<p>A piece of advice for all you people who want to get into top schools: you don't. What you really want is to get into just one of them. Here's how my thought process went for H vs. M: "I'm currently most interested in computer science, and MIT is the best for that, but hey who knows what will happen in a year, and I've always gotten better grades in English than in Math (like seriously I've won poetry contests), so let's go with Harvard to keep our options open..."</p>
<p>Ah, but you don't forget about the other school, buyer's remorse kicks in, and you start contemplating the decision. Was it really the best one? All this is compounded by the fact I've been living outside of the US for a while now and couldn't make a physical visit to the campuses. Passport issues argh!</p>
<p>...and there I go again. Anyhow I've been trying to keep this in focus but it still gives me a bit more stress then I'd like to admit. I just thought I would solicit some pity/worldly perspective from all you internet people in order to compliment the advice I'm already getting.</p>
<p>Friend: "Oh my god you're getting to go to Harvard. Shut up and stop worrying!"</p>
<p>Oh my god, you're getting to go to Harvard. Shut up and stop worrying.</p>
<p>And save your narcissism for the fall, when you will need it.</p>
<p>Seriously: </p>
<p>(1) Whichever choice you made, if you are the sort of person who is prone to second-guessing yourself -- which it seems you are -- you would be having the same feelings now. It's no big deal. </p>
<p>(2) Whichever choice you made, you will probably love it and have a great experience. That's the reaction 99% of students have to both colleges. You only get to go to one of them, so settle down and enjoy the ride you're on.</p>
<p>(3) It hardly qualifies as a universal truth -- opinions CAN differ -- but the vast, vast majority of people who visit both campuses prefer Harvard's to MIT's. MIT is quirky, modern, often a bit clumsy and ugly, but with great energy. Harvard is a vast jumble of styles, old and new, but many of the buildings and settings -- especially the river houses and the Yard -- are pretty darn stunning. And it has great energy, too. The chances that visiting would have changed your mind are awfully slim.</p>
<p>Both schools are great but MIT is not a school for indecision so I think you had a bit of luck and ended up at the right school for you. I lived in Cambridge for many years and know both schools can be intense but that Harvard will encourage students to explore a bit and express themselves because they know the other students will teach you as much as the school. MIT wants you to learn to focus like a laser beam on the subject you have chosen to major in, great professors and incredible instruction but you don’t want to be finding your way while competing with driven classmates.</p>
<p>sorry drb I was kind of tired when I wrote that.</p>
<p>lol oh yeah if deadlines didn't exist I could spin around on certain decisions forever. </p>
<p>Yeah ncmentor I see where you're coming from. I was just thinking that maybe it was time to limit myself and do that focusing. I could easily see myself spinning around in a year without a clear major, and MIT would have helped by reducing the options.</p>
<p>It doesn't help that I was searching "buyer's remorse" today and found this:
[quote]
People prefer to make changeable decisions rather than unchangeable decisions because they do not realize that they may be more satisfied with the latter. Photography students believed that having the opportunity to change their minds about which prints to keep would not influence their liking of the prints. However, those who had the opportunity to change their minds liked their prints less than those who did not. Although the opportunity to change their minds impaired the postdecisional processes that normally promote satisfaction, most participants wanted to have that opportunity. The results demonstrate that errors in affective forecasting can lead people to behave in ways that do not optimize their happiness and well-being.
<p>^Agreed. You picked a school that allowed you to keep your options open instead of containing you to one skill set. Have fun at Harvard and remember that MIT's just around the corner, and if I'm not mistaking, is part of a consortium where you can take that top-notch robot class if you really want to.</p>
<p>uh-oh update time. So yeah, I think anxiety from some unrelated stuff may be funneling into this, and I know I'm making a bigger deal of it than I have any right to, but...</p>
<p>Being all tired and angsty and not thinking clearly, I typed up an e-mail to MIT asking if there was any chance I could change my mind and clicked send before thinking it through. After checking my inbox today their response was (surprisingly) not a clear "no sorry", but a "give us more info and maybe we'll talk". Hmmmm.</p>
<p>So now I'm right back in that same "CS is what I'm most interested in now, but will that change after some intense college-level work, or am I just afraid of how hardcore MIT EECS is, blah blah etc etc." loop. <em>Sigh.</em></p>
<p>
[quote]
A piece of advice for all you people who want to get into top schools: you don't.
[/quote]
Keep your "advice" to yourself. Just because you're second doubting yourself, don't assume that everyone is.
I was perfectly happy getting into all 3 of my number 1 schools. Guess what- I had to choose between the three of them. Was it easy? No.
But 13 days away from move-in, I'm completely ecstatic about my choice. At most I've ever had "what-if" moments, but I know myself well enough to know I made the right decision.</p>
<p>Sorry John, I was just being facetious when I said that. Ditto with the "pity me" thing and the poetry contest. (I did win one...but it was intended for middle-schoolers! Kind of an inside joke, my bad.) I hope you don't think I'm a jerk. :(</p>
<p>I'll have to check, but it looks like my early-life crisis here will be rendered moot anyway by the fact my mom has already paid her part of the bill. Thanks to those who have offered advice.</p>
<p>You are aware that Harvard students can sign up for MIT classes and vice versa (at least if there is room in the class, I think; the schools might allow their own students first dibs at the seats)?</p>
<p>This isn't like you had to pick between Stanford and MIT or Harvard and Yale and won't be able to be friends with people from both schools if you want (there were a bunch of Harvard students at a party a classmate of our son's from MIT hosted, for example) and even take classes at both schools. Get yourself a sweatshirt, but Harvard on one side of it and MIT on the other side and consider yourself a student at both once you enroll in classes at both. And if for some reason you feel like you're likely to miss not having an MIT degree when in your junior year at Harvard, apply to MIT for graduate school. Live is long - live it fully. And congrats on the admission into two top schools!</p>