7 ms·

JFK's Application to Harvard

73 points by valgaze 14y ago

abecedarius 14y ago
I liked the answer to "Why do you want to go to Harvard?" Shortened: "Several reasons: Harvard is cool. Harvard is really cool. My dad went to Harvard. And then I could name-drop Harvard too."
dubrock 14y ago
However poor his grades, Harvard still had an interest in admitting him as a legacy, and it paid off.
sown 14y ago
Heh. Get born into the right family and off to Harvard you go.
- leeoniya 14y ago
  <del>Harvard</del><ins>ANYWHERE</ins>
  - zaptheimpaler 14y ago
    Traditionally, we use s/Harvard/ANYWHERE/g around these parts.
    - kristopher 14y ago
      HarvardˆHˆHˆHˆHˆHˆHˆHANYWHERE
      - mahmud 14y ago
        Harvard^WAnywhere.
- hyperbovine 14y ago
  If you're coming from the "right family" a Harvard education probably isn't worth that much to you anyways.
  - MisterBastahrd 14y ago
    Of course it is. Families like that don't think in terms of a single generation. Joe Kennedy knew that putting his kids in Ivy League schools meant that his grandkids had a very high probability of being in Ivy League schools, simply because of the connections you make with other wealthy people at these universities. Joe didn't care whether his kid was in Princeton or Harvard, as long as it was one of them. Once you've made more money than you can count, the next step is to focus on your legacy.
    - TheComedian 14y ago
      > Joe didn't care whether his kid was in Princeton or Harvard, > as long as it was one of them. And oddly enough, JFK went to both Princeton and Harvard. He attended Princeton for six weeks before getting ill and withdrawing and then going to Harvard the next year.
  - ladzoppelin 14y ago
    I am sure the ones getting in because of family help pay for this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_aid_%28educational_expenses%29#No-loan_financial_aid http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_aid_%28educational_ex...
- sliverstorm 14y ago
  Does his application make him out to be unworthy? I'm having a difficult time reading bits.
  - yolesaber 14y ago
    I am not sure of how the grading system worked at his particular school at that particular time, but it would appear that JFK received numerous C's and D's during high school (see: scores in the 60s and 70s on page four).
    - sliverstorm 14y ago
      Ah, I see now. Page 6 appears to be the results of an exam conducted by Harvard, and I had figured Page 4 was probably related (in which case who knows what a "good" score is). Now, the other question, how much did academics matter in 1935?
      - yolesaber 14y ago
        Not much when your father was Joseph Kennedy heh. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Kennedy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Kennedy
    - slurgfest 14y ago
      While JFK's grades may have been unexpectedly poor in any case, readers should bear in mind that C and D had different meanings than today's due to grade inflation.
  - MisterBastahrd 14y ago
    He would barely qualify for a state directional school with those grades at that time. Had he not been the son of Joe Kennedy, his school counselors almost certainly would have tried to steer him towards manual labor.
    - bretpiatt 14y ago
      What do you base that on? Do you have the historical college admission records from the other 109 kids in his class? All 110 kids in his class at Choate are likely to be Ivy League material. I base this off of their current stats posted at http://www.choate.edu/admission/25greatreasons.aspx http://www.choate.edu/admission/25greatreasons.aspx The most popular colleges from 2008-2012: Georgetown University, 48; New York University, 40; Yale University, 38; Boston University, 32; Columbia University, The George Washington University, 31; Boston College, 30; Wesleyan University, 29; Cornell University, 24; Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, 21; Brown University, Trinity College, 20.
- MengYuanLong 14y ago
  I would be interested to hear other's thoughts on JFK's answer to why he would like to attend Harvard. I suck at writing essays but it seems his reason for wanting to attend Harvard is incredibly trite and superfluous, especially coming from a man who would eventually be considered a great orator. For example, he states that Harvard " is a university with something definite to offer." Yet gives no definitive examples. Why is "To be a 'harvard man' is an enviable distinction" in President Kennedy's mind? Essentially every sentence lacks justification and specificity. Sigh. These sorts of materials at least provide fuel to refocus on work and studies. Being born outside a powerful family may lack certain advantageous but they can be overcome. Right?
  - mquander 14y ago
    I assume his reason is trite and superfluous because it's a stupid question. When you're a high school senior, all you know about colleges probably boils down to - General reputation - About famous people (or family members) that went there - A brief visit to a few of them that you pick out of a hat - How much it costs What kind of non-superflous evidence do you expect him to be able to bring to bear?
  - forensic 14y ago
    His answers are shallow because they can be. The application was just a formality for the sake of show. He was guaranteed admission based on family connections.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
1337biz 14y ago
Just wondering: Is there any decent Pdf host besides scribd? Every time I visit the site I regret it once again. The list of additional domains to whitelist in no-script just to view the content is endless. Just a simple Pdf link would be much more pleasant.
- agildehaus 14y ago
  It's not a PDF, but here's the source: http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKPP-002-002.aspx http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKPP-002-00...
  - andreasvc 14y ago
    This version is more readable, so the PDF conversion was badly done.
- rdl 14y ago
  I used to hate Scribd when it was flash, but now that its HTML5 it is sometimes preferable to the broken PDF installations on borrowed computers (like, popping up Acrobat offering to update, selL me AV, etc). At home I generally prefer direct PDF, though.
- danso 14y ago
  There is DocumentCloud, which Jeremy Ashkenas led (and was the project from which he spun off Underscore.js and Backbone.js, among other things). It's the best implementation of PDF on the web that I've seen though it is invite only to news orgs (it was jointly sponsored by the New York Times and ProPublica) http://documentcloud.org http://documentcloud.org
jpeg_hero 14y ago
Seems like the most important page in the application is the letter from ole Joe Kennedy.
- pkill17 14y ago
  And how would you reply to a letter from ole Joe Kennedy if it were placed in your Inbox at work? ;)
  - forensic 14y ago
    Point? Is that rationale supposed to serve as justification for nepotism? We should be creating institutions that have systems which will not respond to nepotism. Harvard is the precise opposite of this, with nepotism being one of its most sacred causes.
  - philwelch 14y ago
    "Please tell me who found the secret of resurrection and taught you to use email. This is the most remarkable news I've ever heard."
mturmon 14y ago
The recommendation letter takes pains to talk about JFKs health and vigor, but this is now known to be a front. He had health problems from an early age, and took lots of medications. Reference: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/july-dec02/jfk_11-18.html http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/july-dec02/jfk_11-18.h...
- jontas 14y ago
  The letter from his father to Harvard does mention that he has had some health problems (blood disease) but that he has fully recovered. Interesting that he was willing to contradict the letter of recommendation that you mentioned. However, it looks like the letter from his father was sent after he had been admitted, so maybe it didn't matter anymore.
  - mturmon 14y ago
    JFK had health problems in his youth and during his presidency, right up until he was killed. He felt it necessary to convey the impression of "vigor" (a key word for JFK) despite/because-of these problems. It's only recently that the inner circle has felt comfortable talking about it.
jordanbaucke 14y ago
They should put up Obama's application to Harvard...or Occidental and Columbia for that matter.
- slurgfest 14y ago
  Do we really need every thread that mentions the keyword 'President' to contain this kind of partisan rubbish? I don't see you calling for Reagan's, Bush's or Romney's applications.
  - tprynn 14y ago
    His comment doesn't really seem partisan in any way to me. It's just a statement that it would be interesting to see the current president's college applications too, as it would be interesting to see any president's college applications.
    - slurgfest 14y ago
      Then why not change the subject to Coolidge?
      - sophacles 14y ago
        Now you're being disingenuous. It is quite simple: People have many interests. Interest is not a binary term - One can be interested in varying degrees. Perhaps he is interested in all presidents' admission records, but more interested in the current president because it is more relevant to his life than others. Just because there is relevance, does NOT imply partisanship. By analogy I find operating system internals interesting. I am interested in how many of them do things. However I find discussions about Windows more interesting than those about multics. Not because I am a fan of windows (I am not) nor because I hate windows (I don't, it is a decent OS these days, I just prefer others), but because it is relevant to my life as a person living in the era where it is actually being used. Note, this won't stop me from reading an interesting new article about the multics way, just that when offered a source with new (to me) insights on windows or multics, I would choose windows.
jontas 14y ago
I'm curious: does anyone know the context of the grades in the application? I saw actual grades listed in three places (pages 3, 17 and 26). He seems to have received scores ranging from 50-85. Are these out of 100? If so, it appears he wasn't a great student. He was ranked 65th out of 110 students (page 17). I'm not questioning his intelligence, he was clearly brilliant. However, I find it interesting that he was an underachiever in high school (something I'm sure the HN community can empathize with). The letter from his father (page 13) says: "Jack has a very brilliant mind for the things in which he is interested, but is careless and lacks application in those in which he is not interested. This is, of course, a bad fault. However, he is quite ambitious to try and do the work in three years. I know how the authorities feel about this and I have my own opinion, but it is a gesture that pleases me very much because it seems to be the beginning of an awakening ambition" I feel like this statement would've been equally accurate on my own college applications.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- zerostar07 14y ago
  One can certainly question his performance at that age. It's kind of reassuring actually, not all great people have to be born such. However, why would his father write things like that?
- ojiikun 14y ago
  I can't speak for Harvard in particular, but back in the '30s, grade inflation hadn't yet taken hold, so it was quite normal for there to be many students with Cs, rather than 90% As like today. http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/the-history-of-college-grade-inflation/ http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/the-history-of-...
  - abalone 14y ago
    That doesn't explain his middle-of-the-pack class ranking. Even at a prestigious boarding school that's not exactly "Harvard material". (Well, I guess it is...) Clearly he got in because of family connections.
wilfra 14y ago
In which quarter of the class is he? 3rd What number out of 110 students is he? 85th What honors has he won in literary or scholastic pursuits? None So JFK was basically just George W. Bush. Interesting.
- barking 14y ago
  There are other abilities that are not measured by tests, such as the ability to get on with people, humility, courage, willingness to learn from mistakes, insight, etc. According to Robert McNamara, JFK's ability to empathise with the Russians' position was very important in resolving the cuban missile crisis. As was his courage in facing down the military who wanted to attack cuba. Presumably he had also learnt from his mistake in authorising the Bay of Pigs invasion, a project he inherited on coming to office.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - wilfra 14y ago
    George W. Bush wasn't a one dimensional idiot either. He had a lot of charisma and people skills and is probably one of the highest Presidents of all time on the 'would like to have a beer with him' barometer, even now. I always thought of JFK as more like Obama (or rather, I thought of Obama as like JFK). As in, a genius. It is pretty clear from this application that a genius he was not.
    - barking 14y ago
      What led you to think that JFK was a genius? I've never heard him described that way.
    - justin66 14y ago
      > George W. Bush wasn't a one dimensional idiot either. He had a lot of charisma and people skills and is probably one of the highest Presidents of all time on the 'would like to have a beer with him' barometer, even now. I would have thought the beer thing was a colloquialism for approval rating. If that's so, you're incorrect: at 22% his final approval rating was the worst in history, since they began recording such things in the thirties.
jermaink 14y ago
P. 23 'please accept my thanks for your help ?'
lordlicorice 14y ago
The "Dear Sir" and "Mr." built into the form letter on page 7 caught my eye. That's not something you see anymore.
JoeAltmaier 14y ago
Its easy to be critical of JFK's admission to Harvard as a result of priviledge. I think it natural and correct. Lots of people go to Harvard, ordinary (my niece) and priviledged. Those with money and power, use it to get good things for their progeny. Else why gain money and power? Its not just scorekeeping. If I can't work hard to get better things for my children, then its all a game. In a free market things are for sale, and good things cost more. Harvard is a private institution. They use legacy, money, ability about equally as admission standards. And it has served them well.
- superuser2 14y ago
  >They use legacy, money, ability about equally as admission standards. No they don't. Harvard, like just about every university these days, has need-blind admissions. http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/financial_aid/index.html http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/financial_aid/inde... As a middle-class high school senior, I would like to point at that Harvard's net price per year for me would be ~$13,000, or roughly half the in-state price of my local state school, the University of Wisconsin (~$24,000). The notion that Harvard favors the rich is BS as far as I can tell. I think it's a bit more likely the rich more consistently pressure and enable their children to prepare.
  - jbapple 14y ago
    > >They use legacy, money, ability about equally as admission standards. > No they don't. Harvard, like just about every university these days, has need-blind admissions. "Need blind" doesn't imply "legacy blind" or "blind to the political connections of the applicant's family". Harvard may not distinguish between someone who can pay and someone who can't, but I would be surprised if they didn't distinguish between someone who can pay for tuition and someone who can pay for a new wing of the library.
    - superuser2 14y ago
      Absolutely. I'm addressing the statement that money is used as an admissions standard. If the name rings a bell to the admissions counselor, I'm sure that helps, but the people who make decisions in a need-blind admissions process don't get to see your bank account balance.

73 points by valgaze 14y ago

I liked the answer to "Why do you want to go to Harvard?" Shortened: "Several reasons: Harvard is cool. Harvard is really cool. My dad went to Harvard. And then I could name-drop Harvard too."

dubrock 14y ago

However poor his grades, Harvard still had an interest in admitting him as a legacy, and it paid off.

sown 14y ago

Heh. Get born into the right family and off to Harvard you go.

leeoniya 14y ago
<del>Harvard</del><ins>ANYWHERE</ins>
- zaptheimpaler 14y ago
  Traditionally, we use s/Harvard/ANYWHERE/g around these parts.
  - kristopher 14y ago
    HarvardˆHˆHˆHˆHˆHˆHˆHANYWHERE
    - mahmud 14y ago
      Harvard^WAnywhere.
hyperbovine 14y ago
If you're coming from the "right family" a Harvard education probably isn't worth that much to you anyways.
- MisterBastahrd 14y ago
  Of course it is. Families like that don't think in terms of a single generation. Joe Kennedy knew that putting his kids in Ivy League schools meant that his grandkids had a very high probability of being in Ivy League schools, simply because of the connections you make with other wealthy people at these universities. Joe didn't care whether his kid was in Princeton or Harvard, as long as it was one of them. Once you've made more money than you can count, the next step is to focus on your legacy.
  - TheComedian 14y ago
    > Joe didn't care whether his kid was in Princeton or Harvard, > as long as it was one of them. And oddly enough, JFK went to both Princeton and Harvard. He attended Princeton for six weeks before getting ill and withdrawing and then going to Harvard the next year.
- ladzoppelin 14y ago
  I am sure the ones getting in because of family help pay for this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_aid_%28educational_expenses%29#No-loan_financial_aid http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_aid_%28educational_ex...
sliverstorm 14y ago
Does his application make him out to be unworthy? I'm having a difficult time reading bits.
- yolesaber 14y ago
  I am not sure of how the grading system worked at his particular school at that particular time, but it would appear that JFK received numerous C's and D's during high school (see: scores in the 60s and 70s on page four).
  - sliverstorm 14y ago
    Ah, I see now. Page 6 appears to be the results of an exam conducted by Harvard, and I had figured Page 4 was probably related (in which case who knows what a "good" score is). Now, the other question, how much did academics matter in 1935?
    - yolesaber 14y ago
      Not much when your father was Joseph Kennedy heh. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Kennedy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Kennedy
  - slurgfest 14y ago
    While JFK's grades may have been unexpectedly poor in any case, readers should bear in mind that C and D had different meanings than today's due to grade inflation.
- MisterBastahrd 14y ago
  He would barely qualify for a state directional school with those grades at that time. Had he not been the son of Joe Kennedy, his school counselors almost certainly would have tried to steer him towards manual labor.
  - bretpiatt 14y ago
    What do you base that on? Do you have the historical college admission records from the other 109 kids in his class? All 110 kids in his class at Choate are likely to be Ivy League material. I base this off of their current stats posted at http://www.choate.edu/admission/25greatreasons.aspx http://www.choate.edu/admission/25greatreasons.aspx The most popular colleges from 2008-2012: Georgetown University, 48; New York University, 40; Yale University, 38; Boston University, 32; Columbia University, The George Washington University, 31; Boston College, 30; Wesleyan University, 29; Cornell University, 24; Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, 21; Brown University, Trinity College, 20.
MengYuanLong 14y ago
I would be interested to hear other's thoughts on JFK's answer to why he would like to attend Harvard. I suck at writing essays but it seems his reason for wanting to attend Harvard is incredibly trite and superfluous, especially coming from a man who would eventually be considered a great orator. For example, he states that Harvard " is a university with something definite to offer." Yet gives no definitive examples. Why is "To be a 'harvard man' is an enviable distinction" in President Kennedy's mind? Essentially every sentence lacks justification and specificity. Sigh. These sorts of materials at least provide fuel to refocus on work and studies. Being born outside a powerful family may lack certain advantageous but they can be overcome. Right?
- mquander 14y ago
  I assume his reason is trite and superfluous because it's a stupid question. When you're a high school senior, all you know about colleges probably boils down to - General reputation - About famous people (or family members) that went there - A brief visit to a few of them that you pick out of a hat - How much it costs What kind of non-superflous evidence do you expect him to be able to bring to bear?
- forensic 14y ago
  His answers are shallow because they can be. The application was just a formality for the sake of show. He was guaranteed admission based on family connections.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]

1337biz 14y ago

Just wondering: Is there any decent Pdf host besides scribd? Every time I visit the site I regret it once again. The list of additional domains to whitelist in no-script just to view the content is endless. Just a simple Pdf link would be much more pleasant.

agildehaus 14y ago
It's not a PDF, but here's the source: http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKPP-002-002.aspx http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKPP-002-00...
- andreasvc 14y ago
  This version is more readable, so the PDF conversion was badly done.
rdl 14y ago
I used to hate Scribd when it was flash, but now that its HTML5 it is sometimes preferable to the broken PDF installations on borrowed computers (like, popping up Acrobat offering to update, selL me AV, etc). At home I generally prefer direct PDF, though.
danso 14y ago
There is DocumentCloud, which Jeremy Ashkenas led (and was the project from which he spun off Underscore.js and Backbone.js, among other things). It's the best implementation of PDF on the web that I've seen though it is invite only to news orgs (it was jointly sponsored by the New York Times and ProPublica) http://documentcloud.org http://documentcloud.org

jpeg_hero 14y ago

Seems like the most important page in the application is the letter from ole Joe Kennedy.

pkill17 14y ago
And how would you reply to a letter from ole Joe Kennedy if it were placed in your Inbox at work? ;)
- forensic 14y ago
  Point? Is that rationale supposed to serve as justification for nepotism? We should be creating institutions that have systems which will not respond to nepotism. Harvard is the precise opposite of this, with nepotism being one of its most sacred causes.
- philwelch 14y ago
  "Please tell me who found the secret of resurrection and taught you to use email. This is the most remarkable news I've ever heard."

mturmon 14y ago

The recommendation letter takes pains to talk about JFKs health and vigor, but this is now known to be a front. He had health problems from an early age, and took lots of medications. Reference: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/july-dec02/jfk_11-18.html http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/july-dec02/jfk_11-18.h...

jontas 14y ago
The letter from his father to Harvard does mention that he has had some health problems (blood disease) but that he has fully recovered. Interesting that he was willing to contradict the letter of recommendation that you mentioned. However, it looks like the letter from his father was sent after he had been admitted, so maybe it didn't matter anymore.
- mturmon 14y ago
  JFK had health problems in his youth and during his presidency, right up until he was killed. He felt it necessary to convey the impression of "vigor" (a key word for JFK) despite/because-of these problems. It's only recently that the inner circle has felt comfortable talking about it.

jordanbaucke 14y ago

They should put up Obama's application to Harvard...or Occidental and Columbia for that matter.

slurgfest 14y ago
Do we really need every thread that mentions the keyword 'President' to contain this kind of partisan rubbish? I don't see you calling for Reagan's, Bush's or Romney's applications.
- tprynn 14y ago
  His comment doesn't really seem partisan in any way to me. It's just a statement that it would be interesting to see the current president's college applications too, as it would be interesting to see any president's college applications.
  - slurgfest 14y ago
    Then why not change the subject to Coolidge?
    - sophacles 14y ago
      Now you're being disingenuous. It is quite simple: People have many interests. Interest is not a binary term - One can be interested in varying degrees. Perhaps he is interested in all presidents' admission records, but more interested in the current president because it is more relevant to his life than others. Just because there is relevance, does NOT imply partisanship. By analogy I find operating system internals interesting. I am interested in how many of them do things. However I find discussions about Windows more interesting than those about multics. Not because I am a fan of windows (I am not) nor because I hate windows (I don't, it is a decent OS these days, I just prefer others), but because it is relevant to my life as a person living in the era where it is actually being used. Note, this won't stop me from reading an interesting new article about the multics way, just that when offered a source with new (to me) insights on windows or multics, I would choose windows.

jontas 14y ago

I'm curious: does anyone know the context of the grades in the application? I saw actual grades listed in three places (pages 3, 17 and 26). He seems to have received scores ranging from 50-85. Are these out of 100? If so, it appears he wasn't a great student. He was ranked 65th out of 110 students (page 17). I'm not questioning his intelligence, he was clearly brilliant. However, I find it interesting that he was an underachiever in high school (something I'm sure the HN community can empathize with). The letter from his father (page 13) says: "Jack has a very brilliant mind for the things in which he is interested, but is careless and lacks application in those in which he is not interested. This is, of course, a bad fault. However, he is quite ambitious to try and do the work in three years. I know how the authorities feel about this and I have my own opinion, but it is a gesture that pleases me very much because it seems to be the beginning of an awakening ambition" I feel like this statement would've been equally accurate on my own college applications.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
zerostar07 14y ago
One can certainly question his performance at that age. It's kind of reassuring actually, not all great people have to be born such. However, why would his father write things like that?
ojiikun 14y ago
I can't speak for Harvard in particular, but back in the '30s, grade inflation hadn't yet taken hold, so it was quite normal for there to be many students with Cs, rather than 90% As like today. http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/the-history-of-college-grade-inflation/ http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/the-history-of-...
- abalone 14y ago
  That doesn't explain his middle-of-the-pack class ranking. Even at a prestigious boarding school that's not exactly "Harvard material". (Well, I guess it is...) Clearly he got in because of family connections.

wilfra 14y ago

In which quarter of the class is he? 3rd What number out of 110 students is he? 85th What honors has he won in literary or scholastic pursuits? None So JFK was basically just George W. Bush. Interesting.

barking 14y ago
There are other abilities that are not measured by tests, such as the ability to get on with people, humility, courage, willingness to learn from mistakes, insight, etc. According to Robert McNamara, JFK's ability to empathise with the Russians' position was very important in resolving the cuban missile crisis. As was his courage in facing down the military who wanted to attack cuba. Presumably he had also learnt from his mistake in authorising the Bay of Pigs invasion, a project he inherited on coming to office.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- wilfra 14y ago
  George W. Bush wasn't a one dimensional idiot either. He had a lot of charisma and people skills and is probably one of the highest Presidents of all time on the 'would like to have a beer with him' barometer, even now. I always thought of JFK as more like Obama (or rather, I thought of Obama as like JFK). As in, a genius. It is pretty clear from this application that a genius he was not.
  - barking 14y ago
    What led you to think that JFK was a genius? I've never heard him described that way.
  - justin66 14y ago
    > George W. Bush wasn't a one dimensional idiot either. He had a lot of charisma and people skills and is probably one of the highest Presidents of all time on the 'would like to have a beer with him' barometer, even now. I would have thought the beer thing was a colloquialism for approval rating. If that's so, you're incorrect: at 22% his final approval rating was the worst in history, since they began recording such things in the thirties.

jermaink 14y ago

P. 23 'please accept my thanks for your help ?'

lordlicorice 14y ago

The "Dear Sir" and "Mr." built into the form letter on page 7 caught my eye. That's not something you see anymore.

JoeAltmaier 14y ago

Its easy to be critical of JFK's admission to Harvard as a result of priviledge. I think it natural and correct. Lots of people go to Harvard, ordinary (my niece) and priviledged. Those with money and power, use it to get good things for their progeny. Else why gain money and power? Its not just scorekeeping. If I can't work hard to get better things for my children, then its all a game. In a free market things are for sale, and good things cost more. Harvard is a private institution. They use legacy, money, ability about equally as admission standards. And it has served them well.

superuser2 14y ago
>They use legacy, money, ability about equally as admission standards. No they don't. Harvard, like just about every university these days, has need-blind admissions. http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/financial_aid/index.html http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/financial_aid/inde... As a middle-class high school senior, I would like to point at that Harvard's net price per year for me would be ~$13,000, or roughly half the in-state price of my local state school, the University of Wisconsin (~$24,000). The notion that Harvard favors the rich is BS as far as I can tell. I think it's a bit more likely the rich more consistently pressure and enable their children to prepare.
- jbapple 14y ago
  > >They use legacy, money, ability about equally as admission standards. > No they don't. Harvard, like just about every university these days, has need-blind admissions. "Need blind" doesn't imply "legacy blind" or "blind to the political connections of the applicant's family". Harvard may not distinguish between someone who can pay and someone who can't, but I would be surprised if they didn't distinguish between someone who can pay for tuition and someone who can pay for a new wing of the library.
  - superuser2 14y ago
    Absolutely. I'm addressing the statement that money is used as an admissions standard. If the name rings a bell to the admissions counselor, I'm sure that helps, but the people who make decisions in a need-blind admissions process don't get to see your bank account balance.