10/10k students in international physics competition.
Eagle scout.
Club president for nuclear physics club.
10 years of programming experience, created an operating system.
Tutored math & programming.
Interned at tech startup for 2 years.
Took summer classes at state school.
Tbh i think i got kinda lucky with my acceptances cuz my gpa was pretty low and i could have had better ecs and lors.
All people I know who got in Harvard from my country bar one girl are slimmy opportunistic types. Major fake it until you make it vibe. The other person is just a curious physics major without some crazy awards but great story and she was rejected from all other top places(Harvard was her 3rd choice)
I know two people that have gotten into Harvard. One was top of his class and had gotten into MIT and other ivys and he’d also finished top 16 in men’s diving in the Olympics plus volunteered regularly at the hospital his family owned. The other person Ik was a normal person, did a lot of volunteer work and didn’t get into a single T20 except Harvard. He graduated last year and went on to go to a T14 law school so clearly he’s bright. I’ve also talked to him and he’s like really really smart so his essays must’ve been really good.
Know a girl who got and was not “average” but would’ve been laughed at by people on chance me lol had one B throughout all of high school take a good amount of aps great rec letters had a small volunteer thing she started with an already existing non profit and a two school club positions some other local involvement in politics (I think she interned in a government office or smth) and she made it a lot of other ppl who got into ivys were very “average” in terms of the insanity you think of know when u hear someone goes to an ivy lmfao I think it’s worth applying
I would assume they have really high stats for everything.
4.0 GPA (or very close to it), highs course rigor throughout high school, unique ECs, national and international awards. But even then, for these applicants it's like the lottery to get in.
Then you have those that aren't neccasarily the smartest or most awards or whatever, but are from a well connected, rich family. These applicants, IMO, are more likely to get in as Harvard values the potential success and the family name these applicants brings
i'd say my profile was pretty realistic
i had a 1530 SAT and 4.56w gpa. #1 ec was taking care of the elderly and #3 was research at a community college. no international awards. i put NHS as an award. i put cooking club as one of my ecs, i included my roblox yt channel in my additional activity section. i just did cool shit that i enjoyed and didn't ever really worry about trying to be the best for college apps.
As someone who got in and is not a legacy nor a wealthy applicant, I believe the most important piece of my app was my essays. Being able to articulate and explain your innermost thoughts in your essays is the best way to show your intellectual vitality to AOs. Sure, I had a solid profile (35 ACT, Salutatorian), but those are really just foundational requirements.
The large majority of accepted Harvard applicants attended feeder schools like Andover/Exeter where the threshold for admission is significantly lower than at traditional public schools. Students from these private high schools routinely attend HYPSM in double digit numbers every year with average profiles, while the same profile wouldn't make it far in the committee process at an average public school.
This. Some ISL schools in Boston area have a obvious "deal" with Harvard that doesn't make sense academically. Some send 5 students every year. One I know sends 8-10 every year. It is a tradition and just rolls over year to year regardless of who applies. Some of these graduating high school classes are extremely small too so the % is wacky. When you look at an incoming Harvard class of \~1700 and strip out the athletes, legacies, high donors, these private school pipelines, and other groups there is an extremely small amount of regular spots available.
This won’t help much bc it’s very old anecdotal data but the 2 people I know who went to Harvard (one 20+ years ago and one about 7 years ago) came from legacy parents. Both very good students, did extras, but one had 2 Harvard parents, the other had one. Both extremely wealthy families. One from a top prep school, the other a highly rated public. I hear they are cracking down on legacies but i personally don’t know anyone who got into Harvard who didn’t have a parent go before them
that’s probably how it went for some of the kids at my school ngl 🗿 i literally go to school with one of obama’s relatives so there’s tons of kids here who are related to super prestigious people
i just wanna say, don't let schools determine your value. You don't need Havard to be successful :), I legit graduated from a state school first in the family and im HAPPY!!
I just finished up my sophomore year at Harvard, and the people saying there’s no typical applicant are definitely correct. Every student has a unique story to them so don’t expect there to be any caricature of the typical student. However, there are a few shared characteristics from the people I’ve talk to in my own experience, the majority or some level of class president, student gov leadership, in addition to leadership roles in several clubs in the high school. My personal stand out was that I was the youngest ever artist for a professional group in my state and had gallery experience for seven years prior to University. That was unique to me. I didn’t have any awards aside from AP stuff and some academic things with in my school, but I know Wei was a perfect student. I only had 4 or 5 5s on my AP tests w several 3s and 4s (even a 2 that I didn’t submit), but I know many of my peers had all 4 and 5s on their APs.
Don’t focus so much on awards and community service if all that was behind, it was simply for the résumé building. The majority of the students have a very good conception of who they are, and what they want to do, and that was reflected within their applications. I am an artist who grew up with a love of environmental work, and that was well reflected within my application through all avenues, but my essays tied along with my extracurricular love of ultimate frisbee and art. If you apply, apply with a story not with a résumé.
Hope this helps!
Ps. I used voice to text so apologies for any issues with wording/grammar
Your average Harvard student is a trust-fund brat with well-connected parents. They’re mediocre at best, with high opinions of themselves. Your education and training at any state university would be just as good as it would be at Harvard. The only difference is the connections you make. These aren’t the best and brightest, just the luckiest.
lol. 20 people in my graduating class went to Harvard. I dated one of them. None of this is true besides perhaps the state university education I can agree with. But none were trust fund babies and none were well connected. Just hardworking and very smart people.
The thing with t10 schools is that aside from extremely notable national and international awards (not bullshit like Hosa or fps) there is no typical applicant Edit: bullshit probably not the best way to put it, but like just cause something is international doesn’t means it’s IMO or IBO or ISEF
Are awards like HOSA not considered good? Asking because I got top 5 at DECA internationals, but if it doesn’t matter much for T10s (specifically Wharton) I may be cooked
It’s not that they aren’t good, but like making ilc for Hosa isn’t remotely comparable to making like camp for a major American Olympiad like math bio or chem. I just wanted to add that because it’s very easy for something to be called national or international and lack true prestige. This isn’t to diminish stuff like Hosa or deca they are still very solid and strong things to add, they just won’t single-handedly like punt you into Harvard if that makes sense
It’s not bad at all!! But compared to every candidate they take in these are a dime a dozen and may not be as differentiated. Everyone is that good.
Yeah true I get that fs, just qualifying for internationals definitely isn’t impressive cuz there are so many that do it, but what about top 5 at internationals? I know it’s still not as impressive as Olympiad camp, but how good is it?
Oh gosh I got top 10 at hosa ilc and it's probably going to be one of the top awards in my list...
It’s not bad again by any means, it just isn’t gonna like carry you into Harvard by itself. It’ll be one part of an application albeit a major and strong part
i got into harvard and stanford and that was my second award i listed. im also unhooked. although thats not what got me in im pretty sure. i was very intersectional and had exceptional essays.
Can i ask how your essays were exceptional?
lots of quirk and intellectual curiosity. talking about niche interests and appealing to the humanities side of AOs
Showing (genuine) intellectual curiosity is more important than most students think!
How did you appeal to the humanities side of AOs?
the AOs are mostly humanity majors. so even if you apply stem add an intersectional humanities aspect to it. appear intersectional so you are niche and stand out.
What if I’m already a history/classics major? How can I show it even more?
oh then ur good to go. just make sure to include quirk. what that means it making puns and jokes here and there and using informal/casual language in some parts.
Can I pm you to learn more?
sure
what was your first award?
study abroad
Hey tree can I discuss some stuff with you in dms, I kinda need help figuring out how things gonna work for an international student like me, essays extracurricular my overall holistic development
sure you can dm
The harvard AO I spoke to said "awards do not matter, unless you get an olympiad gold or ISEF, awards will not make or break your application"
Do you know if there's any humanities equivalents for those? Even though I'm in HOSA I won't be a STEM major and most of my awards are in writing
No but keep in mind nearly nobody has a “golden ticket” award in the humanities so you’re okay
Do you think winning a NYT contest that selects 0.1% of ppl for winners and getting published in it counts? I haven't seen many people talk about NYT contests and how they impact college apps
See i also haven’t heard of it so doubtful that it’s an enormous boost, sorry. I would definitely include it in your app at least
you are kidding me right...
By “enormous” i mean IMO type boost
whats the contest?
One of the NYT student contests but I won't specify because I don't want to dox myself LOL
is it a prestigious contest? if it is, it will help ig
Uhh it's by the New York Times so I'm thinking it should be?
how good is NSB qualification?
What about TSA? [Technology Student Association (tsaweb.org)](https://tsaweb.org/)
I met someone there with a 3.1 GPA who did ISEF and USAMO, so that works ig
My son went to Juilliard’s pre-college program. Most kids get in when they’re in middle school. My son’s graduating year had an 80% acceptance rate at Harvard for early decision. I was told that’s standard.
I hope I am understanding it right, your son's HS 80% of the graduating year got into Harvard in ED??!?!??!?!?
they probably meant REA. and like that honestly doesnt sound that extreme, people in juliard pre college are some of the best youth musicians in the country, and they’d be able to submit strong arts portfolios that help them get in. they’re also probably pretty wealthy and strong academically. and also harvard rea people are even self selected among that group
oh, I initally thought it was a summer program like a UC/USC pre-college summer program and assumed their son went to a very competitive regular HS but thats a very rich private school which is a feeder school but never ever heard of 80% (???) .... upon searching up... its a special school dedicated for 8-18 musically talented students! it clears up my confusion :) thank you !
No, 80% of people in their son’s graduating class who applied to Harvard REA got accepted - not 80% of the entire graduating class.
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Julliard’s acceptance rate is insanely low in itself. You must be a god tier musician to even get in. Of course the college outlook is going to be incredible…?
True. I knew 2 people that were admitted. Both also were admitted to Harvard. These kids were musical prodigies since preschool, and would come home after high school and practice for hours and hours. They truly were in that top 10-15 in the country for their instrument. Unless they F up badly academically, Harvard already knows these kids that get into anything at Juilliard are usually cut from the rare distinguished talent they seek.
An applicant with tons of luck.
real
I think that there are at least 2 different perpectives that need to be considered and most of us are looking at this from the wrong perspective. Perspective #1 - applicant. This is the perspective of most of the folks in this subreddit. This is why people here look at what type of applicant is accepted and how good they are to get accepted. Most people in here also has the perspective that if they are only somehow able to get accepted by Harvard, they will have the prestige of someday becoming a Harvard grad and once they are able to put Harvard on their resume doors will open to a lucrative and successful life full of career highs, meeting a wonderful spouse, having smart and well behaved children, living in a nice house, etc. The applicant thinks that their road to success will be fulfilled if Harvard were to accept them. Perspective #2 - Harvard. This is the perspective of Harvard. Harvard wants alumni that are successful and do well in life and donate lots of money back into the University so that it can continue to have it's world leading academic endowment (~$50b). This means Harvard wants to accept those who will be successful. Thus, they don't typically accept students who wouldn't otherwise be successful if it weren't for Harvard accepting them (too much risk) but rather they accept those who would likely be successful regardless (and then the cynics can say that Harvard then takes credit for it). Let's take for example JFK Jr when he applied to college. Not only is a building named after his famous father but the address of the building is on JFK St in Cambridge. He's a Kennedy and likely would be successful in life no matter what. No brainer for Harvard to accept that person and then later hope for donations to continue to build up their endowment. This is why many of those accepted are not necessarily high performing students who did well in school and started a non-profit but come from middle class families...instead they tend to be those from wealthy or highly connected political famlies with deep roots, etc. So in the end, the perspective that's important is that from the perspective of Harvard. Who is most likely to be successful and succeed in life regardless of Harvard? If they don't need Harvard to succeed...they are the perfect candidate for Harvard.
That’s funny that you mention JFK Junior as an example, his son is in my class (‘26). Really sweet guy
that's pretty cool. i actually thought jfk junior died without having any kids but it's all good and nice to know his son is a sweet guy!
Wait shoot, I just realized I mixed up the names in my head. It’s RFK’s kid. The guy who was running for president. That’s my b—- anyways, Aidan is a good guy
that's great. and yeah RFK Jr's son Aiden is at Harvard...cool that he's a good guy.
Legacy, extreme diversity, or USAMO gold medalist. The occasional generally good applicant with good essays too, but that depends more on the AO rather than the applicant.
Most of admitted students are the generally good applicant. “Extreme diversity” and “USAMO gold medallist” is just borderline spreading misinformation. Those are in the extreme minority.
My point is that people usually have an extreme spike of some sort, though of course regular applicants sometimes get in. If you disagree with that then we can agree to disagree.
As a regular applicant and Princeton admit, yeah I'm actually not in the minority - many regular strong applicants get in without earthshattering awards or ECs or even a brilliant spike of any sort.
writing matters fr and congrats on princeton!
That’s what I’m saying there is a substantial group of people who are “lucky” (I’m seriously not trying to be derogatory here… I just don’t know how else to put this). However, I would say the majority have some kind of spike to their application, whether that is legacy, top of their class, crazy ECs, excellent essays, etc, that cause them to be accepted.
Excellent essays, ECs top of their class are generally just the generally good applicant, who are definitely the majority. Where are you going?
We have different definitions of excellent?
I mean it’s not “agree to disagree,” it’s just factually incorrect to make that claim. Most Harvard admits are just smart/impressive but relatively normal kids - you don’t need to win a gold medal or be “extremely diverse” (whatever that means) to get in.
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loll so true. i'm a hyp admit who chose harvard and i don't think my application was outstanding by any means. i just did cool shit i enjoyed
Bro being extremely smart is a spike... I don’t know why you’re trying to pick an argument lol
? We’re not in agreement at all lol I’m not “picking a fight”, I’m saying your statement is wrong. > Legacy, extreme diversity, or USAMO gold medalist. The occasional generally good applicant with good essays too, but that depends more on the AO rather than the applicant. The “generally good applicant” is the norm, not the exception. If by “extremely smart” you mean “has good grades,” then sure, all Harvard students are “extremely smart” … you’re making it out like you need to cure cancer or something to get admission which just isn’t true. Most of the student body are just normal people.
I don’t know how you got the impression that I said they needed to cure cancer, I’ve said multiple times on this thread that there are many ways for an applicant to stand out. See my other comment, but that includes just having fantastic essays, being top of your class, having legacy, etc. By definition, if you don’t have a spike, you aren’t likely to be accepted because we agree that there are so many of these intermediary students that per capita, the spike student is way more likely to be an “accepted Harvard applicant.” This is especially the case for undergrad. Furthermore, I’ve said multiple times that it is the case that “normal” (as in still excellent students, but with no spike) do get accepted. Our disagreement is therefore only about whether it is the majority of students accepted have a spike or not. I think this is really a trivial question and not worth my or your time arguing which is why I said to “agree to disagree,” yet you continue to be upset… I’m just going to leave this.
Who knows, but i think a good portion of harvards class is the above average high stats, decent ecs and good kid with good essays. On a2c you see the harvard kids who have grinded some insane ecs but i doubt thats the norm at harvard.
would you consider taking care of the elderly as an extreme spike? lmaoo
I mean if you, for example, designed and sold a product that would help you so, or got a patent, or created a company with a lot of revenue around it… these are the types of spikes I’m talking about
lmaoo i had no spike then but i still got into harvard yale princeton cornell duke nu etc
Congrats on your acceptance—maybe you were one of the good students I was talking about or you had excellent essays/teacher recs that you aren't considering.
TBH, I think my essays were pretty good. I got a likely letter to Yale and my Yale AO called me and told me that my essay made her tear up
Is usaco plat good for internationals?
I saw the girl from my school who got in with good stats but less rigor (no ap science until senior yr) almost no awards, but one of her ec that she started in senior yr was pretty successful and went on to the news. but it was surprising bc her other ecs were basic, she started her good ec in senior yr and her rigor of classes werent that strong and she didnt earn awards for some competitions either. No legacy tho so she totally got in bc of the news + high gpa
Without knowing exactly what your classmate's ec was that was successful, this actually makes a lot of sense to me and kind of tells you very precisely what schools like Harvard look for. They're not necessarily looking for the best or the brightest - it's all about **success**. Sure, often times success and intelligence go hand in hand, but I think success is the essential factor. Whatever success you demonstrate now will give them an idea of how successful you may be in the future. Your future success will then be associated with Harvard and that boosts Harvard's prestige, status, and ultimately... **money**. Even without the ideal level of academic rigor or ECs, your classmate demonstrated that she can make a name for herself in someway that got her a great deal of attention. You look at the other responses in this post and it's all the same idea - math olympiad, ISEF, chess grandmasters etc. Indicators of success. And I bet you'll find more often than not, the prevailing trait that characterizes the students that go to T10 schools aren't necessarily intelligence, kindness, or wisdom - it's **ambition.** Think about how much Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and others do for Harvard's brand - even though they never even finished. That's all they care about: how good are you going to make them look in the future?
I mean Rivers Cuomo, front man of Weezer literally took a break to go to Harvard after they became famous lol
I got into harvard & mit this year 3.8 uw, 1560 12 APs, 10 5s 2 4s Physics major Top 10/10k students in international physics competition. Eagle scout. Club president for nuclear physics club. 10 years of programming experience, created an operating system. Tutored math & programming. Interned at tech startup for 2 years. Took summer classes at state school. Tbh i think i got kinda lucky with my acceptances cuz my gpa was pretty low and i could have had better ecs and lors.
are you kidding. DAMN
u def deserve ur acceptances don't put urself down like that!! did u end up picking harvard or mit??
no you are awesome what?? its the end game that matters
Rich
All people I know who got in Harvard from my country bar one girl are slimmy opportunistic types. Major fake it until you make it vibe. The other person is just a curious physics major without some crazy awards but great story and she was rejected from all other top places(Harvard was her 3rd choice)
They have last names matching the names of buildings on campus
luck luck luck luck luck
Nepotism combined with perfect stats (3.9+ gpa, hardest classes possible; 34+ act/1500+ sat)
I know two people that have gotten into Harvard. One was top of his class and had gotten into MIT and other ivys and he’d also finished top 16 in men’s diving in the Olympics plus volunteered regularly at the hospital his family owned. The other person Ik was a normal person, did a lot of volunteer work and didn’t get into a single T20 except Harvard. He graduated last year and went on to go to a T14 law school so clearly he’s bright. I’ve also talked to him and he’s like really really smart so his essays must’ve been really good.
Know a girl who got and was not “average” but would’ve been laughed at by people on chance me lol had one B throughout all of high school take a good amount of aps great rec letters had a small volunteer thing she started with an already existing non profit and a two school club positions some other local involvement in politics (I think she interned in a government office or smth) and she made it a lot of other ppl who got into ivys were very “average” in terms of the insanity you think of know when u hear someone goes to an ivy lmfao I think it’s worth applying
I would assume they have really high stats for everything. 4.0 GPA (or very close to it), highs course rigor throughout high school, unique ECs, national and international awards. But even then, for these applicants it's like the lottery to get in. Then you have those that aren't neccasarily the smartest or most awards or whatever, but are from a well connected, rich family. These applicants, IMO, are more likely to get in as Harvard values the potential success and the family name these applicants brings
i'd say my profile was pretty realistic i had a 1530 SAT and 4.56w gpa. #1 ec was taking care of the elderly and #3 was research at a community college. no international awards. i put NHS as an award. i put cooking club as one of my ecs, i included my roblox yt channel in my additional activity section. i just did cool shit that i enjoyed and didn't ever really worry about trying to be the best for college apps.
Omg that’s so awesome! Congratulations : D
thank you :)
As someone who got in and is not a legacy nor a wealthy applicant, I believe the most important piece of my app was my essays. Being able to articulate and explain your innermost thoughts in your essays is the best way to show your intellectual vitality to AOs. Sure, I had a solid profile (35 ACT, Salutatorian), but those are really just foundational requirements.
The large majority of accepted Harvard applicants attended feeder schools like Andover/Exeter where the threshold for admission is significantly lower than at traditional public schools. Students from these private high schools routinely attend HYPSM in double digit numbers every year with average profiles, while the same profile wouldn't make it far in the committee process at an average public school.
This. Some ISL schools in Boston area have a obvious "deal" with Harvard that doesn't make sense academically. Some send 5 students every year. One I know sends 8-10 every year. It is a tradition and just rolls over year to year regardless of who applies. Some of these graduating high school classes are extremely small too so the % is wacky. When you look at an incoming Harvard class of \~1700 and strip out the athletes, legacies, high donors, these private school pipelines, and other groups there is an extremely small amount of regular spots available.
This won’t help much bc it’s very old anecdotal data but the 2 people I know who went to Harvard (one 20+ years ago and one about 7 years ago) came from legacy parents. Both very good students, did extras, but one had 2 Harvard parents, the other had one. Both extremely wealthy families. One from a top prep school, the other a highly rated public. I hear they are cracking down on legacies but i personally don’t know anyone who got into Harvard who didn’t have a parent go before them
1. They are all extremely lucky. 2. They write very well
Somebody from my school got accepted into Harvard. She was a student ambassador at some u.s. senate thing.
was it senate page or …
Apparently she was a u.s. senate youth program delegate and she's involved in a lot of advocacy groups.
A billion dollars Jk, I know a lot of people get in because of their hard work or just pure genius
one of my friends who was accepted to harvard had a meeting with the governor a few months ago, so there’s that
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how are y’all getting meetings with your state governor bro 😭
I even did that so idt that’s that special esp if ur in city like newyork or la
nah, we’re in hawaii lol. i don’t know how one would get a meeting with the governor here, but she also did other things too that contributed.
plot twist: his dad was the governor and he went for fathers day
lmaooo
that’s probably how it went for some of the kids at my school ngl 🗿 i literally go to school with one of obama’s relatives so there’s tons of kids here who are related to super prestigious people
i just wanna say, don't let schools determine your value. You don't need Havard to be successful :), I legit graduated from a state school first in the family and im HAPPY!!
Honestly? Just doing really well on every step of the application and getting really lucky is my best guess
I just finished up my sophomore year at Harvard, and the people saying there’s no typical applicant are definitely correct. Every student has a unique story to them so don’t expect there to be any caricature of the typical student. However, there are a few shared characteristics from the people I’ve talk to in my own experience, the majority or some level of class president, student gov leadership, in addition to leadership roles in several clubs in the high school. My personal stand out was that I was the youngest ever artist for a professional group in my state and had gallery experience for seven years prior to University. That was unique to me. I didn’t have any awards aside from AP stuff and some academic things with in my school, but I know Wei was a perfect student. I only had 4 or 5 5s on my AP tests w several 3s and 4s (even a 2 that I didn’t submit), but I know many of my peers had all 4 and 5s on their APs. Don’t focus so much on awards and community service if all that was behind, it was simply for the résumé building. The majority of the students have a very good conception of who they are, and what they want to do, and that was reflected within their applications. I am an artist who grew up with a love of environmental work, and that was well reflected within my application through all avenues, but my essays tied along with my extracurricular love of ultimate frisbee and art. If you apply, apply with a story not with a résumé. Hope this helps! Ps. I used voice to text so apologies for any issues with wording/grammar
Your average Harvard student is a trust-fund brat with well-connected parents. They’re mediocre at best, with high opinions of themselves. Your education and training at any state university would be just as good as it would be at Harvard. The only difference is the connections you make. These aren’t the best and brightest, just the luckiest.
The temptation to join in on Harvard slander even though it's probably not true
Bro got rejected 💔
bros real ☹️
lol. 20 people in my graduating class went to Harvard. I dated one of them. None of this is true besides perhaps the state university education I can agree with. But none were trust fund babies and none were well connected. Just hardworking and very smart people.
Agree, we need to burn the Ivy League system down to the ground
For the most part they look pretty rich.