<p>Look, it was just an interview.</p>
<p>Maybe the interview was under time restraints and he didn't have time to go into all the details about why he chose to go to Harvard.</p>
<p>Maybe when he said "because it's Harvard," he meant that he sincerely thought Harvard was the best academic institution in the country for him.</p>
<p>Maybe he's just bad at choosing his words while being interviewed by a famous resource.</p>
<p>Seriously, give him the benefit of the doubt.</p>
<p>Well my original post was just a few sentence long thing that I happened to notice about him, but then I started getting all these replies and felt like I needed to elaborate.</p>
<p>sheesh.</p>
<p>It seems like everyone is jumping on this kid's case simply because of one phrase he said ("because it's Harvard") without knowing the full context of that statement and without knowing anything else about him. Let's give the kid a break.</p>
<p>Why hasn't anyone suggested the most common reason for choosing a particular school -- financial reasons? Since his parents are recent immigrants from Poland, and he goes to a public high school in Brooklyn, it's reasonable to think that they might not have a lot of money, and Harvard's financial policy for low-income families is certainly quite generous. The video clip currently available on cnn.com indicates that he will not have to worry about money while attending Harvard, so maybe that factored into his decision to attend.</p>
<p>Since he did grow up in Poland, and Harvard is well-known around the world (probably more so than any of the other Ivies or MIT), I think his logic of "because it's Harvard" makes sense. I mean he probably grew up hearing about how all the smartest people in the world wanted to attend Harvard, so why wouldn't he attend the worlds arguably most famous university if he was accepted? </p>
<p>Harvard, and the Ivies in general, seem to have a strong pull on many international students.</p>
<p>"I don't care that he chose Harvard, i just don't know why this is news."</p>
<p>There's a lot of stuff that makes the news. Like lottery winners:</p>
<p>YouTube</a> - 164 Million Dollar Lottery Winner on Jimmy Kimmel</p>
<p>Hehe</p>
<p>Why is this news? My point is, you can ask the same question about other things, too. </p>
<p>Who cares if it's news.</p>
<p>"Why hasn't anyone suggested the most common reason for choosing a particular school -- financial reasons? Since his parents are recent immigrants from Poland, and he goes to a public high school in Brooklyn, it's reasonable to think that they might not have a lot of money, and Harvard's financial policy for low-income families is certainly quite generous. The video clip currently available on cnn.com indicates that he will not have to worry about money while attending Harvard, so maybe that factored into his decision to attend"</p>
<p>that's not the case, since he would have comparable financial aid at Yale (if not better FA), Princeton, Stanford, and possibly others.</p>
<p>Looking from another perspective,</p>
<p>To the general population, getting into 7 of 8 Ivies and a ton of other schools is amazing! We are spoiled with cross admits right and left here at CC. Arguments go, "Why him?" Well, maybe he happened to be at the right place at the right time. The world's not fair, and sometimes opportunity rains suddenly on random people. (For example, scouts pick up a cute kid or a pretty girl and they become famous actresses or models. It's all right place at the right time. Yes, you may be prettier, but you weren't there when the scout walked by.)</p>
<p>Also, he did do something that few of our dear cross-admits probably did. Unless you also applied to 7 or 8 ivies, MIT, Stanford, NYU and all those other ones, you probably didn't have to write a gazillion essays. I can't even imagine how much time he spent on writing so many quality essays. Not all of them are commonapp! (Granted, he could have recycled some...)
Stanford has 3 extra ones, Penn has more, Princeton has another one, MIT has different ones. Props to him on that tantalizing effort!</p>
<p>Let him have his moment in the sun. He's worked hard enough and endured enough to deserve the spotlight.</p>
<p>Sorry. But he's still a smiling jerkface.</p>
<p>^ Why? Seems like the only jerks are the ones trashing him.</p>
<p>Let's summarize:</p>
<p>1) His reasons for choosing Harvard are shallower than a kiddie pool. His reasoning: "It's Harvard."
2) The schools he applied to demonstrate similar shallowness: ie, applying to MIT when his interests are blatantly not math/science-related.
3) He applied to, what, 18 schools? 19 schools? That just screams typical asshat behavior.
4) He punched my sister. At a Christmas party. Twice.</p>
<p>"that's not the case, since he would have comparable financial aid at Yale (if not better FA), Princeton, Stanford, and possibly others."</p>
<p>Actually, I know students personally who choose Harvard over Yale, Stanford, or Princeton because the FA was better at Harvard. I kid who lives close to me said his Harvard package was actually much better then his Yale package. So for some people Harvard could have better FA.</p>
<p>yes, but they're probably comparable. and in many cases, Yale, Princeton, Stanford will give better FA packages than Harvard (just as it the cases that are vice-versa). it all depends on the individual situation (it's not as clear-cut and straight-forward as these schools like to make it seem).</p>
<p>Hehe thats me. </p>
<p>Just kidding</p>
<p>"1) His reasons for choosing Harvard are shallower than a kiddie pool. His reasoning: "It's Harvard."
2) The schools he applied to demonstrate similar shallowness: ie, applying to MIT when his interests are blatantly not math/science-related.
3) He applied to, what, 18 schools? 19 schools? That just screams typical asshat behavior.
4) He punched my sister. At a Christmas party. Twice."</p>
<ol>
<li>You don't know the context of which the quote was taken from. I believe this was addressed earlier in the thread.</li>
<li>Ok, because you know him, talked to him, and know he is in no way interested in science/math, and the only people who apply to MIT are only interested in math/science and nothing else and that's why they have no other majors other than math and science majors. </li>
<li>Yeah, because you are not allowed to apply to as many schools as you want because there's an asshat limit. </li>
<li>If your sister was acting like hateful ***** like some people here are, I would've punched her, too. Twice.</li>
</ol>
<p>FA should never be a concern when choosing between HYPS because, more than likely, if, for example, P gives a better offer HYS will match it and even one up it. that's what happened with many of the people i know who chose yale over harvard and harvard or yale. they got to choose the school based on the school and not the FA</p>
<p>Agent of Sense, I believe he was joking about the sister?</p>
<p>^^ Agent of Sense was also joking right back.</p>
<p>"1. You don't know the context of which the quote was taken from. I believe this was addressed earlier in the thread.
2. Ok, because you know him, talked to him, and know he is in no way interested in science/math, and the only people who apply to MIT are only interested in math/science and nothing else and that's why they have no other majors other than math and science majors.
3. Yeah, because you are not allowed to apply to as many schools as you want because there's an asshat limit.
4. If your sister was acting like hateful ***** like some people here are, I would've punched her, too. Twice."</p>
<p>I give up. </p>
<p>(There is, of course, no limit as to how many schools one applies to. Regardless, at a certain point it becomes pure asshattery to apply to as many as 18, thereby taking up an absurd number of slots when you can only attend one. Just one guy's opinion.)</p>
<p>Who cares?</p>