<p>I'm a Senior in HS and it's always been a dream of mine to go to Harvard.</p>
<p>In the past several years my family ran into huge financial difficulty and my chances don't look amazing... I'm obviously rather disappointed with myself but still optimistic.</p>
<p>I eventually want to earn an MBA and/or JD, and yes... especially from Harvard. In addition, I'm thinking that it could also serve as a "second chance" to that old dream of attending Harvard.</p>
<p>My question is this: Is Harvard undergrad in a completely different universe than the Grad schools? I get the feeling that the College is the "true Harvard", or the original school, with the dorms that John Adams slept in, etc, etc, etc. Obviously, the grad schools are still some of the best in the best in the world... but what about the culture and history?</p>
<p>Look, this isn't the end of the world for me. There are plenty of other schools that I love. I just want to know if Harvard grad school is a worthy second chance at an old dream, or if that dream is already done.</p>
<p>I'm sure I'm not the only one who's looking to Harvard grad school as some kind of second-chance to the College, or even as the better option. I've even heard many people say that Harvard is actually only worth it for Grad/Professional school. I guess that makes me feel better. What do you think?</p>
<p>Please, no bashing. This is all just based on an old, romantic, childhood dream. :)</p>
<p>The B-School is 100 years old, the Law School maybe 130, the College over 370. So, yes, there’s some difference in history there. The B-School is physically separate from the rest of the campus, too, although the Law School is fairly central. They are both superb professional schools, among the few very best available, just like the College.</p>
<p>But professional schools are not college, and they don’t have the same feel at all. Read Scott Turow’s One-L. It may be a little outdated now, but it was pretty accurate as to what the first year of law school felt like 30 years ago, and, believe me, nothing like that would ever have been written to describe Harvard College, and the Law School today is more similar to that than different. Professional schools are narrow, pressured, and competitive; the College is broad, contemplative, collaborative. </p>
<p>Trying to use the professional schools to replicate the College experience is a little like saying “I always wanted to vacation on the North Carolina beaches, but couldn’t. Do you think going through Marine Corps basic training at Camp Lejeune is a good substitute?”</p>
<p>If you want to go to Harvard just because it’s Harvard, then the graduate schools are a possibility, yes. Though, the Business School is out of the question for people who lack substantial work experience and work success, and the Law School is out of the question for people who lack the GPA and the LSAT score… let’s not talk about the legendary medical school.</p>
<p>Hey, maybe you could apply to the Harvard School of Education. Their acceptance rate is 70 percent or so. Then, you could work in education administration/research/policy-making. It’s Harvard, and a school you could realistically get into.</p>
<p>I was able to hang on to a lot of the undergrad experience while at the law school, but that was because I’d been a Harvard undergrad. I knew where to go to audition for choirs, plays, etc. that are run by undergrads, but allow grad students to join. I was physically in college spaces frequently, I mentored undergrad students and generally had a foot in each community. It would be much, much harder to put that experience together if you didn’t have any connection to the college.</p>
At least for my experience at the medical school, yes.</p>
<p>Graduate school life is totally different from undergraduate life, and most people don’t acquire the identity of their graduate institution the same way they do their undergraduate institution. In my program, there are a few people who have a connection to undergraduate student life. They are, as Hanna says, overwhelmingly people who went to Harvard College as undergraduates.</p>