<p>I just thought the above question was interesting.</p>
<p>For example, obviously I like Harvard and I'm going there this fall but honestly it was not my first choice. I fell in love with MIT and Caltech because I'm more of the nerdy weird sciency type :) but they were much too expensive and Harvard was the best choice for me financially and academically. However if I tell people this (like my friends) they can't believe that Harvard could possibly not be someone's first choice. I mean I'm still really excited to go and all but it just wasn't that way initially.</p>
<p>Anyone else like this? Or am I just a lone voice in a sea of die-hard Harvard fans? :)</p>
<p>From the outset, I was all about Brown. If you asked anyone who had spoken with me for more than an hour, they could tell you where I was going to school. There was no other option for me. Brown. </p>
<p>And then came Early Decisions, and I was deferred by the love of my life. I sent app updates and love letters. There was no school for me but Brown. Nevertheless, (prodded by my mom…) I filled out apps for the RD round. My Harvard app was one. </p>
<p>And I was actually lucky enough to hear back from Harvard in February because I had actually been chosen to receive a likely letter! A week after the likely letter arrived, I was set. I knew, Brown acceptance or not, I was attending Harvard. (That turned out to be a fairly healthy attitude to have, considering Brown was actually the /only/ school to outright reject me a few short months later. ;-P)</p>
<p>So, while Brown was my “first choice” all along, my theory is that it was so only because I didn’t consider Harvard a real option or possibility. Once an acceptance seemed probable, Harvard beat out all other options. At any rate, Harvard is now and will always be my first choice! Go Class of 2015!!!</p>
<p>aleader :so did you get a likely letter because you are a great athlete or musician? Or was it purely based on your academic record and maybe some Ecs? Just interested to know how one gets a likely letter from Harvard…</p>
<p>Uhh… no. <em>dodges rotten tomatoes thrown her way</em> I was much more in love with UChicago, Pomona and Swarthmore, but it didn’t work out. I’d just felt that I’d fit in better there, esp at UofC/Swat.
However, when I had all my decisions in hand, and researched harvard thoroughly I realized that I’d just been mindlessly prejudiced (I think the many detractors and few promoters H has were also partly responsible for this and my getting accurate information laid rest to all wrong rumors) and there were after all, more than enough things I liked about the school. I think it was more about looking at what choices were in hand over thinking about what I couldn’t have. Swat/chicago wouldn’t ever be financially feasible even if I got off the waitlist at the latter, so I just decided to let go.
Plus the major I am looking at in Harvard is one where I can find an environment almost ditto like what had attracted me to UofC/Swat.</p>
<p>Now, although I’d once dismally predicted that I’d never say this, Harvard <3. There is so much I can’t wait for. I just have a habit of denying what stares at me in the face sometimes.</p>
<p>Pretty sure it was based on my ECs and maybe some on my academic record. I’ve been really involved in theatre throughout high school. (40+ shows having directed and written a full length production as well as a lot of backstage work) That being said, I also had high objective stats in most areas (except SAT II, yikes…) and was ranked first in my class. I also interviewed with an admissions officer during a campus visit and we really clicked. In addition, I’m low-income and from a rural school district in a state that is geographically underrepresented (and has been struck with a ridiculous amount of natural disaster in the last five years or so… so sympathy points maybe? =P) . For me, I think it was a combination of most of those things and a lot of luck. </p>
<p>Most likelies go to Intel winners and other incredible kids like that. A lot of other likelies go to minority candidates with incredible transcripts and very strong ECs. Some likelies (like mine) I would guess go to developmental cases (low-income, rural?) though I have never seen that confirmed in writing. However, all candidates who receive likelies probably have one standout EC or stellar objective states. At any rate, there’s no certain formula. I definitely wasn’t expecting any letter, and because likelies are so much based on a combination of the intangibles, I would say no one should ever expect one. </p>
<p>Oh, and while 300 likelies were mailed out this year (with 100 being non-athletic), with the return of EA next year, I would expect to the number of non-athletic likelies decrease significantly.</p>
<p>Perfect Pixie, I actually gave Chicago a lot of thought too between RD due dates and my Harvard notification. While I was sure of my decision to choose Harvard before official decisions came back, as you said, the financial aid packages sealed the deal. Graduating with $50k of debt from UofC versus $0 from Harvard kind of made it no contest…</p>
<p>I’m glad you’re pleased with your decision. I’ve seen someone post somewhere on this board “X University was the right choice because I chose it.” In the end, that’s pretty much what it comes down to. </p>
<p>If you don’t mind my asking, what program are you planning to concentrate in? My prospective concentration (Social Studies) seems to have a Swarthy/UofC feel to it, so I was just wondering if that’s what you were looking at. (Although I suppose you could be talking abut Hist&Lit or any number of things!)</p>
<p>“Falling in love” with Harvard is just mathematically an unwise proposition, so I’d guess that the vast majority of Harvard students “loved” other schools during their application processes. I assume that Kate Middleton didn’t grow up thinking that her first choice of lifestyle was “Queen of England,” but it probably wasn’t difficult to embrace once the opportunity presented itself. :)</p>
<p>^That might be the most absurd analogy I’ve ever seen on CC.
Harvard has great need-based aid, including for international students, so that will be an important factor in the final decisions of many students who must compare FA offers.</p>
<p>Same! I was so set on going to either Caltech or MIT that I basically shut out every other school and refused to consider anything else. It wasn’t until like a week before may 1st when my parents forced me to send in the decline of enrollment form to those schools did it finally set in that I couldn’t go and suddenly I wasn’t so dead set against harvard anymore lol. It was like I was finally able to think clearly once the bias was gone and now I’m happy Hopefully freshman year goes well and I’ll find out I love it.</p>
<p>^And yeah. Finances played a huge part in my decision unfortunately but at least I won’t be in as much debt!</p>
<p>I never let myself consider Harvard my first choice because I knew my chances were slim. Once I got my decision on the 30th though I knew that I am going there in the fall.</p>
<p>For me, Harvard was always number 1 it lined up in so many ways with what I was looking for (very strong academics, large urban research university, strength in things I’m most interested in, etc.)</p>
<p>I didnt think Id get in and I almost didnt. I applied last year and was waitlisted. I had other good options and finally chose one. I tried to love the one that took me. But even though I knew the odds were against me, I couldn’t let go of that unresolved maybe hanging out there from Harvard. At the last possible moment at the end of June, I was pulled off the waitlist on to the Z-list a spot, but in the class of 15, not 14. Id given no thought to a gap year, but it took me about 30 seconds to decide. If that was the path to Harvard, that was what I wanted. (If they’d told me I had to spend the gap year working a coal mine in Bulgaria, I’d have probably signed up for that as well.) The gap year has been great, and Im probably more energized now than I would have been a year ago. </p>
<p>I know a lot of super-talented applicants get rejected, and I have friends whose records look better than mine who didnt get in. So I feel very lucky and Im really looking forward to Cambridge in August.</p>
<p>aleader: YES! I’m looking at SS too; you’re the first person I’ve come across till now who’s interested in it!
Haha, exactly, when I was in the decision making process, one of the Penn alums who was a PhD student at Harvard heard me talking about “wanting an intellectual atmosphere” and “learning for the love of learning” yada yada, and he was the one who first told me about SS! He said that he found the most intellectual and interesting students in that concentration, and when I looked into it, I found that I quite liked what SS focuses on! It’s like that dream concentration when you look at it and you feel, “that’s what I’ve been waiting for!”
I’m still keeping an open mind though, since it’s entirely possible that I might not end up liking the content as much as I imagine I should.</p>
<p>My first choice was, for years, Princeton. I still think Princeton would have been a good fit, and the fact that my mother went there I think helped increase my attraction to the school. But I didn’t get in, and looking back, it’s highly likely that Harvard is indeed the better fit.</p>
<p>PerfectPixie, I actually found out about SS when I said basically the same things to my alum interviewer, and he said, “You should concentrate in Social Studies! I did!”
I went to an open house for Social Studies at Visitas. It actually ended up only being about four or five students, so I got to talk a lot to the the department heads and they were really cool. (Were you at that open house? How strange if you were!!) I’m really looking forward to concentrating in Social Studies, but like you said, very open to other options (which is part of the reason I’m so into Social Studies- it’s SO broad!)
Drop me a PM sometime if you want to chat about it!</p>
<p>Ah! Social Studies doesn’t have a monopoly on the intellectual kids! Everybody seems to think that when they come in, but it is entirely not true. (Speaking as someone who had to be pried away from UChicago. In retrospect, I am very^3 glad that I didn’t choose UChicago, but it was a hard decision at the time.) Social Studies has some of those types, of course, but no monopoly. I’m going to be majoring in history, which is admittedly one of the majors in which significant numbers of the people who don’t know what they want to do in life, and don’t really have an academic passion, end up in. Nevertheless, I’ve been quite impressed with the department’s intellectuality. (Is that a word?) I have about a dozen history-concentrating friends who are super-intellectually curious and likely to stop playing beer pong (which particular night ended up with nobody drunk or visibly tipsy, fyi) to discuss English legal history with me. (That happened. It was great.) A dozen doesn’t sound that many, but I know maybe 20 history majors, so it’s a lot for all intents and purposes. Most of my best friends are English or philosophy majors, and they are also really intellectually curious. Our late night conversations tend to revolve around film theory, literature, poetry, sometimes history, sometimes philosophy, sometimes social theory/political issues…it’s a good time. I’ll be happy for you guys if you end up falling in love with Social Studies, but I don’t want you to feel like you’ll be unable to find Swatty/UChicago-y people in the other majors. Harvard is not a bastion of preprofessionalism with an enclave of intellectual Social Studies people. Some people feel like it’s a bastion of preprofessionalism, but there are strong currents of intellectualism in almost every department.</p>
<p>Three more things:
-You asked me in another thread how I did on my exams, perfectpixie, but I didn’t have anything to say in that thread (especially since I fell off the forums for a couple days). So, here, thanks! I think I did pretty ok. Verdict’s still out on one of them, though.
-If you’re looking for intellectual student organizations, follow the ones people call “nerdy” (history journal, philosophy journal, Harvard Political Review, etc.) or the ones people call “hipster” (WHRB, Crimson Arts/FM a little bit, the Advocate a lot, generally a lot of the artsier things on campus). We be self-deprecating, and I feel generally too young to apply the word “intellectual” to myself or my organizations, so I use “nerdy” or “hipster” instead. I think that’s more generally true, though.
-Summer time for exultationsy! Yusssss</p>
<p>^exultationsy, thank you for all those pointers!! XD
I didn’t think that SS is like the sole small enclave of people who weren’t intent on just their professional lives of course! I realize that history, pol science, english majors are also doing what they do for intellectual satisfaction. It’s just that I hold an interest in the topics in SS, plus it has that “nerdy” feel that you talk about. Ooh, there are just so many awesome sounding classes that I want to do!
Let’s link pinkies! :p</p>
<p>aleader: sure, you’re the first person I’ve come across till now who’s into SS, so let me PM you my FB so that I can know who you are and we can talk! :)</p>
Hopefully freshman year goes well and I’ll find out I love it.</p>