How to Get Into Harvard: Admissions Officer Tells All

A senior admissions officer yesterday offered 300 parents some candid insights into the Harvard admissions process, saying that interviews and standardized tests generally carry less weight than high school performance in admissions decisions.

David L. Evans, a 15-year veteran of the Admissions Office, told a freshman parents weekend audience that although Scholastic Aptitude and Achievement Test scores are closely evaluated, Harvard believes that "more is told in four years of high school than in three hours of a Saturday morning."

The median combined SAT scores of students accepted to Harvard is 1400, and most scores fall between 1000 and 1600 on the 1600-point scale, Evans said.

Slightly more than 100 applicants each year score above 750 on each College Board Achievement Test and SAT section and rank at the top of their high school classes, making them clearly "admissible on the basis of academics alone."

Interviews with alumni and admissions officers neither disqualify outstanding candidates nor win admissions offers for otherwise weak contenders, Evans said.

"A strong B average is normally necessary to be considered," Evans said.

Ten percent of the approximately 13,500 applicants each year are plainly unqualified academically and generally receive no scrutiny beyond their academic transcripts.

The majority of candidates, however, are evaluated for extracurricular strengths and personal qualities, such as "intellectual curiosity, charisma, and chutzpah," Evans said.

Although previous family ties to Harvard are considered, Evans said, being a descendant of a Harvard/Radcliffe alumnus "can heal the sick, not raise the dead."

Parents in attendance said the presentation dispelled some of the mysteries surrounding the admissions process.

"I had imagined it went something like that," said Joseph H. G. Wint, father of Elizabeth Wint '89. "Still, it was informative and enlightening."

"It's good to hear it coming straight from the horse's mouth, rather than just rumors. It made it clear how our daughter fit into the admissions process," said Lisa Newdick, mother of Vivian Newdick '89.