HOW I GOT INTO HARVARD

I wanted to tell the story of my high school career, ultimately culminating in my acceptance to Harvard. As a recruited athlete at Harvard, my path to getting in was different than others maybe, but getting into Harvard is different for anyone. Hopefully, this video will be useful in showing you how to get into Harvard. I might do more videos about the likely letter and recruiting process at Harvard, or the Harvard application process, or how to do well on SATs to get into Harvard, or a number of other things--let me know what you want.

Thanks for watching, stay tuned.

[susanfish]

This is John's mom. One thing you might notice is that John's dad and I aren't in this video. That's because this whole process was John's. We support him and his siblings but Harvard was not on our radar and wasn't *our* dream. It's really easy for parents to get heavily involved in this process and make it their own goal, but I'm not sure that's the best path to success. I have read that parental involvement matters way more for kids from marginalized groups, and that makes sense to me. Otherwise something like this needs to come from intrinsic motivation. And John's motivation wasn't Harvard itself, per se, but becoming excellent. That's important to see too.

[Takesh]

can you imagine actually being good at something lol

[lilpenes]

I dropped out of Harvard to save the rap game

[RETVRNAVGVSTVS]

Great to see someone be humbly open about succeeding both academically and athletically. Amazing work John!

[TechRedstone]

i built a big machine learning project in 11th grade at a summer camp and never once thought to use it in a science fair....
i think i need better influences in my life

[sarahs]

lol the minute I heard you say 'Grade 9' and not 'ninth grade' I knew you were Canadian! And then I looked at your whiteboard and it said OFSAA! So cool to see that you're from Ontario too. Please keep uploading these videos as I would love to know more about your application process and Harvard experience. I'm graduating Class of 2018 and would love to know more tios and tricks about the international/US app process as I apply!

[idk]

2.3 GPA 13/36 ACT 990/1640 SAT

IM GOING TO HARVERD BOIS

[theplantainchiplover]

You should make a video on how you studied for the SAT!

[Mypotatostory]

“I did quite well... 1540” and then I looked at my sat score. Can someone kill me?

[thejohnfish]

Different type of video today, let me know what you think. Normal vlog up tomorrow, stay tuned.

[z]

What I like about your video is that you really tell u about your journey and your experiences rather than giving us generalizations about how we should excell in ECs and volunteering and how it's equally as important as grades and SATs. Like everyone knows that, yet lots of people make videos about "how to get into harvard" or "how I got in" repeating what we already know. Thanks for this refreshing, enlightening video.

[EdJonesVideos]

Great video!
As a UK-based student, the US admission process seems very bizarre to me. There's a focus on extra-curricular which we simply don't have in the UK - you might flag up a science convention but only in the footnote of your personal statement when applying, and unless your academics were a bit thin on the ground, you certainly wouldn't mention your sporting commitments. In my personal statement, I'd only mentioned my love of what I was studying at A Level, the books I'd read, the additional qualifications I'd taken (a higher project and an extended project) and a few words about my experience reading history thus far.
My interview process at Oxford was similar to John's trip to Harvard. I took the aptitude test when I was in Tokyo, and I was subsequently invited for interview at my chosen college (Lincoln) who gave me a free room for the week and free food. I fell in love with the place then and there, but I hated the interview process (which is most stressful). Nonetheless, I was somehow successful, and (grades-pending) I'll become a full time student there from October. An interesting thing to note is that in the UK, you apply to up to five universities at the same time through a central system (UCAS) - I also went for UCL, LSE, King's, and Royal Holloway as my insurance. The absolute maximum a university can charge in the UK is £9, 500ish for a domestic student, which is paid for in the form of a loan which is written off automatically after 30 years, and because I'm Welsh the local government pays a substantial amount of the loan on my behalf.

[waltz]

"Video is *exactly* 10 minutes long"

Me: *giGgLiNG iNtENsIFieS*

[rexxesgedden]

depression really hit me at year 9 (grade 9) and threw me off. I was always at the bottom of the school until I got recognised for my gifted and talented for science in year 7. but after that 5 years on I'm doing a lot worse. Thank you for inspiring me to keep trying to become great in myself. You are amazing

[BiteSizeKnowledge]

You know hes perfect when his video is exactly 10 minutes long

[AfterBang]

I’ve seen you at a couple track meets this year actually. Small world

[vicm]

please make another video explain how you got in contact and how to prepare for SAT's and more about applying etc.
Great content.

[ped]

I applied to Harvard ED with a 1200 SAT.




Man, I’m screwed.

[parismonroe]

You're a genius, man! Very bright future!

[sarahisma]

a few weeks ago i came across your video, A Day in the life of a sc comp student and then i stopped then i watched more of your videos and it kinda gave me a lot more motivation in some way to get me more into my college, somehow you got me pumped for my new semester coming up and i thank you. Your videos are simple, cinematic and... just real. Thanks :)