Overview
At Harvard, a 1-6 rating system is used to evaluate applicants in 6 different “components,” or aspects: academics, extracurriculars, athletics, personal (what Stanford calls intellectual vitality), recommendation letters (what Stanford calls support), and alumni interview. For each component, 1 is the best score while 6 is the worst.
Not every component is weighted equally. For example, an applicant’s academic score is more important than an applicant’s alumni interview score, and the extracurricular component is more important than the recommendation letters. This is because Harvard specifically emphasizes that “when making prose comments, first readers should note on the important academic and extracurricular accomplishments that are particularly pertinent to the case.” This might seem obvious, but it’s important to remember that the core of your application is your academics and extracurriculars: they’ll face the highest scrutiny, and it’s unlikely you’ll be able to compensate for one of these components with a single, lower weighted one.
Here are the specifics of the 1-6 grading system Harvard uses, in their words:
1. Tops for admission: Exceptional — a clear admit with very strong objective and subjective support (90+% admission).
2. Strong credentials but not quite tops (50-90% admission).
3. Solid contender: An applicant with good credentials and support (20-40% admission).
4. Neutral: Respectable credentials.
5. Negative: Credentials are generally below those of other candidates.
6. Unread.
At the end of the day, all six components of your file are combined into one, holistic overall score. However, your overall score is not an average of the six individual components. It is more likely to skew toward your strengths. For example, if you scored a 6 in athletics, but a 1 in academics and extracurriculars, you will mostly likely have a 1 or 1- as your overall score.
