<p>I do partially admit but it’s not the main reason driving me to apply. Yes, Harvard did attract me simply by its name and prestige but believe it or not I used to dislike it until I visited it and realized how wonderful of a school it was. I never really was the city type but I grew very fond of the cambridge area as well as the campus in harvard in general. Not to mention the extracirricular opportunities and the high quality dorms and awesome financial aid! And it would be really neat to meet all those new people that are of best of the best.</p>
<p>Unlike most high schoolers applying to college, my daughter was not blown over by a college’s “name”. Of the Ivy’s, visited D but felt it was not a social match, would not look at Cornell, Upenn, Colombia. Briefly considered P but would not consider it due to distance. Hated Brown. Had hated Harvard despite 2 visits to campus. The only Ivy she had liked enough to apply to was Yale. She applied SCEA. Yet despite all this, days before her application was due she declared that she was no longer sure she wanted to apply EA there. Since it was now to late to prepare EA applications to anywhere else AND she had the Yale application done, we had her finish her submission.</p>
<p>At that point, Yale was the only Ivy out of the 9 schools to which she was applying (Yale, Bowdoin, Bates, Brandies, BC, BU, RPI, WPI, MIT). With one week to go before Thanksgiving break, she was putting in all her final transcript requests to her GC and we pointed out that she did not have many extreme reaches (she had applied to MIT with reservations about it being a fit). So my daughter started going back through the forms of the various IVYs. Harvard’s application was really easy, so she added it to her now list of 10 schools.</p>
<p>She is now a freshman at Harvard. She did not get into MIT, for which she was thankful but also, now seeing her at Harvard, MIT was correct in not admitting her. She would not have been a match. Yale deferred her SCEA and ultimately denied her. I think she really would have liked the option of going there but I do not think she would have picked it in the end so the denial made things easier. She was admitted to all the others. She only considered three schools to which she was admitted; Bowdoin, WPI and Harvard. At the Bowdoin admitted student day, she could tell she was a match with the people there. The head of admissions knew D to the point of quoting D’s essay when he heard her name. Her only reservation was that with it’s size how extensive would her BioTech type opportunities be? Few days later, she went to WPI’s admitted student day. The BioTech stuff blew her away. At the end of the trip, she truly believed she would be attending WPI. Her only reservations with it were her match to it socially. Finally, Harvard’s admitted student weekend was three days long. The first two days, D liked the people and all, but was not convinced that it was the right school and still believed that she would attend WPI. Fortunately, day three finally dealt with academics and and a presentation on Harvard’s life science concentrations and she saw that Harvard did have the academics for which she was looking. So in the end, D decided that at Harvard she matched the people she met like Bowdoin and would be offered the BioTech offerings like WPI.</p>
<p>Sorry for the long post but yes not everyone decides to apply or attend just due to it’s name.</p>
<p>Why did I apply to Harvard? </p>
<p>So that I could boast about it to everyone I know? No.
So that I could get a high quality education? Not really.</p>
<p>I applied to Harvard for the opportunity to meet some of the most incredible, diverse, academically driven people. For me, it’s all about the people!</p>
<p>I have to admit that I was first repelled by Harvard’s name. It was like I didn’t want to be known as the “smart kid who went to harvard.” Don’t ask me why, I’m just kind of weird like that. But I was drawn to Harvard after thinking about it’s location. I would love to go to college in/near Boston. No other college in the area really stood out to me as much as Harvard did.</p>
<p>Me me me!</p>
<p>I did visit the campus 4 times, but that’s just because I love Boston and have been there many times.</p>
<p>Like obviously I would go there if I got accepted, but I doubt that will happen :P</p>
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<p>Spoken like a cute, cheesy Harvard guide book :D</p>
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<p>I am from a low income family as well, so before I say anything else, I know how that goes. However, I just read today that Harvard is really big on picking students that can donate money after they graduate, y’know, the whole donating alumni thing. </p>
<p>Now, I am PROBABLY wrong. . .because I honestly don’t know much in this area, but why would Harvard, or any other school that offers similar opportunities, choose a student with a low income family over another similarly ranked wealthy family. In all honesty, college admissions is just as much a business transaction as an educational trade off.</p>
<p>Like I said, I may have a flawed view on this, but any ideas?</p>
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<p>Haha, it’s true, but you can’t deny the validity of what I said!</p>
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<p>I think perhaps you’re mistrusting Harvard’s motives?</p>
<p>To me, I respectfully disagree with your opinion and believe it is flawed. </p>
<p>Harvard certainly does look to the future in picking its students, but it is looking for students with the best chance of SUCCESS. Presumably having a huge income in the future and being a good alumni donator is implicit in that success, but I truly do believe that the reason Harvard has its generous needs-blind policy is in order to allow it to pick the best of the best and to gather up future leaders, entrepreneurs, thinkers and people who will contribute to society. </p>
<p>That’s why they’re also looking for diamonds in the rough as well - ie. low income or minority students. In many ways, schools like Harvard act like talent scouts - they’re more than happy to subsidise short term money in order to produce long term name and return in the form of students who will go on to achieve great things. </p>
<p>So in short, no. I don’t think they’re treating students as potential cash cows, and I do believe that their financial aid policy is one with commendable motives.</p>
<p>Honestly, my son is applying because his father thinks as a double legacy he has a better chance of getting in. Both my son and I think he’s dreaming. So it’s being done in the spirit of scientific inquiry.</p>
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Even with its current money woes Harvard does not need to fill itself with nothing but full payers and future donors. They are looking for undiscovered talent, and know that it doesn’t come from just the families of the already rich and famous. They also know that student benefit from a diverse student body. When I was a student at Harvard I knew kids who had hardly any money at all, kids whose parents were high up in the government of foreign countries, kids schools where no one had ever left the state to go to college, kids from schools where 20 kids went to Harvard every year as a matter of course.</p>
<p>For both my Ds, it was the peer quality, the ethnic, racial and national diversity of the student body, and the quasi-urban setting that were big sellers. D1 got in EA and then didn’t apply elsewhere; D2 had a choice between H and Y, but since she had assets under her own name, Y wasn’t a realistic option. Plus, Queen Amidala was her idol when she was 11, and when she learned Natalie Portman went to H, she decided she wanted to too. :)</p>
<p>I agree with Sci-Fry here.</p>
<p>I applied for a few reasons: educational quality, especially a renowned physics department. Peer quality is one of my major reasons, as is the house system, which nobody has mentioned yet. I applied to Harvard because I wanted to go to Harvard. Because it’s a great place to be for an undergraduate. I know people there who love it. Also, financial aid might have been my #2 reason for applying.</p>
<p>The name has nothing to do with any of my college decisions.</p>