John F. Kennedy (JFK), the 35th President of the United States.
Fishville’s Notes: Reading this piece allows me to say that in his college application, this liberal icon, President Kennedy, was never better than George W. Bush whom everybody was aware that he gained all of his advantages from Andover to Yale through his family connection. JFK ranked “in the third quartile of his class” and had a GPA of 68 when he applied Harvard. JFK’s letter to Harvard’s admission committee was reasonable in his era but can easily be labeled as arrogant and entitlement that college counselors these days would recommend applicants to be avoided. But it also gave us a proof that legacy was playing a decisive role in 1935 when Harvard Man or Yale Man were chosen.
阅读这篇文章使我能够说，虽然乔治•W•布什从安多弗中学到耶鲁大学都是通过他的家族关系获得的，但是自由派代表性的肯尼迪总统的大学申请书也不比布什的好到哪里去。肯尼迪的成绩在班级中只排前四分之一并且他在申请哈佛时的平均成绩也只有68分。肯尼迪递交给哈佛大学招生委员会信的内容在他那个时代或许是可以理解的。但现在的大学申请咨询顾问会建议他避免使用那些傲慢和寻求特权的语言。这说明校友子女优惠政策在哈佛和耶鲁1935年录取学生时起着决定性作用（夏尔摩斯译）
With 35,000 Applications, Even JFK Might Not Get in to Harvard
January 22, 2011, www.good.is
Did you apply to Harvard this year? If you did, you're probably going to get rejected. But, if it'll help soothe your hurt feelings, pretty much everybody else who applied will too. The prestigious Ivy League university raked in a record 35,000 applications for about 1,600 spots, up from last year's record of 30,489. With those kind of numbers, a whopping 1 in 50 college seniors applied.
Want to feel even better about your forthcoming rejection? Nowadays, even JFK might not get in.
Legacy connections aside, Kennedy's fascinating 1930s-era Harvard application, recently released by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, might be tossed in the rejection pile.
Today's seniors slave over application essays and even hire coaches to help write them. But, in response to the "Why do you wish to come to Harvard" essay question, JFK merely wrote
"The reasons that I have for wanting to go to Harvard are several. I feel that Harvard can give me a better background and a better liberal education than any other university. I have always wanted to go there, as I have felt that it is not just another college, but is a university with something definite to offer. Then to, I would like to go to the same college as my father. To be a ‘Harvard man’ is an enviable distinction, and one that I sincerely hope I shall attain."
JFK's grades were also less than stellar. The forms filled out by his elite high school, The Choate School, indicate that he had a grade average of 68 and only ranked in the third quartile of his class.
That's a far cry from the present day where most students accepted are in the top 10 to 15 percent of seniors.
Of course, in the 1930s, one in 50 seniors weren't applying for admission, so Harvard had a completely different application pool to draw from. But it does make you wonder: Would Kennedy have become the greatest president of the 20th century if he had only been accepted to a safety school?
photo via the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library
Information provided by:
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St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
An Expert on College Admission in the United States.
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