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<p>Sorry, there was no Early Action policy when I applied in 2009. </p>
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<p>Only if your arts supplement is very high level and could be a game changer. If you’re just sending it to send more stuff, it could very well hurt you more than help you.</p>
<p>alright, thanks Dwight! </p>
<p>Why do you say it could hurt more than help though? (sorry - I’m completely naive towards the process of college admissions)</p>
<p>^Because admissions officers are busy folks and they aren’t art, music, etc. specialists, so to evaluate things like that they are going to send them to relevant contacts in the university’s departments. If, then, those contacts reply back saying that the submission is unexceptional, you can imagine why that might reflect poorly on you.</p>
<p>I’m not really musically/artistically inclined so I can’t make up a good example there, but let’s say in high school I was very interested in contemporary literary criticism and I was deciding whether or not to send a sample of my work. I would not send in a piece merely because my AP English teacher called it one of the best AP English essays she’s ever seen. I would not send it merely because I want to show my passion for contemporary literary criticism (rather, get a rec from your English teacher or discuss it in your essays). I would send it if it were published in a reputable national peer-reviewed journal, and even then it might be sufficient to merely indicate where it was published and let that speak for itself.</p>
<p>Some might say it’s better to err on the side of sending it in, because if it’s good it’ll help more than it’ll hurt if it’s bad. I believe that if you don’t already know it’s good enough to help, you have no business sending it. But this is just my advice. I don’t have quotes from admissions officers to back me up, so take it with a grain of salt. Perhaps someone musically/artistically inclined could offer more specific advice.</p>
<p>I submitted a research supplement, that I worked on in a summer interneship at a local history museum. Would the above apply to non-arts supplements?</p>
<p>Depends on what you think “the above” is. Does it apply that submitted materials should be better than mediocre? Yes. Keep in mind I wasn’t proposing some hard and fast rule like “supplements should be published in national journals.” That was merely an example to show that since supplemental materials may be evaluated by contacts within University departments themselves, it would be inadvisable to waste their time with something sent just for the sake of sending something.</p>
<p>In other words, more is not inherently better. More is only better if you’re adding something better than the rest of your application.</p>
<p>And as I said before, this is the advice of a Harvard student and former fellow applicant to top schools, not an admissions officer. Furthermore, you don’t even know that I’m not lying when I say I’m a Harvard student. Don’t take my advice as fact. It should be treated as food for thought with which you come up with your own opinions, in conjunction with other people’s advice and your own investigation.</p>
<p>Dwight, thank you so much for coming back and answering a few more questions. Personally, I regretted sending my art supplement the moment it fell into the pickup box at the post office. C’est la vie. I submitted some photography, and it’s better than mediocre, but I don’t think it was fabulous. Of course, I doubt I’ll get in anyway, so there’s that.</p>
<p>I read the recent Crimson series on mental health at Harvard. What’s your take on the issue? Apparently UHS is horrendous, especially regarding depression and related issues…</p>
<p>Not Dwight, but I am Harvard '14. I haven’t used UHS for mental health - only for physical health - and my personal experience with them has been extremely positive. Granted, my appointments were for typical college student issues (birth control, gyno check up) so my case is likely the one UHS is best equipped to handle. My friends have had less good experiences: one had persistent joint pain and was bounced from doctor to doctor, while the other broke her arm at 2AM and said the emergency care wasn’t equipped for that, so they sent her to MGH in a taxi. </p>
<p>Anyway, mental health.</p>
<p>The Crimson article matches my perceptions of mental healthcare at UHS: UHS is understaffed and seems to lack empathy - their focus on the typical case and efficiency is what makes them so good at treating many physical complaints, but it is precisely the wrong approach for mental health. </p>
<p>There are many peer counselling groups on campus that do an excellent job for the less serious cases - I used them when my relationship with my ex turned toxic and messed with my head. UHS isn’t the only mental health resource on campus. </p>
<p>Also look up the Crimson article “I am Fine” ([I</a> Am Fine | FM | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/2/17/harvard-many-feel-out/]I”>The Harvard Crimson)).</p>
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<p>Like book_worm I haven’t used UHS for mental health. I went there once for physical health during my freshman year and I had a very poor experience. I went there after I got very ill immediately after returning from a trip to Egypt. I spent about six hours there and nothing to show for it except saline water. I then went to MGH’s clinic and was properly treated. I think I have more faith in my pre-med roommate than UHS.</p>
<p>As for mental health, I can only offer hearsay but the people I know who have dealt with mental health issues have invariably pursued off-campus professionals. I don’t think I have enough knowledge about this to go into specifics. book_worm is also correct when she says that there are many peer resources available on campus, but I don’t have much experience with them. I believe there are particular groups for particular issues, such as relationships and sexuality, eating concerns, etc.</p>
<p>What should I expect at the admitted Students reception? dress code?</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, when my resident dean thought I might need somebody to talk to, she pointed me to Bureau of Study Counsel, not to UHS. I didn’t end up going, so I can’t report on how it was. I’d reiterate the number of options besides UHS, which don’t take its place but do help. Harvard, as an institution, could be better about this, but nor do I think it’s particularly bad. I wish our culture was more open (see: “I am fine”), but I don’t know what I’d do to fix that. I also think this is a common problem at the very top schools in the country.</p>
<p>Harvard and its peers will always be tough, because they draws together a lot of the world’s brightest young peoplewho tend to hold impossibly high standards for themselves and probably tend toward the depressiveand puts them in a place where, often for the first time, they cannot all be above average. Usually, for me and for most of us, that’s humbling and awesome. Sometimes, it really does sting. We’ll all go out into the great wide world again after graduation and succeed, probably, at all the diverse fields we go into, along with all the applicants who were equally good but went wherever else. Out there, we won’t be concentrated any more. Our concentration now is the source of most of Harvard’s greatest strengthsrubbing elbows with all these fantastically interesting fellow students is an education in itself. However, it can also be a lot of pressure, and if other stuff starts going on in somebody’s life, I can understand why that could be really hard. Harvard doesn’t do a perfect job fighting the downsides to its own strengths, but I think it’s pretty OK in general, although UHS does, apparently, sometimes fail. It’s definitely something worth considering when choosing colleges, but it’s totally worth it for me. I hope everybody you have a chance to talk to about it if you get in will be honest with you so you can consider if it’s also right for you. Maybe it won’t be, but better to make the right decision either way. Good on you for thinking about it already.</p>
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<p>Is this a local reception? If so, I don’t know, it depends on what your particular Harvard Club or whatnot is doing. Dress code should match the venue.</p>
<p>Are you on NA servers?</p>
<p>Physical Sciences 2 cites Math 1b or equivalent as a pre/co-requisite (along with PS 1 of course), if one has taken the AP Calc BC exam could that be counted instead? (material is theoretically the same as math 1b, but of course I understand that math 1b delves much deeper and is more difficult). If the answer is no, could math 19a count as a prerequisite to PS 2 instead of math 1b?</p>
<p>I know you kind of answered this before, but how extensive is the hooking-up culture at Harvard? I’m really conservative and I come from a conservative family and school, so I’m kind of worried…</p>
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<p>I am not sure if the AP exam is enough to count as an equivalent of 1b (if so, it would probably require a 5) but you will have to take a placement test before your Freshman fall anyway which will determine the correct math class for you. If this math class is beyond 1b, then you may take any class for which 1b is a prereq.</p>
<p>1b is a prereq for 19a, so yes taking 19a will satisfy the prereq for PS2, but in order to take 19a you will have to score well enough to place out of 1b anyway. So again, it depends on how you do on the math placement test.</p>
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<p>Hooking up is prevalent, as it is with most groups of 18-22 year olds, but not ubiquitous. If the rates of virginity and such are any indication (which they may not be, in fairness), hooking up is probably less prevalent at Harvard than other American universities. Plus it’s not as though anyone forces you to do it, and there are plenty of other ways to interact with the opposite (or same) sex.</p>
<p>I said earlier in the thread that I’ve observed relationships at Harvard to be either very serious relationships or casual hookups, with little in between. I stand by that for the most part. The high pressure environment combined with Harvard students’ chronic unappreciation for the virtues of unstructured free-time sort of imposes an all-or-nothing view of relationships. Of course there are exceptions, and if you desire a different form of interaction with the opposite (or same) sex, you will certainly find people of a like mind.</p>
<p>Dwight,</p>
<p>Any idea if admissions officers can view the timestamp on when files were received? I have a pretty important supplement on software development work I’ve done that I was thinking about submitting but it wasn’t really ready until this week. Debating whether or not to send it if the late timestamp will be a turnoff, or does that not remain in the file and it’s more of a system where it just wouldn’t go through if it were too late?</p>
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<p>I have no idea, but my guess would be yes, they can keep track. Otherwise there’d be no point in having deadlines. You could call and ask if they would accept a late supplemental material. I would be surprised if they said no.</p>
<p>If it wasn’t ready until this week I would submit it, but with a cover note that explains that the material has just been completed and that is the reason why it is being submitted in the middle of January. I wouldn’t waste a day as the clock is ticking before the AC starts its meetings.</p>
<p>Etondad, I’m aware that the office would still encourage me to send it in, but the wilingless to allow something additional into the file is different from whether or not an admissions officer would still view it favorably. That’s why I was wondering if officers themselves can see timestamps on submitted work or if the system is that unreasonably late documents wouldn’t be allowed by the file room and it ends there. But I realize that it’s unlikely that people will be able to provide a concrete answer!</p>
<p>Ohhh that makes lots of sense; thanks for the advice Dwight :)</p>
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<p>If I were you I’d do cost/benefit and ask yourself how much you think the submission is going to help you. If it’s good enough that you think it’s worth submitting in the first place, it’s probably going to help you more than the perception of its lateness will hurt you. If you don’t think it will dramatically affect your candidacy, it probably shouldn’t be submitted in the first place.</p>