进哈佛的13个“捷径”——WSJ

胡老师

Knowing the 13 Secret Steps into Harvard Doesn’t Make Admission Any Easier

4 COMMENTS

By Melissa Korn and
Nicole Hong

Oct. 28, 2018 2:50 p.m. ET

Many are watching the federal trial examining how Harvard University uses race to shape its student body as a landmark test of civil rights laws. Others just want some juicy tips on how to get in.

Harvard is one of the most selective schools in the U.S., admitting just 4.7% of the 42,749 applicants to its freshman class this year. That fierce battle for a spot has supported a cottage industry of experts helping families figure out how to craft the perfect application. The continuing court case is providing a free peek into the secrets of gaining admission. Here’s what we’ve learned so far:

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO


Step 1: Move to Montana.

Harvard’s admissions office pays special attention to recruits from 20 U.S. states labeled internally as “sparse country” because students from those places, including Maine, Arizona and Montana, are relatively underrepresented on campus.

In a 1978 decision, the Supreme Court cited the importance of geographic diversity in admissions, saying, “A farm boy from Idaho can bring something to Harvard College that a Bostonian cannot offer.”

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO


Step 2: Scrap that. Move to New York City or Boston.

Applications are divided into 20 geographic regions, with each docket containing roughly the same number of applications. For example, Texas is its own docket, while Alaska and nine states in the Mountain West make up another, according to a map shown during the trial.

Applicants from two dockets—the greater New York City and Boston areas—had admit rates of 11.3% and 12.8%, respectively, for the class of 2018. That’s roughly double the rates for other dockets.

Those dockets are chaired by Harvard’s two top admissions officials, and happen to be areas with concentrated alumni and donor communities.

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO


Step 3: Persuade your parents to become chefs or car mechanics.

Harvard says the campus benefits when its students have parents working diverse jobs.

“Let’s say you were the son or daughter of a migrant worker,” William Fitzsimmons, the school’s director of admissions and financial aid, said during the trial earlier this month. “It’s one thing to talk about migrant workers and immigration in the abstract. It’s another thing to live with someone for four years who has lived that experience.”

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO


Step 4: Mark “classics” as your intended concentration.

For the class of 2018, 7.4% of applicants who said they planned to study humanities were admitted, compared with 4.6% of aspiring engineers and computer scientists.

Science and tech-related fields are increasingly popular majors, while interest in the humanities has waned. Mr. Fitzsimmons said Harvard wants to woo more “humanists,” with the hope that they can educate engineering and science majors “so they’ll have a human basis for deciding how to use this powerful technology they’re studying.”

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO


Step 5: Show how much you love learning.

Mr. Fitzsimmons testified that he looks for applicants who engage in academic opportunities “joyfully” and would “talk to you for hours about their love of physics.”

One student’s essay, presented at trial, described his passion for discussing James Joyce’s “Ulysses” at his high school book club.

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO


Step 6: Tell your teachers to call you the best student ever. Not just the best this year—the best ever.

Harvard instructs admissions officers to give top marks to recommendation letters if they are “truly over the top,” with phrases like “the best ever” or “one of the best in X years.”

Mr. Fitzsimmons testified that one of the best recommendations he ever read was from a high-school janitor. The applicant worked with the janitor to help pay his high-school tuition. Mr. Fitzsimmons said he appreciated “what this person said about how the student just lit up a room,” adding: “On a dismal day, this is the kind of person you want with you…in any tough situation.”

PHOTO: ZUMA PRESS


Step 7: Tell a compelling story.

At trial, Harvard highlighted moving applicant essays, including one from a Vietnamese immigrant who was bullied in school for his accent.

You want the admissions officers to think, as Mr. Fitzsimmons put it, “How could your heart not go out for this person?”

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO


Step 8: Don’t come off as arrogant, aggressive, unhappy or boring.

A sample applicant in Harvard’s 2012 discussion guide was dinged after his teacher said he had “difficulties working with others who are less able than he.” Another sample applicant was waitlisted in part because her recommendation letters described her as a loner.

Harvard’s interviewer handbook said applicants who were “bland” should get low marks on the personal rating, which measures their personal qualities through their essays, recommendations and interviews.

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO


Step 9: Do come off as mature, effervescent, kind and focused.

Harvard repeatedly emphasized its desire for mature students at trial. The school also told interviewers to look for signs of “unusual effervescence” in applicants.

One admitted applicant—described in recommendations as “calm, kind, and quiet, thoughtful and focused, never anxious but always working toward her goals”—performed with a ballet company, participated in student government, conducted research in a lab and held a paid job during high school.

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO


Step 10: Be an all-star ice hockey player.

Roughly 86% of recruited varsity athletes who apply to Harvard were admitted, according to trial testimony.

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO


Step 11: Schedule your alumni interview at a coffee shop and instruct friends to casually stop by.

An alumni interviewer noted in an admitted student’s application, released ahead of trial, that the interview was interrupted twice by classmates saying hello. The interviewer said they appeared to come from different social circles, indicating the applicant “may be friends with a wide variety of students in his school.” Translation: Great roommate potential, which is something Harvard says it seeks in applicants.

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO


Step 12: Be very rich. Or very poor. Or the child of an alum.

Children of major donors often get flagged by the development and admissions offices. They also can make it on the “Z list,” a roster of several dozen applicants who are offered deferred admission, starting a year later. Students on the Z list tend to be wealthy and less academically prepared, according to the group suing Harvard.

Socioeconomically disadvantaged applicants also get special consideration. A 2013 study by Harvard found low-income students with top academic scores had an admit rate of 24%, compared with 15% for all other applicants.

And the admit rate among students with at least one parent who graduated from Harvard was 33.6%, more than five times the rate for everyone else, according to the plaintiffs’ analysis of Harvard’s data.

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO


Step 13: Hurry up.

Top colleges regularly fill upwards of one-third of their classes with early-admission applicants. Harvard admitted 14.5% of early-action applicants for the class of 2022, and about 2.9% of regular-decision applicants. If you are still intent on applying—even though the school may not be a good fit for many students—you have a couple of days to get it done. This year Harvard’s early-action deadline is Thursday.

[From WSJ]