<ol>
<li>Cambridge/Boston</li>
<li>Prestige</li>
<li>best for South Asian Studies and Sanskrit (my personal reasons)</li>
<li>Awesome Ivy League goodness (1st college in America)</li>
<li>duh, Elle Woods went there</li>
<li>I look darn good in crimson</li>
<li>You can go to Estonia and people will know what Harvard is. lol but seriously, its true</li>
<li>Conan O’Brien</li>
<li>The people.</li>
<li>The exposure/different opportunities.</li>
<li>The fact that you can do ANYTHING here. Literally. (Providing that you can find time in what is guaranteed to be a rather packed schedule for most people.)</li>
<li>Natalie Portman, lol</li>
<li>New England attitude…love it!</li>
<li>PHENOMENAL art museums right on campus.</li>
<li>Um… because along with all of these, it’s actually a pretty good college?</li>
<li>The House system</li>
<li>Connections</li>
<li>Annenberg Hall: <a href=“http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~memhall/images2/annen1.jpg[/url]”>Memorial Hall;
<li>Math 55</li>
<li>Living in the same dorm that John Adams and John Quincy Adams did</li>
<li>Roland Fryer (Prof. in Economics Dept)</li>
<li>work hard play hard mentality</li>
<li>Opportunities for an Edward Gorey experience</li>
<li>The Harvard Lampoon</li>
<li>For the Money (for the presence and future).</li>
<li>LIBRARIES! BOOKS! BOOKS! BOOKS! OLD BOOKS! ANCIENT BOOKS!</li>
<li>Sanders Theater: <a href=“http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~memhall/images2/sanaudg.jpg[/url]”>Memorial Hall;
<li>To actually park your car in Harvard Yard the day you move in</li>
<li>The incredible glass flower exhibit:The Fragile Beauty of Harvard’s Glass Flowers, The Journal of Antiques & Collectibles Feature Article February 2004</li>
<li>The Hasty Pudding Awards</li>
<li>>>>>>>>>>>>TO BEAT YALE IN “THE GAME”!!<<<<<<<<<< WOOT</li>
<li>Dropping the H-Bomb (except really you “go to a school in Boston”)</li>
<li>Adams House</li>
<li>Prof. Dan Gilbert</li>
<li>natalie portman gets a second vote</li>
<li>Just to be able to actually write A.B (Harvard) on my resume for real!</li>
<li>beautiful campus</li>
<li>the Crimson</li>
<li>Primal Scream</li>
<li>The IOP</li>
<li>the annenberg hall looks like something from a harry potter movie</li>
<li>Harvard University Band</li>
<li>Great Arabic program, as far as I can tell.</li>
<li>The constant flow of amazing and famous guest speakers every week</li>
<li>Because it’s Harvard!</li>
<li>Prof. Robert Langton</li>
<li>The hilarious IgNobel Prize ceremony every year</li>
<li>The many a capella singing groups</li>
<li>The Head of the Charles</li>
<li>Its a good back up.</li>
<li>Pinnochio’s (best pizza place in New England)</li>
<li>When your professor says, “Sorry I have to miss class next week. I’m getting a Nobel Prize in Physics. You guys will have a guest lecturer though.”</li>
<li>Larry Summers dancing with Elisa New at the President’s Study Break over reading period.</li>
<li>Because you managed to get in!</li>
<li>The Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra</li>
<li>FOP</li>
<li>Because it rhymes with success</li>
<li>awesome commencement guest speakers</li>
<li>clam chowder</li>
<li>Cause second best just won’t do</li>
<li>HARVARD SOCCER</li>
<li>forget that, how about HARVARD FENCING, 1st place last year! =D</li>
<li>Cross register courses at MIT.</li>
<li>All those great restaurants in N. Boston especially Dom’s!</li>
<li>The Diversity</li>
<li>Knowing that when you go there, you WILL become something, even if you don’t feel it now.</li>
<li>Museum of Natural History (Can you say “George Washington’s pet pheasant?!”)</li>
<li>Harvard Din & Tonics (<a href=“http://www.dins.com/main/music;[/url]”>http://www.dins.com/main/music;</a> McDonald’s Girl)</li>
<li>Harvard Forest (just think of all the microfauna just <em>begging</em> to be discovered!)</li>
<li>Cross-registering with MIT (a repeat…I know)</li>
<li>Who doesn’t want to dress up as a colonial American man for all of the football games?!</li>
<li>I can slack off but still maintain a B average thanks to Harvard’s Gentleman’s grades policy!</li>
<li>The Harvard Figure Skating Club!!!</li>
<li>Because Rivers Cuomo went there.</li>
<li>Being able to cross register with MIT and take a linguistics class with Noam Chomsky.</li>
<li>Because you can talk for literally years about the reasons to go to Harvard.</li>
<li>Because you had to sell your soul just to scrape by admissions</li>
<li>Because it’s not to far from RI (yay.)</li>
<li>Because I just came up with a killer idea for Primal Scream! AND—></li>
<li>Because of the “3 Things to do before graduation” are awesome.</li>
<li>Philip Streich class of 2013</li>
<li>Lou Dobbs went there</li>
<li>The Boston THREE PARTY</li>
<li>Because Obama graduated for Harvard Law School</li>
<li>All the conversations you’ll have!</li>
<li>YO-YO MA!</li>
<li>Because of the reaction you get when you tell people you’re going to Harvard</li>
<li>Prof. Jeffrey Miron (LIBERTARIAN ECONOMICS FTW)</li>
<li>chess club, is it too lame? lol</li>
<li>because anywhere else, you have to say, “i go to ____…it’s actually a pretty good school.”</li>
<li>Rivalry with Yale</li>
<li>Freezing Boston weather</li>
<li>Within a short vicinity of MIT</li>
<li>Au Bon Pain</li>
<li>The Co-Op</li>
<li>Harvard Forensics Tournament</li>
<li>Quincy Market</li>
<li>Peeing on John Harvard</li>
<li>The atmosphere</li>
<li>Saying “Hahvahd Yahd”</li>
<li>Inspirational alumni like George W, the Unabomber and Patrick Bateman.</li>
<li>To surround yourself with greatness and hope it rubs off</li>
<li>To escape all those dumb jerks you had to go to high school with, a hundred of whom will go to the local univ. you could have attended instead.</li>
<li>To win a Nobel Prize</li>
<li>AMAZING Biomedical research facilities</li>
<li>Woodberry Poetry Reading Room</li>
<li>WIGGLESWORTH BABY!!!</li>
<li>Science Center 24/7 pretzel parties</li>
<li>To take contracts with that son of a ***** Kingsfield</li>
<li>OBAMA WENT TO HARVARD!!!</li>
<li>You can say **** YOU to all the people who made fun of you in high school</li>
<li>Coz i wanted to lol at 111.</li>
<li>The spring balls at the houses.</li>
<li>The walk down garden street in springtime.</li>
<li>The dining halls.</li>
<li>The walk along the Charles River.</li>
<li>Harvard Square never sleeps.</li>
<li>The chess master in front of Au Bon Pain.</li>
<li>The Harvard-Yenching Library.</li>
<li>Commencement.</li>
<li>Reunions forever!</li>
<li>Legacy status for your kids.</li>
<li>Gets you away from your HS’s 2.0 GPA idiots who think they’re smart as hell.</li>
<li>B.c you KNOW that you are getting the #1 education in the entire US</li>
<li>Because you worked your ass of to get there, so you better love the #1 school in america!!!</li>
<li>Because I just read this list.</li>
<li>Because I want to find a place where almost everyone I meet inspires me to push myself farther</li>
<li>To know you beat out 93.1% of all 30,489 applicants (Record admissions)! </li>
<li>Because we thought of 28 more reasons than were necessary. Harvard’s always go the extra mile.</li>
</ol>
![http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~memhall/images2/annen1.jpg[/url]](http://www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Ememhall/images2/annen1.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
![http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~memhall/images2/sanaudg.jpg[/url]](http://www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Ememhall/images2/sanaudg.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
<p>You mean 29 including yourself? Right?</p>
<p>because harvard has seven letters in it</p>
<p>LOVE the Din and Tonics - they performed at my school and were hilarious.
I’d add Professor Henry Gates. It’s always nice to get some publicity, even if it’s via modern-day racism.</p>
<p>The name makes a great bumper sticker for your car.</p>
<p>Matlock went there and he wins every case!</p>
<ol>
<li> Always winning the Putnam Competition</li>
<li> Highest number of graduates winning Rhodes, Marshall and Fulbright fellowships</li>
</ol>
<h1>77 and #98 ftw!</h1>
<ol>
<li>Being able to join the Harvard network on Facebook. ;D</li>
</ol>
<p>Prestige, prestige and, oh prestige. Otherwise no reason to attend Harvard undergraduate vs. better B.A. granting institutions with a truly undergraduate emphasis and where faculty are actually engaged at all levels with the undergraduates: i.e. the selective LAC’s (Williams, Swarthmore, Amherst)- probably one reason that Swat has produced more nobel prize winners, per capita, than Harvard. But…for impressing people at cocktail parties, can’t go too far wrong with Harvard (and. to be fair, they have some stellar graduate programs). I know several H. alums who were really unhappy with their experience.</p>
<p>A rant sort of at Dad2, but mostly “what I wish I could say at ALL THE PEOPLE who are second-guessing my choice of Harvard because CLEARLY there is NOT ONE REASON I would do so except that I am arrogant!” (and look, here we have 133 (before mine)!)</p>
<p>Liberal arts colleges are Really Not for everybody.
- I really want to go to a college where I am excited about almost every course I take. At Chicago, about 20 courses were really exciting. At Columbia, about 30. At Harvard, the number’s in the hundreds.
I use English departments as a bellwether of the interest I have in all courses at a college because I am not planning on majoring in English, but every top college should have a strong English department, and I do like English a lot. Here are the number of undergraduate English courses at the three American schools to which I applied, vs. AWS, that I would be moderately interested in (although not necessarily really excited about, because that takes me longer to determine) taking:
H: 53
Columbia: 29
Chicago: 24
Williams: 25 (there’s a reason Williams was my favorite LAC)
Amherst: 16
Swarthmore: 13 (and 4 of those are available only to upperclass English majors!) - The prefrosh I met at the Harvard admit weekend were at a WAY different academic and extracurricular level than the (~20) people admitted to AWS, or Chicago from my school. Like, mesosphere vs. stratosphere. The middle and top Columbia students overlap the bottom and middle Harvard students, respectively.) I am in awe of my future classmates. That’s a good thing to me. (See: 128)
- People keep. telling. me. that the only POSSIBLE way to be happy in college is if people at your college all make an effort to get to know you. From the secretaries to the professors. I DO NOT WANT THAT. I want to be able to be anonymous when I feel like it. A mix of large lecture courses and small seminars? Yesplz. Enough students that I don’t know more than half my class? Yesplz. Seeking out adults rather than vice versa? Ohyesplz.
People often recommend becoming a big fish in a small pond. The thing about being a big fish in a small pond is that there isn’t very much extra space for you to grow. Being a medium/small fish in a big pond gives you the opportunity to grow into a bigger fish without bumping at the edges of your pond.</p>
<ol>
<li>Cambridge/Boston</li>
<li>Prestige</li>
<li>best for South Asian Studies and Sanskrit (my personal reasons)</li>
<li>Awesome Ivy League goodness (1st college in America)</li>
<li>duh, Elle Woods went there</li>
<li>I look darn good in crimson</li>
<li>You can go to Estonia and people will know what Harvard is. lol but seriously, its true</li>
<li>Conan O’Brien</li>
<li>The people.</li>
<li>The exposure/different opportunities.</li>
<li>The fact that you can do ANYTHING here. Literally. (Providing that you can find time in what is guaranteed to be a rather packed schedule for most people.)</li>
<li>Natalie Portman, lol</li>
<li>New England attitude…love it!</li>
<li>PHENOMENAL art museums right on campus.</li>
<li>Um… because along with all of these, it’s actually a pretty good college?</li>
<li>The House system</li>
<li>Connections</li>
<li>Annenberg Hall: <a href=“http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~memhall/images2/annen1.jpg[/url]”>Memorial Hall;
<li>Math 55</li>
<li>Living in the same dorm that John Adams and John Quincy Adams did</li>
<li>Roland Fryer (Prof. in Economics Dept)</li>
<li>work hard play hard mentality</li>
<li>Opportunities for an Edward Gorey experience</li>
<li>The Harvard Lampoon</li>
<li>For the Money (for the presence and future).</li>
<li>LIBRARIES! BOOKS! BOOKS! BOOKS! OLD BOOKS! ANCIENT BOOKS!</li>
<li>Sanders Theater: <a href=“http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~memhall/images2/sanaudg.jpg[/url]”>Memorial Hall;
<li>To actually park your car in Harvard Yard the day you move in</li>
<li>The incredible glass flower exhibit:The Fragile Beauty of Harvard’s Glass Flowers, The Journal of Antiques & Collectibles Feature Article February 2004</li>
<li>The Hasty Pudding Awards</li>
<li>>>>>>>>>>>>TO BEAT YALE IN “THE GAME”!!<<<<<<<<<< WOOT</li>
<li>Dropping the H-Bomb (except really you “go to a school in Boston”)</li>
<li>Adams House</li>
<li>Prof. Dan Gilbert</li>
<li>natalie portman gets a second vote</li>
<li>Just to be able to actually write A.B (Harvard) on my resume for real!</li>
<li>beautiful campus</li>
<li>the Crimson</li>
<li>Primal Scream</li>
<li>The IOP</li>
<li>the annenberg hall looks like something from a harry potter movie</li>
<li>Harvard University Band</li>
<li>Great Arabic program, as far as I can tell.</li>
<li>The constant flow of amazing and famous guest speakers every week</li>
<li>Because it’s Harvard!</li>
<li>Prof. Robert Langton</li>
<li>The hilarious IgNobel Prize ceremony every year</li>
<li>The many a capella singing groups</li>
<li>The Head of the Charles</li>
<li>Its a good back up.</li>
<li>Pinnochio’s (best pizza place in New England)</li>
<li>When your professor says, “Sorry I have to miss class next week. I’m getting a Nobel Prize in Physics. You guys will have a guest lecturer though.”</li>
<li>Larry Summers dancing with Elisa New at the President’s Study Break over reading period.</li>
<li>Because you managed to get in!</li>
<li>The Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra</li>
<li>FOP</li>
<li>Because it rhymes with success</li>
<li>awesome commencement guest speakers</li>
<li>clam chowder</li>
<li>Cause second best just won’t do</li>
<li>HARVARD SOCCER</li>
<li>forget that, how about HARVARD FENCING, 1st place last year! =D</li>
<li>Cross register courses at MIT.</li>
<li>All those great restaurants in N. Boston especially Dom’s!</li>
<li>The Diversity</li>
<li>Knowing that when you go there, you WILL become something, even if you don’t feel it now.</li>
<li>Museum of Natural History (Can you say “George Washington’s pet pheasant?!”)</li>
<li>Harvard Din & Tonics (<a href=“http://www.dins.com/main/music;[/url]”>http://www.dins.com/main/music;</a> McDonald’s Girl)</li>
<li>Harvard Forest (just think of all the microfauna just <em>begging</em> to be discovered!)</li>
<li>Cross-registering with MIT (a repeat…I know)</li>
<li>Who doesn’t want to dress up as a colonial American man for all of the football games?!</li>
<li>I can slack off but still maintain a B average thanks to Harvard’s Gentleman’s grades policy!</li>
<li>The Harvard Figure Skating Club!!!</li>
<li>Because Rivers Cuomo went there.</li>
<li>Being able to cross register with MIT and take a linguistics class with Noam Chomsky.</li>
<li>Because you can talk for literally years about the reasons to go to Harvard.</li>
<li>Because you had to sell your soul just to scrape by admissions</li>
<li>Because it’s not to far from RI (yay.)</li>
<li>Because I just came up with a killer idea for Primal Scream! AND—></li>
<li>Because of the “3 Things to do before graduation” are awesome.</li>
<li>Philip Streich class of 2013</li>
<li>Lou Dobbs went there</li>
<li>The Boston THREE PARTY</li>
<li>Because Obama graduated for Harvard Law School</li>
<li>All the conversations you’ll have!</li>
<li>YO-YO MA!</li>
<li>Because of the reaction you get when you tell people you’re going to Harvard</li>
<li>Prof. Jeffrey Miron (LIBERTARIAN ECONOMICS FTW)</li>
<li>chess club, is it too lame? lol</li>
<li>because anywhere else, you have to say, “i go to ____…it’s actually a pretty good school.”</li>
<li>Rivalry with Yale</li>
<li>Freezing Boston weather</li>
<li>Within a short vicinity of MIT</li>
<li>Au Bon Pain</li>
<li>The Co-Op</li>
<li>Harvard Forensics Tournament</li>
<li>Quincy Market</li>
<li>Peeing on John Harvard</li>
<li>The atmosphere</li>
<li>Saying “Hahvahd Yahd”</li>
<li>Inspirational alumni like George W, the Unabomber and Patrick Bateman.</li>
<li>To surround yourself with greatness and hope it rubs off</li>
<li>To escape all those dumb jerks you had to go to high school with, a hundred of whom will go to the local univ. you could have attended instead.</li>
<li>To win a Nobel Prize</li>
<li>AMAZING Biomedical research facilities</li>
<li>Woodberry Poetry Reading Room</li>
<li>WIGGLESWORTH BABY!!!</li>
<li>Science Center 24/7 pretzel parties</li>
<li>To take contracts with that son of a ***** Kingsfield</li>
<li>OBAMA WENT TO HARVARD!!!</li>
<li>You can say **** YOU to all the people who made fun of you in high school</li>
<li>Coz i wanted to lol at 111.</li>
<li>The spring balls at the houses.</li>
<li>The walk down garden street in springtime.</li>
<li>The dining halls.</li>
<li>The walk along the Charles River.</li>
<li>Harvard Square never sleeps.</li>
<li>The chess master in front of Au Bon Pain.</li>
<li>The Harvard-Yenching Library.</li>
<li>Commencement.</li>
<li>Reunions forever!</li>
<li>Legacy status for your kids.</li>
<li>Gets you away from your HS’s 2.0 GPA idiots who think they’re smart as hell.</li>
<li>B.c you KNOW that you are getting the #1 education in the entire US</li>
<li>Because you worked your ass of to get there, so you better love the #1 school in america!!!</li>
<li>Because I just read this list.</li>
<li>Because I want to find a place where almost everyone I meet inspires me to push myself farther</li>
<li>To know you beat out 93.1% of all 30,489 applicants (Record admissions)! </li>
<li>Because we thought of 28 more reasons than were necessary. Harvard’s always go the extra mile.</li>
<li>Always winning the Putnam Competition</li>
<li>Highest number of graduates winning Rhodes, Marshall and Fulbright fellowships</li>
<li>Being able to join the Harvard network on Facebook. ;D</li>
<li>We can count best (see: two reason #130s)</li>
<li>Awesome course selection!</li>
</ol>
<p>Can someone be miserable at Harvard?–of course. Someone can be miserable anywhere. Colleges are like shoes-- they don’t have to fit more than any other factor. I got my BA in New Haven but my graduate degree at Harvard and have been a resident and non resident tutor at one of the Houses for over 20 years. Harvard is a feast. If you want to feel anonymous–go ahead, you can. If you want to be very connected to professors, classmates and others–you can. Places like Harvard and, yes, Yale place the responsibility squarely on the student’s shoulders. It, like most of life, is what you want to make of it. For some people who want or need a more developed lattice work structure, then a LAC is much more appropriate–nothing wrong with it, but then, nothing universally right either.
My S made the choice btwn UChi and Harvard for Harvard bc UChi seemed to have a “Mother, may I?” attitude-- requiring permission or invitation to do things whereas Harvard’s attitude, he felt at pre-frosh, was more of “Well if you want to, go ahead, it’s all on you to swim–or sink.” He liked that sense of responsibility that Harvard requires of its students. Also, there is a profound difference between learning a subject per se and learning what someone who has made major contributions thinks about a subject. (Taylor on Lie Groups, for example)-- Learning the material per se, is left to the student to do, so that she or he can appreciate what the expert’s take on the field maybe. Anyway that is my take on an number of the points recently raised in this thread.</p>
<p>Always winning the Putnam?</p>
<ol>
<li> Employers and relatives will tell you that you’re the smartest person that they know.<br></li>
</ol>
<p>(That happens, and it certainly didn’t happen before I went to Harvard; the name alone causes that.)</p>
<ol>
<li> The Harvard Club of New York</li>
<li> Having Supreme Court justices show up for lunch in the dining hall, unannounced.</li>
<li> Nobody will look down on you ever again.</li>
</ol>
<p>I don’t think the problem is not having enough reasons to want to attent Harvard… the real problem is getting in ^_^</p>