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By the numbers, today's applicants to Harvard College are spectacular. Among the 18,184 applicants for the 1,600-plus slots in the class of 2000 were 2,905 high-school valedictorians and 9,488 students with Scholastic Aptitude Test scores of 1,400 or higher. Numbers so spectacular become numbing. How to choose? While no one factor is decisive, applicants' writing samples "sometimes do give us that personal dimension," an admissions officer says. "The essay can reveal what a person genuinely cares about, and shows us that someone would be fascinating as a roommate or across the table in a dining hall, at the Crimson or working on one of those 35-hour-a-week theatrical productions." The essays also "hint at the incredible richness of the students' experiences."
As a way of getting beyond bloodless statistics to the students themselves, we present an unscientific sampling of their essays. These extend from a refugee's longings to a football player's dark secret, from a dog's take on life to a 13-year-old girl's immersion in a Chinese culture she barely knew. Along with 1,600 other voices, these writers make up Harvard's millennial class.
~ The Editors
| Jacqlynn K. Duquette | Walid Gardezi |
| Rachel Glover | Michael Jacobsohn |
| Pamela Ng | Jennifer Pusey |