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Getting in to Harvard


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What do you mean with ''first generation in the country''?

If that means your parents never went to college then that usually works in your favour; it's not as good as being a legacy, but it's better than being being average.

"First Generation" means that her parents immigrated to the States.

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I find the whole idea of Legacy a bit unfair. It's like saying - your parents are clever enough to get in, so we'll cut some of the slack for you. It's like spoiling all the rich kids with clever parents who get whatever they want, and now they're applying to Harvard and they have an easier time getting through that as well :S

Ok that was somewhat of an exaggeration =P Being a legacy doesn't have a huge impact on admissions. Perhaps a bit, but I doubt they would choose the Legacy applicant over the stronger, more all rounded, non-legacy applicant. They don't go BINGO! Legacy! And then put a big accepted stamp on your application unless your parents donated $1000000 to build their new library or something...

Mark, I would have to disagree with you on the topic of acceptance for Asians vs. Caucasians. There are LOADS of very clever asian applicants who all have stellar grades, have played an instrument from the age of 5 and so on. This is even shown in the statistics of average SAT grades and the likes, where asian students have the highest average grades. This, however, becomes a problem for Asian students because it puts them in an even more competitive environment - if they do badly in their SATs simply because standardized testing isn't their strong point, then they get screwed because most other Asians have very high grades. The ratio of asian:caucasian applicants is also roughly the same as the ratio of asian:caucasian acceptances (I don't have the exact statistics though) so it's not so much a case of trying to accept lots of asians to diversify the class.

Edited by CocoPop
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If there was no discrimination against Asians in US admissions, half of the ivies would be Asians. (Said by my college counselor, who got it from the admission officer at Dartmouth)

Ivies have to maintain certain number of students with legacy connections. Otherwise alumni might stop giving donations. I saw somewhere that although most ivies have acceptance rates around 10% this year (not only HYP, but also Dartmouth), while their legacy admission rates stand at 40%.

Edited by Forester
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Well, I know a guy who got in to harvard from my school to study pure physics, with something in the 42 range, with 776 HL (Math physics and english) Of course, he won first on the canadian physics olympiad thing with his team, and did awesome on sats and math contests. Anyways, he was asian and canadian, and got a full ride scholarship to Harvard, so it's definitely possible for IB students.

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  • 5 months later...

Too bad I'm:

1. First generation in the country so I have no "legacy".

2. Asian = higher acceptance bars.

3. In a high school that's not in the top 200 USA schools.

I feel your pain too Kiwi, my family has no legacy because I'm a first generation immigrant. Being Asian does also suck. But being in a high school that's not in the top 200 is ok, I heard Ivy leagues like to look for students that are from small unknown schools that are qualified. They want to show that they don't only admit people from prep and private schools.

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Well, I know a guy who got in to harvard from my school to study pure physics, with something in the 42 range, with 776 HL (Math physics and english) Of course, he won first on the canadian physics olympiad thing with his team, and did awesome on sats and math contests. Anyways, he was asian and canadian, and got a full ride scholarship to Harvard, so it's definitely possible for IB students.

And I know a guy who got into Harvard... who lied on his application. :P Quite stupid of him to announce to the world what he did though :P

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Well, I know a guy who got in to harvard from my school to study pure physics, with something in the 42 range, with 776 HL (Math physics and english) Of course, he won first on the canadian physics olympiad thing with his team, and did awesome on sats and math contests. Anyways, he was asian and canadian, and got a full ride scholarship to Harvard, so it's definitely possible for IB students.

And I know a guy who got into Harvard... who lied on his application. :P Quite stupid of him to announce to the world what he did though :D

Can't universities check if you are lying? If they can't, isn't it very possible to make up extracurricular activities on your application and make yourself look really good?

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Well, I know a guy who got in to harvard from my school to study pure physics, with something in the 42 range, with 776 HL (Math physics and english) Of course, he won first on the canadian physics olympiad thing with his team, and did awesome on sats and math contests. Anyways, he was asian and canadian, and got a full ride scholarship to Harvard, so it's definitely possible for IB students.

And I know a guy who got into Harvard... who lied on his application. :P Quite stupid of him to announce to the world what he did though :D

Can't universities check if you are lying? If they can't, isn't it very possible to make up extracurricular activities on your application and make yourself look really good?

Don't even think about it haha :D it's sooo not worth it if you get caught! :(

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Well, I know a guy who got in to harvard from my school to study pure physics, with something in the 42 range, with 776 HL (Math physics and english) Of course, he won first on the canadian physics olympiad thing with his team, and did awesome on sats and math contests. Anyways, he was asian and canadian, and got a full ride scholarship to Harvard, so it's definitely possible for IB students.

And I know a guy who got into Harvard... who lied on his application. :P Quite stupid of him to announce to the world what he did though :D

Can't universities check if you are lying? If they can't, isn't it very possible to make up extracurricular activities on your application and make yourself look really good?

Don't even think about it haha :D it's sooo not worth it if you get caught! :(

You're right, imagine getting caught! You'll probably get a suspension from all higher education for a long time....

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I think it does help but of course grades/SAT/extracurriculars/essays/etc. are very important.

Not Harvard but there was this girl who was a Cornell legacy and she was not accepted at Cornell however, accepted at UVA. So she must have had good stats but she still didn't get into Cornell with legacy... not quite sure how it works.

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do you know how harvard responds to overseas applicants?

The rate of admissions is a lot lower, unfortunately. I know for MIT the regular admission rates are about 14% but the Internation ones are 4%. And it sucks because I'm thinking the vaaaast majority of international students who apply are well-qualified. I know that Harvard will pay for everything, as long as there is financial need. As will MIT, but Stanford won't, I think.

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Does Harvard offer a full scholarship or financial aid ?

I am now year 1 IBDP . My exam will be in November 2010.

If I want to get into Harvard, when should I start apply for it ? How many recommendation letters or CV or whatelse I need to submit ?

Does Harvard have its own requirement or I just need to submit them all to the Common Application ?

Please help !

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http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/index.html

Navigate through that and you'll get all your answers.

They say they meed 100% of your determined need. Do the common app + Harvard supplement, which you can complete on the common app website.

I'm not sure when you should apply. Either for the spring semester of 2011 if they let your or the fall semester of 2011. The fall semester's application will be due in early January 2011.

I think it's 2 recommendations and 3 SAT subject tests +SAT/ACT--check the website for sure.

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What major is Harvard famous about ?

Anyone here studying in Harvard right now ?

Still gotta finish HS here =)

Shouldn't it be more important to ask if Harvard fits your major rather than the other way around?

Anyway, I see Harvard as a majority all-rounder. Its business school's magnificent, from what a couple of my friend in its grad school say.

i dont think harvard really considers iB. i mean it does, but the main thing thats important is SAT

Well Harvard rejects many people who get 2400s, so I don't think SAT is the only thing. Standardized tests, school grades, rec letters, essay, GPA, extracirrics, etc. It all ties in, and there's really no equation or perfect scenario. As soon as you think of one, Harvard [or any other school] accepts about a dozen who defy it ^_^

Edit: typo

Edited by sweetnsimple786
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When my teacher visited Harvard last year, she asked the admission officer what they think of the IB and are there any specific requirements for admission. They replied with: "Yes we know how rigorous the IB is, however we still require potential applicants to be predicted all 7s in their HL subjects."

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I am surprised they even care about predictions, seeing as how they are so unreliable and the US students dont have a system that is of quality for such things. Its mostly:

"oh well..you try hard and did okay...you get...erm..a...5..maybe a 6..hmm...u think you can get a six..oh come on..you?..okay..if you say so. u will study?..kk..I say..if you study u get 6"

There is a lot of confusion around Harvard. I have taken the time to get educated on college choices, and have spoken to several Harvard, Cornell, NYU, Yale and MIT students. Nothing is more revolting then hearing people talk about college from an myopic point of view. I really hope I dont get ant arguments about this, but if you are looking at something like medicine please avoid the traditional and actually misguided approach to looking at statistics from a school's website. I can sit here and pour out to you how they are manipulated and how I think they are unfairly represented.

I was the person who was looking at some of these colleges for my undergrad, in hopes of pursuing the name. The name it is. It seems every generation, students of pinnacle caliber are submitting mindless applications to schools they know nothing about. Even when they visit, I see it in my friends, they look for things to make them sound more explicit about their choice of school, clearly not having any interest in the studies or the actual department, just interested in the aggregate of future "leaders".

Not saying these schools are not worth anyone's time. But please make the right choices. The best thing to do is thoroughly research the coursework you are getting involved in, making sure that a watchful eye is kept on a graduate school if you wish to pursue one. I found that Yale after all, is a great fit for me. So I am looking to apply there, and for reasons outside the name. I am interested in the philosophy behind their grad school and the clinical internship they stay committed to. But then again, I have a great state school that will cost about 60% + less.

Always talk to current students of college. The best advice I can give you is find a student that has matriculated out of IB, to the school of your choice. I was lucky enough to find one with exact same line-up and career goals including graduate school. It has been of great help.

I just wanted to offer someone my point of view on this issue, especially since most students think they should follow the steps of their parents. I have family which has graduated from Harvard with a PHD in chemistry. none of this matters. Things change from graduations and on. I actually spoke to my family member and they offered no valuable advice, just irrelevant stories they thought were important to reflect on.

Choose Wisely =)

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Ok. Assuming your daddy doesn't have a $10 million donation on hand, you're going to have to get in the hard way. Here's the general consensus on how the Ivies do their admissions:

1. They look at your SATs, GPA, and rigor of schedule in the context of your school (you need to take the hardest courses offered). They automatically reject anyone who doesn't come close to their usual averages for admitted students. For example, if you have a 2000 on your SATs and Harvard's average last year was 2250, you're pretty much rejected outright. About half of the students are rejected this way.

2. They look at your other qualifications, like extracurriculars, essays, and extraordinary talents- officially. Unofficially, they also look at race and legacy (or at least those with only, say, a $1 million endowment- see above).

If you have the grades, scores and some other extraordinary ability (I call it the "how the f*** did you do that?" category), like starting your own business, national competitions, and research, among others, you're most likely in.

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