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*When to Apply

*What We Look For

We seek promising students who will contribute to the Harvard community during their college years, and to society throughout their lives.

While academic accomplishment is the basic requirement, the Admission Committee considers many other factors—strong personal qualities, special talents or excellences of all kinds, perspectives formed by unusual personal circumstances, and the ability to take advantage of available resources and opportunities.

We outline everything you need to apply to Harvard.

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The sunflower sea star has been listed as a critically endangered species following a groundbreaking population study led by Oregon State University (OSU) and The Nature Conservancy.

“These giant sea stars used to be easy to find and were a hit with divers. Unfortunately, your chances of finding one now are next to nothing in most of the areas near the United States—this listing is one step to extinction—and I don’t think they’re coming back without help,” said OSU’s Sarah Gravem, a research associate in the College of Science and the lead author of the study.

Populations of the sunflower sea star suffered dramatic crashes because of a marine (海洋的) wildlife epidemic event, which began in 2013. Scientists used more than 61,000 population surveys from 31 data sets to calculate a 90.6% decline in the sunflower sea stars and estimated that as many as 5.75 billion animals died from the disease, whose cause has not been determined. Moreover, the research showed no sign of population recovery in any region in the five to seven years since the event.

Sunflower sea stars are a key catcher of purple sea urchins (海胆) and the sea star decline has helped the increase in the urchin population in many regions. Too many urchins are linked to a decline in kelp forests（海藻林) already facing pressure from marine heat wave events, making the future uncertain for ecosystems that provide habitat for thousands of marine animals and help support coastal economies.

“Because most people are not out in the ocean every day, we don’t realize how much it’s being changed and impacted by humans. We need to think about how to keep our ocean healthy. While reducing the release of carbon dioxide is the most pressing need, rebuilding key catcher populations, like the sunflower sea star, can be an important piece of the puzzle too,” said study co-author Sara Hamilton, a Ph. D. candidate in the OSU College of Science.

Researchers in the psychology department at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) have discovered a major difference in the way men and women respond to stress. This difference may explain why men are more likely to suffer from stress related disorders.

Until now, psychological research has maintained that both men and women have the same“fight or flight”reaction to stress. However, the UCLA research team found that men and women have quite different biological and behavioral responses to stress. While men often react to stress in the fight or flight response, women often have another kind of reaction which could be called “tend and be friend.” That is, they often react to stressful conditions by protecting and nurturing their young (“tend”), and by looking for social contact and support from others—especially other females (“befriend”).

Scientists have long known that in the fight to stress, an important role is played by certain hormones (激素) released by the body. The UCLA research team suggests that the female tend or be friend response is also based on a hormone, whose name is oxytocin (催产素). But now it is being studied for its role in the response of both men and women to stress. According to the principal investigator, Dr. Shelley Taylor, “Animals and people with high levels of oxytocin are calmer, more relaxed, more social, and less anxious. While men also secrete (分泌) oxytocin, its effects are reduced by male hormones.”

The study also showed how fathers and mothers responded differently when they came home to their family after a stressful day at work. The typical father wanted to be left alone to enjoy some peace and quiet. For a typical mother, coping with a bad day at work meant focusing her attention on her children and their needs.

The differences in responding to stress may explain the fact that women have lower frequency of stress related disorders such as high blood pressure or aggressive behavior. The tend and befriend regulatory (调节的) system may protect women against stress, and this may explain why women on average live longer than men.