Don't go to Harvard!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>I’m a senior at Harvard and I’ve absolutely loved it here. (If you’re looking for reasons to get excited about your admission - just ask, and I’ll talk your ear off). But I’ve also been here long enough to realize that for some of my friends, Harvard really wasn’t the best fit. </p>

<p>I think people on CC tend to ask “What’s wrong with Harvard?” - and the answer to that is “not much” - Harvard is very good at what it does! (There are still some things that suck though, like the lack of professor-led tutorials in Economics, our historically crappy spring concert selections, etc).</p>

<p>I’ve tried to take a stab at describing some types of people who, despite being incredibly talented and capable, may not end up being the happiest at Harvard. </p>

<p>If you’re a student here, please add your own two cents! If you’re a prospective student, let me know if this is at all helpful.</p>

<li><p>The person who needs to be the best at everything. It’s very unlikely that you’re the best person here at any one thing - and even if you are the Yo Yo Ma of the class of 2013, you’re still going to be “the stupid one” in at least a few of the classes you take here. If you really need to be a big fish in a small pond, Harvard is not a great place for you.</p></li>
<li><p>The person who needs “kick in the butt” advising/teaching. Despite popular belief, I think Harvard has really great advising. But I think the Harvard advising philosophy is sort of “Tell me a cool thing you want to do, and I’ll help you make it happen”. Your advisors are unlikely to tell you what to do, and unlikely to hunt you down if you don’t respond to initial requests for meetings. Similarly, if you start missing class or not turning in assignments, there probably won’t be any sort of serious intervention until you’re in pretty big trouble academically. From what I’ve heard, things are pretty different at LACs.</p></li>
<li><p>The “Type B” who gets annoyed by “Type As”. Harvard students tend to do wild, crazy and amazing things with their time - but sometimes to the point of not sleeping enough, not relaxing enough, etc. For most people, this is just a result of their driven nature & type A personality. But if you’re a pretty serious type B and not really interested in all of the crazyness, it can definitely be hard to not quite fit in to the culture. To be clear, I don’t think that Harvard is a competitive place (there are more than enough amazing opportunities to go around), and there are definitely enough type Bs that you won’t feel alone (I know a blocking group or two that’s done nothing but smoke up and play Smash Brothers for the past four years). But it can be hard going to a school where you don’t match the general culture.</p></li>
<li><p>The person who came to Harvard “because it’s Harvard”. Okay, so I think most of these people end up liking or loving the place by the time they leave. But this <em>really</em> isn’t a reason to choose a school (“My parents made me go.” is possibly the only reason that makes me more irritated). Take your time to figure out why Harvard is “Harvard” (<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/272904-101-reasons-go-harvard.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/272904-101-reasons-go-harvard.html</a>), get to know your potential peers, and if you still are only interested in Harvard for the name, maybe there’s a better fit for you out there.</p></li>
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2

<p>That was cute.</p>

<p>It was also very helpful and it makes me feel like I’m making the right decision by turning down their offer. I had a lot of fun when I visited Harvard (a lot of my friends go there); but honestly if I went, I know the only reason would be “because it’s Harvard.”</p>

<p>… that said, I’m not turning down a chance to miss school! See you all at the admit dayzzzz!!! <3 (plus who knows, maybe I’ll change my mind.)</p>

3

<p>A very helpful post.</p>

<p>But you have to admit that whether or not one chooses Harvard just for the name, it’s incredibly difficult to turn down an offer from a university that’s routinely called “the best in the world” – never mind all the money and postgrad opportunities that come along with it.</p>

<p>And regarding your first point, wouldn’t the vastness of the sea that is Harvard make it difficult to gain the recognition you need to advance to a top grad school or law school? I’m thinking of letters of recommendation, relationships with faculty, etc., things that might be hard to attain if there’s such a large number of stellar students at the school.</p>

4

<p>I don’t think so, I’m a freshman and I would have no problem asking a pulitzer prize winner and three MacArthur winners for letters of recommendation. Professors here are amazingly easy to get to know.</p>

5

<p>@Mustafah - You said “never mind all the money and postgrad opportunities that come along with it.” - which I think is a very legitimate reason to come to Harvard!</p>

<p>I agree with White_Rabbit, if you’re making the most of Harvard academically (chatting with professors after class and in office hours), it’s very easy to get very strong recommendations. Most office hours go unattended, and in small classes/concentrations, you may not even need to make this much of an effort. </p>

<p>Additionally, unlike in high school, you don’t need to be “Best in my career” or anything like that to get a very strong recommendation (maybe for a Rhodes, though…).</p>

6

<p>Sophomore at Harvard and completely agree with the post. The points you’ve made are literally exactly what I tell people when they ask if Harvard is right for them. That being said, if you are someone who’s highly motivated and driven, likes to devote yourself to academics but then have tons of fun on weekends (work hard, play hard philosophy here, from my experiences), and wants to be surrounded by people similar to that (in which case, as #1 points out, you’re not going to be the best at everything–but you will be surrounded by incredible, diverse people who can do all these wonderful, crazy things!), then Harvard is perfect for you. I love Harvard and couldn’t see myself anywhere else, but I would always caution people who come here for the wrong reasons, because they’re the ones who end up complaining about random crap and writing editorials about why Harvard sucks while the rest of us are perfectly content.</p>

7

<p>so glad to hear this - I feel like I’m making the right decision :slight_smile: see you next year, probably :)</p>

8

<p>Helpful post; thanks.</p>

9

<p>I would add:</p>

<ol>
<li>The guy who thinks Harvard will confer membership in the old-money prep-school WASP social club. Those who are To The Manor Born probably make up 5% of Harvard, and if they want to include you in their crowd, they will let you know. Struggling to squeeze into this crowd is (1) stupid, and (2) a great way to waste your years at Harvard being miserable. Everyone who gets into Harvard can find fantastic soulmate friends there just by being him/herself. Your soulmates might even be in the old-money WASP set, but if so, that will just happen organically, without special effort on your part. If you’re a middle-class poser trying to join the fabulous international jet set, please do yourself and Harvard a favor and find a different school.</li>
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10

<p>I like this discussion. Keep it coming!</p>

11

<p>This just makes me realize even more why I want to go to Harvard. -sigh- Please let May come fast!</p>

12

<p>I’ll throw in my two cents:</p>

<ol>
<li>The person who plans to make studying their one-and-only activity outside of going to class.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s obviously a place for academic commitment at Harvard. But contrary to popular stereotype, people there probably spend as much time on their extracurricular clubs and activities as they do on schoolwork, if not MORE time. The extracurricular culture at the school is so vibrant and expansive that no matter what interest you have or what activity you want to do, there’s group of like-minded people meeting somewhere on campus. The student groups literally make the campus go 'round, and the school has such abundant resources and such a far-reaching reputation that whatever your group needs to do its thing is there for the taking. You need lots of money? Check. Performance space, meeting space? You got it. Want famous people to come and talk to you? No problem. </li>
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<p>All that is to say that if you’re the kid who sits down at dinner and has nothing to talk about but your problem set and your English paper, you may have some trouble fitting in at Harvard. Extracurriculars are where students meet the people who’ll become their best friends, roommates, spouses, future business partners, you name it. So if you really don’t have the desire to do anything but study, not only would you be missing out on possibly the biggest and best part what makes Harvard College what it is, you would pretty much be cutting yourself out of the primary mechanism for socializing at the school.</p>

13

<p>Caramelkisses, I generally agree with you, but I make an exception for the future Noam Elkies* of the world. I think there’s a legit (small) place at Harvard for the true genius whose whole world is about that impossible proof he’s going to solve or that undiscovered molecule that will eventually be named after her. I mean, maybe Einstein didn’t join an a cappella group. That’s OK with me.</p>

<p>If you’re just a garden-variety Harvard student, though, then I’m on board with #6.</p>

<p>*This is maybe a bad example because Noam Elkies is really devoted to music performance as well as math, but he’d be a welcome part of the Harvard community even if he were tone deaf.</p>

14

<p>^^^ “I mean, maybe Einstein didn’t join an a cappella group.”</p>

<p>Yeah, that’s probably why he wound up at Princeton. :)</p>

15

<p>Actually, he was at The Institute for Advanced Studies, which has no official relation to Princeton except proximity :)</p>

<p>Noam Elkies is always in the Law School gym!</p>

16

<p>This is great!!</p>

<p>And I read the 101 reasons to go to Harvard, but what it didn’t tell me was what differentiates Harvard from the other top 4-5 universities out there. All of those top places have great people, inspiring professors, innumerable resources…so what really differentiates them.</p>

<p>I’m a senior trying to decide between Harvard and Stanford…Help!!</p>

17

<p>I am on the same boat.</p>

<p>trying to choose mainly between H and S but also Y and P are in the background</p>

18

<p>this discussion is making me think differently about this decision making process. keep it going guys ! haha</p>

19

<p>My S’s very idiosyncratic decision to choose H over S (the only two schools to which he applied):
He likes NE weather better than CA weather (not keen on sun all the time, said he).
He did not care for the sprawling Stanford campus. He did not care for its suburban location.</p>

20

<p>What differentiates Harvard from the other top 4-5 universities out there?
In one sense, not very much. I wouldn’t say that Harvard is outright better than Yale, Stanford, Princeton, etc.</p>

<p>But Harvard definitely is better for some people (and worse for others). Sometimes this comes down to academics - if you’re an IMO gold medalist and want the best undergraduate math education in the country, go to Harvard or Princeton. If you want a theater major, go to Yale. If you want a computer science education that includes a class on making iPhone apps, go to Stanford.</p>

<p>Sometimes the best school for a person comes down to the philosophy of the school or the (dominant) personality of the students. If you want a lot of independence (in terms of advising + such), Harvard may be a great fit. If you hate preppy kids, Princeton may not be a good fit. If you couldn’t live without the California ethos, maybe you should go to Stanford.</p>

<p>And sometimes you just end up making decisions based on silly things. Do you loathe Harvard’s architecture? Is it terribly inconvenient for you to get from home to New Haven? Are you just absolutely in love with the Yale 2013 posters on college confidential?</p>

<p>For the most part, you need to visit the schools you’re thinking about to figure these differences out. My best guess as to what sets Harvard apart follows… but take it with a grain of salt.</p>

<p>Harvard has an unbeatable math program, a “we’ll help you when you ask for it” attitude for the most part, unparalleled research opportunities in the life sciences (with HMS and the Boston hospitals), an overly motivated/busy student body (see <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1062224909-post44.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1062224909-post44.html&lt;/a&gt;), very strong recruiting from consulting, financial, and tech companies, and a range of campus events/talks/performances that will blow your mind every weekend.</p>