Who doesn't get into Harvard?

Um, roughly 93% of applicants, apparently.

A New York Times article reported on Tuesday that elite colleges such as Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Dartmouth have admitted miniscule percentages of their applicants for entry into the class of 2012. The article states that, clearly, a number of factors has contributed to the lows, including the expansion of financial aid packages, the increase in number of high school graduates and availability of online applications.

There was a pretty funny and pointed satirical letter written as well, addressing the issue of legacy students, which I'm sure make up some not at all nominal percentage of the shockingly low 7.1% of Harvard students admitted this year.

"At Harvard, as at Yale, the applicant pool included an extraordinary number of academically gifted students. More than 2,500 of Harvard’s 27,462 applicants scored a perfect 800 on the SAT critical reading test, and 3,300 had 800 scores on the SAT math exam. More than 3,300 were ranked first in their high school class," the article states.

While of course the perfect score students are probably also gifted in other ways, I'm completely unconvinced that being first in your class or having a 1600 is really an indicator of anything much when it comes to the academic world. These are just number games.

I couldn't help but think back, though, to an old article from about a year ago (glad that my brain is filled with past newspaper articles and not other useful information) "Young, Gifted, and Not Getting into Harvard," in which an Alumni interviewer talked about his experience with Harvard rejects.

"What kind of kid doesn’t get into Harvard?," Michael Winerip writes, "Well, there was the charming boy I interviewed with 1560 SATs. He did cancer research in the summer; played two instruments in three orchestras; and composed his own music. He redid the computer system for his student paper, loved to cook and was writing his own cookbook. One of his specialties was snapper poached in tea and served with noodle cake."

Vassar's acceptance rate dropped significantly this year as well, something the Misc will be covering.