Coming from a European perspective as well, I do understand the idea behind Harvard's admission process. They want to mold a group of people that are coming fr

Coming from a European perspective as well, I do understand the idea behind Harvard's admission process. They want to mold a group of people that are coming from the money, brain, physical and societal elite. It is not a school, it is an elite network generating institution. The academic aspect is their legitimacy generating element. If you take this viewpoint, everything they do makes sense.