Harvard Values Students’ Potential for Admission
By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
If you are aiming at Harvard University, show your potential to the school. Students from Harvard attending summer programs at Ewha Womans University said that the university recruits students based on their potential.
``Harvard judges students by what they can do and make of something rather than what they have and what they do now. So it is important to show your passion to get admitted to the school,’’ said Marino Avffart, 19, a student from Dominica who majors in history.
Grace Cho, 19, another Harvard student, supported Avffart’s view, saying that Harvard has various scholarships to give education opportunities for the poor.
``Harvard supports full scholarship to those wishing to attend the school and helps them with good resources. There is a stereotype that international students cannot get scholarships at Harvard but I know many friends who are under scholarship, even though they are from overseas,’’ Cho said.
According to the school members, more than 70 percent of undergraduate students receive some kind of scholarship.
``Harvard has a reputation of being a very elite institution for the rich. But it's not actually true. Each year, there are about 26,000 applicants and some 16,00 of them are accepted. About 70 percent of them are scholarship students,’’ said Carter J. Eckert, history professor from Harvard.
Ewha Womans University launched the program last year in cooperation with Harvard and a total of 14 students from the U.S. school are now attending the program.The professor described ``atmosphere of excellence’’ as a reason for Harvard becoming the best school in the world.
``We are really striving for excellence and there is an atmosphere that produce excellence. As a professor, I am surrounded by many more distinguished professors such as Nobel Prize winners, those who contributed a lot to society,’’ Eckert said.
``Students are also surrounded by incredibly talented people their own age. This kind of thinking works to create a sense of leadership as well as strong feeling of contributing to
humanity.” Eckert said.