<p>“do my SSP grades completely destroy my chances of getting into Harvard?”</p>
<p>Many students who go to SSP get A’s and a recommendation letter from their Harvard professor to the college – that’s what my daughter did, at least. Not sure if your C’s will destroy your chances, but I would think it would not enhance your application either (sorry).</p>
<p>“And I fancy myself as an intellectual which I’ve tried to show in my essays.”</p>
<p>You should NOT try to sound intellectual in your essays. You should write something in your own voice – something that sounds like you reading out loud, something conversational, as if you were standing in front of the admissions directors actually talking to them. See: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1373892-how-can-i-strike-balance-between-sounding-literary-conversational-my-essay.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1373892-how-can-i-strike-balance-between-sounding-literary-conversational-my-essay.html</a></p>