freshman at harvard...ask anything you want to know

<p>heh. I'm on Long Island, that's as specific as I'll get. I've given up on sleep tonight :p And my list is a bit excessive but to be honest, I don't know who will accept me so I figure, get in all those apps and see who takes me, then decide. And to be honest, even if 10 schools accept me, I can't see a situation in which I'm deciding between any more than 3, maybe 4 schools come April. I'm glad you think my qualifications are strong, but you can never be sure with the top schools and I like having a number of options just in case :)</p>

<p>Ali G, well done on getting into both Harvard and Oxford.. you must be pretty good.. I was wondering though, as I haven't been told anything about SATs/SATIIs yet, are there any exams which are known to be easier? Or does it really just depend on your strengths?</p>

<p>Strengths. Take the SAT IIs in the subjects you feel most comfortable in. So, for example, don't take the test in U.S. History :p</p>

<p>Long island is specific enough - i'm only really familiar w/ Westchester.</p>

<p>TAIB = See if you can't take the PSAT before trying the real SAT (I know the PSAT is offered at American schools in England), see how you do, but you'll have to take the real thing either way.</p>

<p>The forums have plenty of advice on how to boost your scores, if it doesn't go well.</p>

<p>SAT2s you'll need 3 of them in the 3 subjects offered that are your bests. Poke around Collegeboard.com a little and you can find all the subjects offered. Certain subjects tend to give rise to better scores and there's a -what score=what percentile- by subject chart around that site somewhere too.</p>

<p>Yeah, tried to sleep, I may be up now too.</p>

<p>Take the Math IIc SAT II.</p>

<p>Is the Literature easy?</p>

<p>No clue, never took it. IIc is on a huge curve, though. Harvard expects it out of math/sci people, and it impresses them out of humanities people, so it's really a pretty good deal ;)</p>

<p>Good idea, I probably will. Is it only 2 others you have to do? Do you actually revise for these things or just go in and take the test?</p>

<p>If you're planning on applying to a number of American universities, the general rule of thumb is three SAT IIs--one math, one science, and another of your choice. I'm not quite sure what Harvard requires but if you're applying to multiple U.S. unis, that three-test breakdown should satisfy just about every college's requirements.</p>

<p>Now, you can study or you might not. Coming from a British school (are you in 6th form college, if I'm saying that correctly?), you might be much more prepared than most Americans for the tests, so you might not need to study. For each test you take, I would recommend going to <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.collegeboard.com&lt;/a> and doing the practice questions, see how you perform.</p>

<p>By the way, another plus about taking the SATs and SAT IIs: UCAS lets you enter them, so if you do well, another qualification can't hurt, right?</p>

<p>ok now back to questions. how many semesters do u have to be at Harvard to graduate? I plan on doing studying abroad a lot like england, china, france, germany, at least. That's four semesters right there which is two years. I'm wondering if i can graduate in four years with doing a double major in chemistry and history with some focuses on government, math, physics, law, military tactics.
Also do u have military tactics courses available at Harvard</p>

<p>Don't most abroad credits count towards graduation anyway?</p>

<p>maybe so but i think some schools require u to stay on campus for a certain number of semesters for graduation.</p>

<p>just forget me..........</p>

<p>the boys from switzerland kick ass. </p>

<p>how are the blond little girls from danville, CA? hahaha</p>

<p>It doesn't necessarily have to be one in each different field. You can say, take both US History and World. Same stuff.</p>

<p>i love british people. well, ok, i've never actually met one but they have wicked awesome accents.
just thought i'd throw that out there...
oh and i got my harvard bumper stickers that i ordered from the coop! theyre obnoxiously bright and red :)</p>

<p>speaking of the sat II in lit... not that hard IF you can read poetry. brush up on your elizabethan-era reading skills if you take it.</p>

<p>and yes, definitely math IIc if you're science/math oriented.</p>

<p>DEFINITELY take the sat-II lit. It requires very little preparation--I didn't even decide to take it until the morning of the test--and it's actually a really enjoyable test to take. I walked out of the test feeling kind of sad that no one I knew had taken lit that day, because I wanted to talk to someone about one of the poems I had loved in it!</p>

<p>Guitarman - 6th form college is usually for state schoolers leaving their state schools (which finish at 16) and who want to go on to university, but anyone else who wants to join can (i.e. people who aren't happy with their private schools). Private schools usually have '6th forms' for the last two years which is what I'm in, and others can join then as well. But yeah, right idea :) </p>

<p>So I think I will take SAT IIs in Lit, Maths IIC and French/Chinese. Should be quite easy eh? ;) If you don't get good grades first time round how many times can you retake, and do the universities see if you've retaken?</p>

<p>Also, guitarman - how come you're already applying at age 16? Are you a child prodigy?</p>

<p>He skipped a grade. Most people apply at age 17. I dunno how the English school system works, but in the American school system a lot of smart people just skip grades to learn stuff earlier.</p>

<p>Ahhh ok I see. Nope doesn't happen much in England.</p>