I’ve always wondered why the media fixates so much Harvard and the other seven Ivy League schools.
After all, the percentage of college freshmen attending these schools is a miniscule .2%. I came up with that percentage after crunching numbers that I pulled out of The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Almanac.
But if you’re eager to see your little darling get admitted into what’s perceived as the biggest prize of all — Harvard University — here’s your chance to find out what it might take.
The New York Time invited William R. Fitzsimmons, the dean of admissions and financial aid, to answer questions from parents and teenagers for the next few days. You can find the admission dean’s answers on how to get into Harvard on the newspaper’s college blog.
If your child doesn’t get into Harvard, I wouldn’t stress about it. Harvard is grappling with a nightmare of a financial crisis. It’s gotten so bad that students there can’t even eat a hot breakfast on school days. Strange, but true.
Further reading:
Are Ivy League Schools Fudging Their Numbers?
How to Get Into the Ivy League: Be a Legacy
Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution and she is also a college blogger at CBSMoneyWatch.com.