"There are colleges and universities that usually use a formula for admissions, usually state universities," Fitzsimmons said. "We're at the other end of the spectrum on that."
He also said standardized tests are used as an indicator of a student's ability to keep up with a college workload. But a good portion of the applicants in Harvard's pool clearly have that ability.
"About 85 percent of the people who apply here can do the work. We're really making our admissions decision on other grounds," he said.
Advertisement
"People who have 800 across the board and also have good grades and get extremely strong recommendations and have good interviews... we put all this together," he added.