Harvard or Bust?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>Ever since I was 9 my dream was to go to Harvard. I've been working hard in high school I just kept "For Harvard For harvard" in my head. I am the leader of 3 clubs, 2 of which I started myself. I have over 600 volunteer hours. I've worked my butt off to the bone for Harvard. If I ever feel lazy or depressed I just tell myself "Hey, do you wanna go to some no-name underachiever state school or god-forbid.... stanford?" Then I recharge back up like an energizer bunny and get right back to it.</p>

<p>I've worked so darn hard to make this dream happen, I've rewritten my college essay like 7 times this year.</p>

<p>Anyone else Harvard or Bust and will NOT settle for some 7 Digit endowment School?</p>

2

<p>Thats nice youve been trying so hard, but your goal has no merit. Why do you want to go to Harvard so bad? Why do you think Harvard equals success? Your goal should be to go and graduate from a college you love. However, it doesn’t seem like you know why you love Harvard besides the name. There is a good chance that I will get into Harvard for med school, but I probably won’t accept because I would whether attend a school that suits my needs (JHU, UofM…). You can’t do anything that guarantees admission to harvard, its partially radom. I hope you have a ego that withstand being denied. Why do you want Harvard?</p>

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3

<p>@Dwalker, Oh I’ll find some reason why I love the school like for it’s area or history and put it in a nice little convincing essay.</p>

<p>But the truth is, I’m really only going for the name. Is that bad? I mean, they won’t know if I don’t tell them right?</p>

<p>I mean being able to drop the H-Bomb at parties or High School Reunions. Jesus that’s like having a super power or something. It feels good.</p>

<p>I mean sure guys like Stephen King or Johnny Depp go on their name alone. But do you think Mr. King goes around saying “Oh yeah, I went to Maine University,”</p>

4

<p>Can’t help but think that’s rather odd, OP.</p>

5

<p>Going to harvard and telling people its not as big as you think. You should never go to a college for its name. Thats the worst thing you could do. You probably will be in extreme debt when you come out, if you come out. Students who go to schools they dont enjoy have higher rates of dropout. You dont have any reason to like harvard, so you will be more likely to dropout or do bad. There are many schools on par with harvard (duke, columbia, stanford…) You could go to a 3rd tier school and get further than you would by going to harvard. It really comes down to applying yourself. How old are you and what do you want to major in?</p>

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6

<p>Wow. Where to begin?</p>

<p>YES, wanting to go to Harvard just for the name is bad. Society has evolved to where you don’t have to be a Harvard grad to have bragging rights. There are TONS of other schools that are as highly regarded as Harvard if not more so. You’re extremely misinformed if you believe saying you went to Harvard will make people fawn over you.</p>

<p>Please understand that I’m not trying to be a jerk, but it’s disheartening to see someone who feels the way you do about Harvard and why you want to go there.</p>

7

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<p>sic for your use of bad when it should be badly.
Also, not really. Harvard has a relatively high avg GPA (ie: OP is unlikely to do that badly) and is a school of such quality, that presents such excellent opportunities, that, all in all, whether or not you really want to go there (about half the people I know there were not super into it), you’re probably going to end up liking it. Don’t tell my parents I said that, it’ll only confirm their views that I should have committed there.</p>

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<p>■■■■■■ are funny.</p>

9

<p>@ millancad
Thanks spell check. I’m typing from my droid as you can see from my sign. but anyway, I am using statistics from psychology class. That was not an opinion but a fact.Since you dont know most people at Harvard your personal experience is irrelevant. I am speaking in the grand scheme of things. Harvard avg GPA doesn’t take into account dropouts. And since there is grade inflation at harvard, mean gpa is most likely skewed, your point is invalid. </p>

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10

<p>How is the OP a ■■■■■??
Hes just a passionate young soul.
Keep the passion up young one (lol), you’ll do great with this kind of attitude.</p>

11

<p>■■■■■ because of dumb comments such as god forbid I go to stanford…like thats a bad school. Its on the same level as harvard and in some aspects beyond. Harvard is a great school but sometimes people over rate it.</p>

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12

<p>Harvard’s campus kinda sucks. At least, that’s what I’ll tell myself when I get rejected. Same for MIT.</p>

13

<p>

Grammar check, not spelling check, but nonetheless, you’re welcome.</p>

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</p>

<p>I’m going to (re)quote what you said here so I can discuss it in more detail.</p>

<p>

Your statistics are likely general, concerning all schools. Harvard, as we all know, is an exceptional school, with a much, much lower drop out rate, and a much, much higher success rate in the real world than the average college. This is relevant to discussion. Even if the OP is more likely to drop out of Harvard, s/he is still incredibly unlikely to do so. Even if the OP is more likely to do badly at Harvard, in fact, even if the OP does get in and do badly at Harvard, should s/he graduate, s/he is still incredibly likely to have an above average income and be generally successful. People who do “badly” at Harvard still very rarely drop out and very rarely end up being unsuccessful. I say this despite significant bias against the school.</p>

<p>

You have no idea of how many people I know at Harvard.
My personal experience, nonetheless, was a parenthetical comment. I have no interest in arguing its relevancy with you, as it hardly negates what I said, which was that Harvard affords its students such opportunities that however passionless OP may be at this point, it is very unlikely that s/he will be that passionless about the school should s/he end up going there.</p>

<p>

My point is not invalid. I do not know what drop outs really have to do with the matter, since it is, again, highly unlikely that the OP will drop out. It’s not as if employers or grad schools readjust GPAs from Harvard because Harvard has grade inflation. That’s preposterous. A good GPA from Harvard looks and is fantastic, despite how common such a GPA may be among Harvard grads.</p>

<p>The fact is that attending Harvard is almost as close as one can come to a guarantee that one will not drop out and will graduate. Harvard has a freshman retention rate of 98%, a 4 year graduation rate of 88% and a 6 year graduation rate of 98% (normally, graduation rates are considered on the 6-year scale). These are leagues above most schools.</p>

<p>Aaaaaaaaand, meh.</p>

14

<p>Yes the stats are general. Since harvard retention and grad rate isn’t 100%, my point is still valid. Your analysis of my gpa comment were off base, but I don’t feel like discussing this. Since Harvard has students from everywhere and you doing know people from everywhere lol you dont know the majority of students there. Going to harvard doesn’t = more success in what ever field you choose. A major in psych from harvard will not make much more than a major in psych from boston u. The gist is, dont go to harvard because of its name, because there are other schools with similar grad rates and education quality.</p>

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15

<p>“Yeah I’m a Harvard grad…and that’s it.”</p>

16

<p>“some underachiever state school”. Ummmmm? I’m about to apply to the UDub (with a good chance of getting in), it’s ranked #11 of all public schools in the country, and is considered a “Public Ivy”, so excuse me, but you should change state school to community college :P</p>

17

<p>“god-forbid… stanford”</p>

<p>you’re joking right…</p>

18

<p>Obviously a ■■■■■.</p>

19

<p>obviously
in any case, if someone felt the need to point out that they graduated from harvard without me asking (or talking abou our alma maters), i’d be much challenged to restrain from punching him in the face.</p>

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<p>^^^^well to be fair, some of the “public ivies” have an acceptance rate of over 50%, including Udub. So the name is kinda misleading.</p>