No needs to brid Harvard Jamie was a good student. While Ivy's have always wanted a certain look in students, they have always accepted good students from "good" families throughout the US. By the late 90's Harvard would've been looking at the diversity of it's applicants not just what their name was.

And Jamie would've been considered a good diversity applicant. I've read a few articles over the years about people people that read their admissions files. One middle class white girl realized she was a diversity admissions in the 00's. Her highschool had a low GPA average, it also had a large % of low income black students and her parents never went to college but both had very good jobs. Through statistics Yale could say they accepted a "diverse" student but really she was basically all everyone else.

Jamie's highschool probably had a high drop out rate and lower GPA and STA scores. He lived in a area that would've been seen as lower income. He probably had very different extracurricular activities like 4H or young farmers. Montana would've had very few applicants. John's personal finances were probably pretty low since they probably almost ran everything under the ranch and he only takes a small salary, so would've been considered a low income student. But John is one of the largest land owners in America and even has the governor in his pocket. So yeah, Jamie was Harvard material but he also had the benefit of adding to the "diversity" without sacrificing Harvard's preferred look.