oh hey it's summer and you guys know what that means it is time to prepare for your college applications and no that is not a joke because now is the perfect time to prepare so I'm about to enter my senior year at Harvard that is very surreal to say and I did view my admissions file my freshman year and I kind of filmed the video back then but then I was like hm this just like does not seem right and then also that was just like cringe so I was like I wasn't going to post
that but now um I'm I'm older I feel like I've had like most of the college experience you know under my belt already so ever since Harvard's little predicament in court they released all the info you basically need to know on what they want to see in a successful applicant to Harvard College we're going to look at that today and I'm going to tell you guys what was on my file I'm not going to say like what exactly was on it or obviously show it I'm not allowed to do that I only have some notes
and I'm going to paraphrase what the admissions officers and my interviewer said just a background on how exactly the Harvard admissions file looks like it basically is like a document with like all your like relevant info on top and then they have your ratings they rate you on a scale of 1 to six one being the best six being the absolute worst and I think most admitted applicants range anywhere between a 1 and a three so yeah keep that in mind and just know that one is incredibly difficult to get get in any category so
I'm going to put a picture of like the little like rating grid on the screen here the first one the big one is overall then we have academics then personal qualities then Athletics then extracurriculars SSR means secondary school report and then those boxes next to that are all your teacher recommendations so it includes all the important info you need to know in this holistic admissions process so it said my GPA was a 4.0 out of 4 and then right next to that it had like my high school information it said like percent to 4year I
think that means like oh the percent of people like from my high school who would like go to go on to a four-year College that's 40 so you can imagine what my high school is like my program tier specifically was most demanding my exact rank in my class was 6 out of 357 I was admitted in 2021 regular action for the Harvard class of 2025 and then it has this thing called academic index and I was like what the heck is academic index I searched this up and this is basically just a statistical like number
of how well you have done academically but only academically nothing else so minus 230 out of 240 I said I'm from Georgia Savannah area in my area in my year specifically there were four people admitted so extremely low admit rate and also just like application rate in general I guess um no one from Southeast Georgia really like goes on to schools like these so yeah it was hard and just have my personal info my dual citizenship for some reason US and Germany my ethnicity Asian and white my intended concentration was biomedical engineering that has completely
changed my intended career was physician that is also completely changed and then it has like my top two extracurriculars that I indicated on my Harvard application that I wanted to pursue at Harvard College which for dance and Orchestra Orchestra I never joined dance I did and then was a whole mess anyways then I think there was a little thing that said like a which means like Athletics was not admitted for athletics and then likely letter also did not get a likely letter however I did get a likely letter from columia so then it said fee
waiver no a financial aid yes and then it said I PS which means iel estimate said no so I was not eligible for a pel grant low income low HF AI which stands for Harvard financial aid initiative said unlikely so I'm assuming I was unlikely to get into that that's a and I quote a recruitment program that serves as a touchstone for those looking to learn more about the application financial aid process both at Harvard and at large unquote so yeah so I was qualified for financial aid but not to the extent where I would
get into something like that I think I think that's what that means now on to my ratings looks like my two different admissions officers gave me the exact same ratings oh wow this is kind of crazy wow okay so I submitted my application like early January like January 1st or something my first one looked looked at my application January 7th second one looked at my application January 23rd so these are the ratings they gave me overall I had a two minus rating and then in academics I had a two minus personal qualities two minus Athletics
four I don't know why it's a four but it's a four extracurriculars was a two and then my SSR secondary school report I think that's from like my report or counselor report overall I don't even know um that was a two plus my teacher Rex I had three specifically for Harvard I had a one minus a one minus and a two I'm very happy about those one minuses yeah then it just had like more like personal info on like my parents and their jobs and stuff like that my sister as well said that my parents
are employed their professors at a university and my sister was younger than me and then it has your EC grid your extracurriculars grid these are the extracurriculars that I submitted to Harvard on my Comm App application so first up we have research where I was a research assistant for this Medical Imaging Lab at Georgia Southern University this was only during my senior year and I dedicated 5 hours a week for 36 weeks to this then I have research assistant for this chemistry lab at Georgia Southern University also only during my senior year I only dedicated
about 2 hours per week for 36 weeks third I have independent research for the Breakthrough Junior challenge this was in 10th Grade for me this was during the summer that was 20 hours a week for 4 weeks fourth I have choreographer of theater Productions this was in 9th 10th and 12th grade all three years of high school for me cuz I had no Journey year of high school this was all year long and this was 10 hours a week for 48 weeks total then we have music director for the theater program at my high school
this was in 10th and 12th grade this was during the semester 5 hours a week for 36 weeks then we have student director for my theater program in high school this was in 12th grade during the school year for 5 hours a week for 36 weeks then we have playing piano for community service at a local retirement home and this was in 9th 10th and 12th grades all year long 5 hours a week for 52 weeks a year then we have founder and president of a club the cultural appreciation CL Club in my high school
only in 12th grade during the school year 2 hours a week for 36 weeks finally I was founder and president of Mu Alpha Theta the chapter of my high school my senior year during the school year 1 hour a week for 36 weeks now on to the notes from my admissions officers all right so my first admissions officer said that I had done so well in high school that I'm graduating a year early simply because I had a mass SOI credits at such a high level that I wouldn't have had more courses to take in
another year of high school that's exactly what it was and then this admissions officer noted that even this year like my senior year of high school my secondary school report had to be creative to make sure that I had enough to learn in my high school they said even as the youngest student in her college courses she was one of the best students that many of her professors had ever had and other college students taught her out for help with the material that's kind of crazy because um I actually waved my FAFSA and two of
the recommenders I had were College professors through do enrollment so I don't know exactly what they said but this admissions officer made that comment probably based on their recommendation but I am not allowed to know exactly what they said because I wave that and tip for you guys I think you guys should wave the fast so then they said that I had found success in everything from stem research to dance to piano and I combine many of my interests through directing choreographing and accompanying the theater prog performances on piano which is what I did in
a basically every theater production in my high school that I was in they talked about the piano piece on slide room that I submitted which is like the music supplement that you can do if you want for your application they just noted that it should probably be submitted otherwise they can see what else we can learn from my file and go from there I think that's what they said and then my second admissions officer said that it would be helpful to pull up to Statesboro Georgia my hometown on the map to situate themselves where I'd
grown up I think they really wanted to like understand the context of you know my background in terms of my school and what my hometown was like they noted that both my parents were Prof professors at a local University and the landscape showed that the school is quite stressed even if Helen's family is not that is true then they noted that I was on the president's onor rooll at George Southern for dual enrollment after maxing out on all my High School courses and proceeding to take classes at the University then they noted that in addition
to all the stem research I had done I was very involved in dance and piano it said that my secondary school report said that I was exceptional and every subject is my best subject that is a very nice thing to say I think that was from my counselor teacher recommendations from my college professors called me the best among their college students the last note that this admissions officer made was that I was a fine case worthy of comparison and now on to my alumni interview form so in my case I got incredibly lucky I had
the nicest interviewer ever and I was honestly so nervous I thought I was like tweaking during the interview and I thought that I wasn't doing well cuz I was like stuttering and I kind of still have that problem sometimes to this day but he seemed to have made really nice comments about me which I was honestly surprised about but overall it seems like I did make a good impression with my interviewer so this was on zoom on January 21st 2021 he was in Alum from Harvard College back in the' 60s in his specific notes for
my personal qualities he said that personal overall was a one minus openness to new ideas and new people was the two potential contribution to college life was the one what kind of roommate would this student be one truly unusual in parenthesis then personal rating Pros he said that I was delightful funny easy to talk with he called me intelligent self-motivated and creative and he enjoyed his 45 minute online conversation with me very much he said that I've learned to organize my life in order to participate in all the activities that I've come to enjoy which
include dance piano research theater All That Jazz that I kind of described before he noted my dual enrollment with high school and college and he explained how I received A's in all my college classes which included foreign language classes math and science and then he said that I spoke with him very Comfort comfortably and in depth on my knowledge of and enjoyment of composers we talked about ever Greg a lot cuz I I was playing Greg a lot at that time and then he said that I spoke of my love of the writings of the
African-American authors or Neil huren and then he noted that this was an author that we both admired and we talked about the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God cuz I just read it at the time he really liked the way I talked about the book then he put in parenthesis how he taught about hen's work at the college level and he said that I believe that Helen's knowledge of this writer would make her at ease in any graduate level literature class at the end he said we shared jokes mine a bit courney Helen's a bit
more sophisticated word play I think that was a little too nice but yeah he he was an incredible interviewer and then in the extracurricular athletic Community employment and family commitment section for my extracurricular rating he put a one minus then he explained that I come from a multicultural background my dad is German my mom is Chinese and then he talked about dance he was like oh I was dancer participating in dance around 6 days a week from ballet to hip-hop he said that I've qualified for National competitions one of them was Fusion national dance competition
if you guys want to search that up and then he said that I became a choreographer for theater he said I work with my theater program in high school and I became a co-director of many of the Productions he said they were currently working on Disney's Lion King we were not working at Lion King at the time but we were working on Beauty and the Beast at the time so I'm sure he just like had all his like notes like super mixed up but Lion King was like one of my first ones that I did
and then beating the Beast towards the end of my senior year not that that's relevant but just so youall know and then he said that I play piano often for overtures for for the plays or musicals for my theater um program in high school then he said for herself she plays bethoven WC currently the girl with the flax and hair and also a piece that he really loved so we talk aled about that together then he talked about Greg again how he traveled to Norway and visited Greg's home near bgan then he noted in parenthesis
that I posted five of my piano po performances online on YouTube that's actually how I started YouTube not the college decision reactions it was my little piano covers my favorite one is the beauty and beast medley I did that was like one of the hardest things I did as an overture in theater I'll link it here if you guys want to see the other ones are less impressive and then the last thing he said in this section was that every week I visit a local retirement home to play piano music for the residents and then
the academic section he said my academic rating was a one minus my love of learning was one truly unusual intellectual curiosity one truly unusual intellectual originality two academic Pros he said that I graduate a year early from high school because of the a college level classes that I've taken and of the grade A that are received in all of those classes including Chinese German chemistry Cal 1 Cal 2 and Cal 3 he talked about how like I did have like APS but those were not really enough for me again talked about how we at length
and in depth of my interest in zoril hon and he said that as a former College English Professor he was impressed with my knowledge of the writer but also of the literary technical terms and devices used by H I don't even know if I really talk that well on that but that is very nice and then he said that my current major academic interest was in medical imaging technology and he said that I work to produce computer images for medical staff which was kind of my research in high school and honestly kind of still my
research right now with Mass General Hospital the wide range of my interest is remarkable as in the depth of knowledge that she has had in each of her fields of Interest her academic abilities coupled with her abilities in dance and music make her a particularly strong candidate for Harvard's liberal arts environment he said I look to Harvard as a college environment where I can continue to explore and expand all of my interest in abilities and I do remember talking about that with him like how I like was really looking forward to like the wide range
of opportunities that Harvard College would have for me and like my wide range of interests and it's honestly been great because like it's allowed me to like kind of change my mind a lot as well cuz I'm no longer Premed but I study neuro now and it's great then in this academic session there was a question that said if you're familiar with a student school or neighborhood is there anything you feel might have affected the students opportunities that the admissions committee should know he said as I noted above Helen says that her high school offers
limited AP course opportunities one reason why she decided to take a large number of college courses that kind of sums up how my high school experience was in the under resource area I was in okay overall rating overall one minus overall rating Pros Helen pillner is a perfect candidate for Harvard with her wide range of interests and abilities he called me a Charming person who seems comfortable on a multiple number of levels of interpersonal communication he said that as a former college professor he would have love to have me sitting in any of his classes
which is so nice and then he just said that it was an easy flow of conversation so again I got incredibly lucky with my interviewer I think that was honestly the pushing point in my application if I had to guess okay so now that I've had 3 years under my belt at Harvard I can kind of like analyze more on like what exactly helped me we have all the stats from the file but I think I can reflect on myself on like what helped me the most and if you guys really want to check this
out I have published this in this new website called my app I you thank you guys so much for sponsoring this video and this gives a detailed description of why I think I was exactly admitted to Harvard and if any of you guys out there um who are not high schoolers got accepted into a top 20 College please submit your application analysis to my app IQ if you want to earn a little extra money it will greatly help out so many high schoolers who are trying to get into a school like this and it's just
becoming so increasingly competitive these days so I think it's really important to have websites like my app IQ who are really like providing like the detailed analyses of why these different students got into these schools and if you would like to submit your own little case study to my IQ you can submit their application by going to their website linked down below and you can fill out a form to be considered to be used in a case study thank you again so much to my app IQ for sponsoring this video so yeah I'm going to
link down below like all like helpful articles I have found on this right now I have pulled up this um article for the Wall Street Journal kind of really like it it shows that actual summary sheet provided by the Harvard admissions office um and it it'll show you like the little ratings boxes and like all the other info and your like EC grid and then this article says that there are roughly 200 variables that play in the Harvard admissions process so I just told you guys like all the notes I had on my personal admissions
file but 200 variables like think about how much thought was put into this like in in any applicant some of the stuff I see on this article right now and I'll link it down below is like class year gender your parents education levels your lineage your double lineage if you're a child of Harvard faculty staff are you Deans or director's interest list I don't even know what that means your academic index which is what I was explaining earlier all your different ratings all of your alumni interviews whether you have a missing alumni interview or not
all your ratings for athletics basically if you're recruited for athletics I think you get one and they have like these variables on whether your parents are deceased or not if they attended an another IV or not if you're from a metropolitan or Rural High School average AP test taken in your neighborhood so much I'm just like reading like stuff I see on this card right now but I'm going to link this um down below so you guys can kind of gain more understanding on how much really goes into this admissions process cuz that's insane to
me like I was in a legacy I wasn't recruited for sports and I did not come from a feeder school and I did not come from like you know one of those like competitive high schools or like prep schools that's like pushing you to get into that if this video can just help one person gain more of an understanding of how someone like myself got into a school like Harvard then that would make me happy yeah so that's my admissions file kind of crazy to look back on that now like 3 years later that's like
over 3 years later it's so insane I think I'm talking way too much now thank you guys so much for watching this video please comment down below any other video ideas that you guys would think would help you specifically and you know any Vlog ideas just whatever whatever you want to see thank you guys so much and get started on those college applications okay bye
