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While this article was published in 2009, Harvard official admissions website directs prospective students and parents to this article for their possible questions. Here are one of the reader questions and an answer from William R. Fitzsimmons, the longtime dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard College:

Q: How does Harvard decide whom to admit? Are there objective criteria? If so can you describe them? Do you have requirements internally about the number of students you admit who want to major in a given subject area? As the parent of three children my observation is that the process, as viewed by a student, is more a crapshoot than a rational, predictable process.

A: ...

While we value objective criteria, we apply a more expansive view of excellence. Test scores and grades offer some indication of students’ academic promise and achievement. But we also scrutinize applications for extracurricular distinction and personal qualities.

Students’ intellectual imagination, strength of character, and their ability to exercise good judgment — these are critical factors in the admissions process, and they are revealed not by test scores but by students’ activities outside the classroom, the testimony of teachers and guidance counselors, and by alumni/ae and staff interview reports.

With these aspects — academic excellence, extracurricular distinction, and personal qualities — in mind, we read with care all the components of each application.

...

We believe that a diversity of backgrounds, academic interests, extracurricular talents, and career goals among students who live and learn together affects the quality of education in the same manner as a great faculty or material resources.

These considerations are guidelines that are neither comprehensive nor absolute.

...

Personal qualities and character provide the foundation upon which each admission rests. Harvard alumni/ae often report that the education they received from fellow classmates was a critically important component of their college experience. The education that takes place between roommates, in dining halls, classrooms, research groups, extracurricular activities, and in Harvard’s residential houses depends on selecting students who will reach out to others.

The admissions committee, therefore, takes great care to attempt to identify students who will be outstanding “educators,” students who will inspire fellow classmates and professors.

While there are students at Harvard who might present unusual excellence in a single academic or extracurricular area, most admitted students are unusually strong across the board and are by any definition well-rounded. The energy, commitment, and dedication it takes to achieve various kinds and degrees of excellence serve students well during their college years and throughout their lives.

To read more: http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/harvarddean-part1/?_r=1