9th grader, want to get into Harvard, what should I do to "start early?"

Applying to College
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<p>"I don’t understand why people don’t like that as a reason? At least I said what I really think, though. "</p>

<p>And your willingness to share such a thought just portrays the fact that you’re willing to be free and open about being shallow. Big whup.</p>

<p>It belies the fact that you look down on things without “prestige” as if there was any inherent value in it.</p>

<p>Sorry buddy. Been there done that. My HYP diploma on the wall will be ant food one day. What’s important in my life to me is what would have been important regardless of the college I attended. I just feel badly that you won’t discover that for many years to come.</p>

<p>"Go to any random person, anybody in the whole world, and if you tell them that you graduated from Harvard they will immediately think higher of you. " </p>

<p>And that’s the exact reason I would never tell you I have an HYP degree.</p>

<p>The most ironic thing about you is that you really don’t get it. Viable HYP students mostly don’t give a flip. They are the ones who already, are charting their life’s path with or without an HYP degree. HYP doesn’t make them. They make themselves. They would look at you and say that while you think you’re aiming high, you’re aim is much too low for them. The irony about HYP students is that they’re exactly the kind of people who don’t need an HYP degree to affect others and the communities they’ll serve.</p>

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<p>Depends on what you’re going into. There’s a lot of other highly respected undergraduate business programs.</p>

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<p>Please just calm down. Keep up your grades, certainly, but enjoy life. Figure out what makes your heart beat faster. </p>

<p>As other posters have said, you’re in ninth grade. Realize that you’ll change as a student and a person during the next few years, perhaps dramatically. To be honest, you sound rather entitled and immature at this point. What you want now may or may not be what you want when it comes time to actually apply to college. That being said, keep your options open. Explore possible colleges, majors, careers. It requires a lot more soul-searching than one would expect. </p>

<p>I understand where you are coming from when you say that you want to go to Harvard for the prestige. I was once an overachieving high school freshman who wanted nothing more than to get into a top college. I was deeply insecure because I had always been an excellent student and believed that I had nothing else to offer the world. My academic achievement was everything to me because I felt like I wasn’t good enough to do anything else and feared that others would lose their respect for me if my grades faltered even slightly. </p>

<p>I’m a senior now. My grades are good, but not perfect. My SAT scores are good, but not perfect. I’m probably not going to get into the likes of Harvard (I didn’t even apply to Harvard), but I’m much happier than I was three years ago. Sure, I do well at school and I’ve been recognized for it, but I’m more than that. I’m witty and perceptive. I’m a good listener. I improvise songs for every occasion and make esoteric literary references. I find that prestige and being “the best of the best” don’t matter nearly as much when you like yourself and see yourself as worth more than the perceptions of others. </p>

<p>That being said, I am not fully knowledgeable about your situation and I don’t pretend to be. However, realize that whether or not you get into Harvard doesn’t change who you are as a person. I’m sure that you are a very capable and talented student who will go on to great things regardless of prestige.</p>

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<p>The other posters are being a bit too harsh. Kudos to the OP for being both ruthlessly honest about his ambitions, and for having high ambitions in the first place. Anyone who aims high will experience a fair amount of anguish at times.</p>

<p>And there’s nothing wrong with wanting prestige, which is after all a form of social currency that can be very valuable at the outset of the business career that OP desires. </p>

<p>Your social network can give a huge boost to your business success in business, especially if your career takes you far from your hometown and local circle. A powerful alumni network such as Harvard’s is invaluable for learning about job opportunities, being recommended to employers, getting an edge in prepping for job interviews, etc.</p>

<p>So yes, prestige matters. But the far more important point - now I’m addressing you, Baloney - here is that success takes many forms. </p>

<p>Your success <em>as an individual, as a man on this earth</em>, depends on finding a) work that you love, and b) people who will love you for who you are. Your chances of finding a) and b) depend more than anything on knowing yourself well - how you’re unique, for both good and ill. </p>

<p>So make that the focus of your search over the next few years, and finding the right college will take care of itself.</p>

<p>If you don’t mind my saying so, I suspect that you don’t read enough good literature that gives perspective on life’s struggle.</p>

<p>Here’s a short list of some good books that will broaden your outlook on life and your insight into character - read them all, and harvest their wisdom:</p>

<p>Victory (Joseph Conrad)
The Chosen (Chaim Potok)
Goodbye To All That (Robert Graves)
Seize the Day (Saul Bellow)
The Death of Ivan Ilych (Leo Tolstoy)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (James Joyce)
The Dead (James Joyce)</p>

<p>… and for kicks, since you like business, relax a bit and read these two delightful (and surprisingly wise) yarns by Jeffrey Archer:
a. Kane and Abel
b. Not A Penny more, Not a Penny Less </p>

<p>Feel free to PM me. I’ve been in your shoes, and it’s good that you’re having this crisis now instead of at Harvard.</p>

<p>All the best,
t</p>

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<p>@Baloney1011, Harvard’s a great school, but there are lots of other great schools out there in the U.S. and throughout the world. It has an excellent law school, but don’t go to Harvard to study optics. You could do that right here at U of Arizona :)</p>

<p>My advice is, enjoy high school, get good grades, join clubs/activities that you are passionate about (this will help build your application). You don’t need to worry about SAT’s and such until perhaps sophomore/junior year.</p>

<p>Btw, little curious, what’s the 1011 after your username? My school’s FIRST robotics team is 1011 :)</p>

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<p>The key is to have the high school experience with which you will be most satisfied even if you do not go to college. (You won the lottery, say, and decide to take a year off to see the world before even thinking about applying. During that year, before admissions results are in, you look back on your high school experience. Would you be pleased?)</p>

<p>If you are striving and striving and then realize–hey–I can’t see my friends as much as I want if I keep killing myself over this–then lighten up, accept a couple Bs, and realize that if that kills your chances of going to HYP and instead you have to go to your state flagship…that’s probably a sign that your state flagship was the right one for you all along.</p>

<p>Do note that I’m using “satisfied” rather than “happy.” Mine was not happy, but I was satisfied with how I made the best of a bad situation. But given the high school I had, given that I didn’t really fit in there, I’m satisfied with all of my choices. At no school would I have been happy not to achieve what I did in the things I was passionate about. That those things qualified me for Harvard was icing on the cake; I would have been dissatisfied with my high school experience, even without applying to any colleges on my lottery-winning year, had I not tried to do them.</p>

<p>PS FWIW, when I was in ninth grade I wanted to go to the state university closest to my house, not because I wanted to stay home, but because I’d heard (vastly exaggerated, turned out) good things about that university and because I was sure all this Harvard/Ivy stuff was completely overrated.</p>

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<p>I was about to type out a long response myself, but then I noticed that this was a three-month-old conversation until Thibault revived it in the small hours of this morning. I’m going to suggest that unless Baloney comes back, it might be best just to let this go.</p>

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<p>(edited)</p>

<p>Very important, make yourself happy! Harvard is not the end all be all (I personally cannot stand the school). If you are picking Harvard just because of the name, then you might have a miserable 4 years trying to get there, and then a miserable 4 years there. Look at other schools, make friends in high school, get out there and enjoy these last years of your childhood. You have the rest of your life for the rat race. This is it for what you have to be a child. </p>

<p>Don’t always just think about tomorrow…think about today too. That is the mistake I made. Now I wish I could go back and enjoy being a teen more when I was a teen. And picking a college that was a better fit, and so on.</p>

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<p>I will tell you why picking it because of supposed prestige is bad. 1) it is not the only one that has prestige and 2) it is not that good of a school and 3) it might not fit you. Honestly, you did not even know it didn’t have an undergrad business program. The only reason Harvard has its big name is because it is one of the oldest schools in the nation and one of the first and has the biggest endowment. We have had 2 hires out of Harvard and both were major screw ups. We have had 2 from Stanford that were great. We would never hire from Harvard again. And a lot of people know this. You get in to Harvard because of either legacy status or race. You don’t get in because you are smart or hardworking.</p>

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<p>You might enjoy reading Cal Newport’s book “How to be a High School Superstar”.
You are at the perfect point to think about what you really love learning about, and how to get better at that.</p>

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<p>Cal Newport wrote a great book arguing against the “well rounded student” in favor of the specialist. It’s roughly called “the superstar effect”.</p>

<p>His point is that the students who get into their program do so without the awesome sat, amazing essays, or killer gpa. Instead, they are amazing at one thing.</p>

<p>Maybe you can keep your grades, your sat, your whatever, but find a thing that you love. Then spend high school becoming the best. You could start a summer business, write about it. If its successful and your sat is 2200 instead of 2400, Harvard won’t mind, because your successful widget business proves you have what it takes to succeed.</p>

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<p>Chill</p>

<p>Sent from my SPH-M900 using CC</p>

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<p>Harvard is my dream college</p>

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<p>This thread made me LOL hard. You have a lot of maturing to do…</p>

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<p>What you said in here stuck out to me the most though. You seem like a very insecure person who needs a lot of outside validation (“OMG you went to harvard?!??”) to feel good about yourself. You want as much attention as possible to compensate for something you know deep down that you lack. Please ask yourself WHY you feel the need to impress everyone. Plus, do you honestly believe that it will matter at all in the big picture if a bunch of people who have no impact on your future career are impressed that you’re going to Harvard? I’m saying all of this because I went through a period of similar mindset as you. One of the reasons I wanted to get into a top college was that I wanted to impress people. However, in the end I realized that it really doesn’t matter what people think about you as long as you do your best to make the most out of your life. You shouldn’t need anyone’s approval or validation to feel good about yourself. </p>

<p>Also, this may not be news to you, but you are thinking about the college process three years early. Seriously, make the most of high school and stop stressing over something that you have little to no control over.</p>