How to get into Harvard

It’s Ivy League or bust for many high schoolers, but is the name-brand degree worth all the hype — and angst? PLUS tips on getting into the college of your dreams.

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CRACKING THE CODE

Expert advice on  how to boost your chances for admission — whether you’re Ivy-bound or not.

>> HIRE AN EXPERT
One way to get a leg up is to hire a consultant, like Bill Caskey, who specializes in guiding students through the college-selection and application process. Your school’s guidance counselors can do the same thing, of course, but those counselors likely have much higher student workloads. A private consultant offers one-on-one attention. “Paying for SAT prep has become pretty standard,” says Caskey. “So many kids are doing it, parents feel it’s necessary to be competitive. It’s getting to be that way with consultants. If everyone else is doing it and you’re not, well, you feel you’re not keeping up.” • Consultant fees can vary from about $3,500 to as much as $40,000 for high-profile stars who have books, speaking engagements, network interviews and elaborate websites. No official certification is required, but members of the Independent Educational Consultants Association must uphold certain standards, so that’s a good place to start, Caskey suggests. Ask other parents and school counselors for recommendations. Check the Internet for ideas. With email and cell phones, you can hire a consultant from across the country.  • Rita Nowak of East Greenwich hired Caskey to work with her son, Michael, starting the summer before his junior year at Wheeler School. She found one of the unexpected benefits of the process was not only access to Caskey’s expertise, but also that he was an adult her son would listen to. “We could tell Michael we thought he had potential as a leader, that he’s great with kids, and he should pursue those interests,” she says. “But he wouldn’t take us seriously. When it came from another adult, who is not involved, that really gave him confidence that maybe he really did have these qualities.”


Caskey helped her family to sort through all the options and find the right school for Michael, his mother says. Starting early helped avoid stress, and having a timeline with tasks and deadlines mapped out gave them confidence. But the best part, says Nowak, was that Caskey encouraged Michael to get involved with Summerbridge, a program at Wheeler that helps inner-city kids prepare for college. “It was the greatest thing Michael ever did with his summer,” says Nowak. “It was really rewarding, and that experience was the inspiration for his college essay.”

>> DO YOUR HOMEWORK
The professional consultant is not necessarily the right choice for everyone. You might feel the cost is too steep, or your school’s guidance office can provide all the help you’ll need, or maybe you’re just a do-it-yourselfer. If you decide to go it alone, there are plenty of resources available. Freshman year is not too soon to start thinking about future options and planning a strategy. Introduce yourself early on to your child’s school guidance counselor and ask what kind of help they can offer. Develop a plan, decide when you will start to research schools, when you will compile your short list, and which schools you will visit. Be sure to know the deadlines and the options for applications (early decision or otherwise) at each of your final choices.

The Internet is a gold mine of information. The websites of the Ivy League schools list details of their admissions criteria and procedures. Websites like ivywise.com and ivysuccess.com offer free newsletters, archives of articles about the application process, and updates on trends. Ask around among relatives and friends to find alumni of the schools you’re interested in, and seek out their advice.

Instead of hiring a high-priced adviser, you can find their books on Amazon, such as A is for Admission: The Insider’s Guide to Getting in to the Ivy League and Other Top Colleges, and The Truth About Getting In: A Top College Advisor Tells You Everything You Need To Know. Both books can be had for about $20, while hiring their authors as personal consultants would cost thousands more.

>> KNOW WHAT YOU WANT
An important part of the process is not just to focus on school rankings and prestige — but to find the right match for the student. Caskey says sometimes students are so focused on that Ivy League degree as the ticket to success that they have lost touch with their own interests and passions. “I try to get them to reconnect a bit. What were they spending their time doing when they were ten years old?” he says. “That might give them an idea of where their real interests are, so they don’t get into this great college and then just spin their wheels.”

Students should examine the academic strengths of each school, its research programs, and class size. Who are the faculty in their areas of interest, and will they have access to them? They also should consider the school setting — will they be more comfortable on a rural campus like Dartmouth, or do they crave the urban environment of Columbia? It’s a complex process for the student, requiring an inner journey as well as a research effort.

>> DON’T FAKE IT
Once a student settles on a short list of schools, it’s important that they don’t try to tailor their applications — or their lives — to appear to be the person they think the school is looking for. Most admissions’ offices are a bit vague about their selection criteria, partly to avoid being swamped with thousands of cookie-cutter wannabes.

Nancy Reiner, of Lexington, Massachusetts, says her daughter, Danielle Dahan, opted for Brown University not because of its Ivy League rank but because on her visit there she saw recycling bins all over the campus. “Danielle was impressed that the campus community at Brown is so socially and politically active,” says Reiner. During high school, Danielle took part in campaigns to help the people of Darfur and to combat climate change. “But she did these things because of her sense of justice — she was sincere,” says her mother. “Her purpose was not to impress the admissions office.” She will be a freshman at Brown this fall, studying engineering and alternative energy.

>> STUDY YOUR OPTIONS
Freshman year can be a shock to the system for many students. They’ve been so focused on getting in, it’s easy to forget that it’s just the starting line. This is, perhaps, one reason that gap years are growing in popularity. “I’m a huge fan of that,” says James Miller, from Brown’s admissions office. “If it was up to me, I’d make the entire freshman class take a year off after high school.” Miller says about fifty freshmen admitted for this fall asked to take a year off, and he was happy to allow it. “It’s great to get off the train for a bit,” he says. “They’ve worked so hard. They come back after a year refreshed, more mature, and ready to go. I’ve never seen a student who didn’t benefit from it.”

>> CONSIDER THE COST
For some students, the gap year can also be a time to earn money to help cope with the huge expenses to come. Financial aid and scholarships can ease the load, but with costs at private colleges hovering at $45,000 per year, the pressure and the debts can add up. Louis Toro, at Classical High, says many parents experience sticker shock.

“When costs started to get up over $40,000, some parents start putting the brakes on,” he says. “They are paying more attention to financial aid and looking for alternatives.” Students may consider going to a state school for a couple of years, then transferring, he says. Or they wait and go name-brand for graduate school. They can still get that Ivy League degree but at a substantial savings.

>> FIND THE RIGHT MATCH
For many students, even if they have the grades and the ability, the Ivy League may not be the right place. The important thing is not to aim for the “best” school, but the best match for the student’s needs, the place where he or she will thrive.

Emeline Allen, who’s now studying urban studies at Brown, says getting into an Ivy League school was not her number-one concern. “There are so many good schools to choose from,” she says. “The Ivy League tradition has a certain appeal, a certain panache, but I didn’t feel pressured that I had to go with an Ivy. In fact, Brown wasn’t my first choice — I grew up in Providence and went to Classical, so I would have liked to try a Boston school, just to be somewhere new.” A family friend who graduated from Brown showed her around the campus, she says, and helped her to decide that Brown could be a good fit.

Helen Scotte Gordon, director of college counseling at Moses Brown, cited two recent cases of students who were accepted at Harvard and Cornell, but instead chose non-Ivy schools they felt offered better opportunities in their field of interest. “We encourage all of our students to follow their hearts and minds, to focus on finding the right match, and remember to find joy in the process,” she says. “It doesn’t have to be all torture and stress.”

Caskey agrees. “Be careful how you define success,” he advises both students and parents. “Don’t select a school based on its reputation. It’s not the name that counts, but the match.”