So, i was THRILLED to get into Harvard SCEA last October. I decided to take a gap year in Africa that i’m enjoying immensely. Two of my best friends from high school also got in and I communicate with them almost daily. I’m also in touch with friends who are at Yale and Princeton. It has been fascinating (and unnerving) to follow my ex-classmates trials and tribulations.
I know it’s still early in my contemporaries’ college careers, and everyone’s experiences are completely different, but my friends at Harvard are significantly unhappier than those at Yale and Princeton.
While my friends at Y&P already feel enmeshed in the fabric of their schools, my Harvard chums are floundering. They describe wandering around campus aimlessly, listening for any evidence of merriment, and an administration tone deaf to the social needs of its students.
These two particular friends were extremely popular in hs, good looking, fun-loving folks, not antisocial loners in the least.
I know i’m incredibly fortunate to win the Harvard lottery, but is it crazy to begin to strategize a potential transfer to Y or P? I realize i would need to show compelling reasons (not social reasons) to switch: maybe talk about my interest in The Woodrow Wilson School?
I will give H a chance for a year, but my friends make it sound absolutely awful!
“Mother Harvard doesn’t coddle her young” is an often heard expression in Cambridge. Unlike other college’s, Harvard’s administration doesn’t believe they need to make the kind of effort that Yale and Princeton do to make their campus “fun” (on-campus parties, boat trips, apple picking trips, ski trips, teas, dinner’s hosted by professors, contests between residential college’s etc) which help with the transition to college life. Harvard’s new Dean, Rakesh Khurana, who went to Cornell undergrad, is trying to make Harvard a much happier and all-inclusive place, but it takes time to change the culture of an institution. I would ask your friends again in March and see if their attitude has changed. See: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/10/16/khurana-mission-dean/ http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/9/2/freshman-convocation-2015-rakesh/ http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/9/17/legal-analysis-final-clubs/
Two is not a statistically significant sample size. While I agree with @gibby that Harvard does not make the effort to create a “fun” environment, for many students, that is not a game-changer; they are able, and in many cases prefer, to create their own fun. Personally, I’m happy as a pig in crap here.
I’m a freshman and I’m having lots of fun, though it sounds like I’m more introverted than your friends so that may make a difference. I actually think there’s a lot to do here, especially if you join clubs. My email’s been flooded by promotions for different events that are going on several days a week. And of course, going into Boston is just a T ride away Sorry to hear they’re struggling though.
I’m sorry to hear that your friends are not happy. My son graduated last May and had a fabulous four years, with plenty of social life! He was lucky in that he meshed with the people living in his hallway almost immediately, and they stayed close/lived together all four years. They were a very diverse group (including two international students) with various interests, and there was never a dull moment! If you want more details, you can pm me.
I think that how much you like college depends less on the school than we sometimes think.
One imagines it matters, but is far from the most important factor for most people. My older son, now a senior, has not enjoyed Harvard that much. My younger son, now a sophomore is having a blast.
I perceive much of the difference as being due to location. My older son really loved his home. He loved his state, his community, his family, and was very homesick to leave it to travel hundreds of miles, and many hours, away. Also, it turned out that the relative lack of sunlight in Cambridge compared to home led to a very serious vitamin D dediciency, which can cause depression.
My younger son had a fairly negative high school experience, and couldn’t wait for the freedom of college, which he has found at Harvard. Freedom being, he can grow his hair long, dye it any color he wants, and take all the math courses he can fit into. His schedule.
Older guy might have liked it better to go to a school instate, and been able to come home most weekends.
Younger guy couldn’t wait to shake the dust off his shoes.
Factors such as location, size, rural vs. urban play a bigger role than some folks may initially realize. These factors have little to do with the amount and quality of social mm life a school has to offer.
I LOVED Harvard, although it took some adjustment. I’ve lived in places ranging from tiny towns to big cities and in several countries, and no matter where I’ve lived, it’s been fun.
@Regurge01, couldn’t you just apply to Yale or Princeton now and make the decision in April? I’m guessing you’d lose any deposit you paid to Harvard, but if you (and your friends) still feel the same way six months from now, it might be worth it. My son got into Harvard last year but ended up choosing another top school, in part because of concerns like yours (which were also hinted at by a friend of his who’d just graduated, though the friend also had numerous positive things to say about the opportunities his four years at Harvard had made possible).
^^ @Falcon1: There’s nothing to rescind. The OP is currently a freshman at Harvard and is mid-way through the first semester of their freshman year. I imagine there are a few Harvard freshman and sophomores every year who apply to transfer to another college.
^^ Then he is also correct in saying that Harvard would rescind your acceptance if they found out you were applying to another college during your gap year. So it’s best to ignore @Planner’s advice at the moment. No matter what your friends are currently experiencing, not all students feel the same way. Hopefully you won’t.
The quality of your experience in college has much more to do with what you bring to the table than with anything about the college, especially if you are comparing colleges that are fundamentally similar. (And, just to be clear, Harvard and any other well-regarded comprehensive university are fundamentally similar.)
I don’t know whether the OP will be happy, unhappy, or mixed at Harvard. But I am confident that, whatever his/her experience at Harvard turns out to be, there’s only a small chance things would have been meaningfully different at any other college that might seem more attractive than Harvard. Small differences in the house/residential college/dorm system, the presence or absence of a student center, fewer or more officially sponsored parties: those things make some kind of difference, especially during the first few weeks of college, but in the grand scheme of things they don’t matter that much, and they don’t matter for very long.
@Regurge01, why did you apply REA to Harvard in the first place? Presumably you had some cogent reasons why you thought it would be the best place for you, aside from general reputation and academic excellence. You are not your friends, and what is a bad fit for one person may be a great fit for another, and vice-versa. It would be less than fair to the institution to not go in with an open mind and an attitude that you are going to have a great undergraduate experience there. If, for some reason, you find that there are specific reasons why it turns out not to be a good experience for you then you can consider options. But you owe it to both yourself and Harvard to give it a fair shot, and not base your experience on those of others that you know. Each person’s experience is different.
@JHS and I have disagreed at times, as I’m strongly of the opinion that “fit” matters, and that applicants should consider that aspect when applying. But I also strongly believe that one’s college experience, like a marriage, involves commitment and work, and that once you’ve made your choice you need to give it everything you have before considering any alternatives. Reality is often different than one’s expectations, for both better and worse.
Actually, one of the biggest problems with Harvard may be that people enroll as freshmen with such high expectations that the real institution can’t possibly live up to them. So at Harvard, for freshmen, reality is almost always worse than expectations, which understandably leads to a lot of grumpiness. You are probably way ahead of the game if you go into Harvard with low expectations, because then it’s practically guaranteed to give you some pleasant surprises.
Sorry to hear they’re struggling though.