<p>Okay, it might seem a little early for a fourteen year-old to be worrying so much about college, but I can't help it! I've been dying to go to Harvard since about third grade, and if I didn't get in, I would be CRUSHED! I don't even think I would want to go to any other college. I would really like to know from a Harvard graduate what classes, EC (Extracurriculars JUST figured that out:) , volunteer work etc. I need to be involved in, to be accepted into Harvard. I would also like to know how the application process went, and how I should go about doing that. If you didn't go to Harvard, I would be very grateful for your help, as well! Thank you very much:)</p>
<p>Just to let you know, Harvard isn’t the only university in the world.</p>
<p>I know, but it IS the only university in the world that I want to attend!</p>
<p>It’s good that you are thinking about college this early; I really wish I had. But I have to ask, have you done any research on Harvard? Do they have good programs in the area you’re interested in? Do they have extracurriculars you’re interested in (sports, Greek life, clubs)? Can you afford tuition? The list goes on.</p>
<p>The point is you should figure out what it is you are looking for in a school and then look for schools that fit that mold, not the other way around.</p>
<p>I have actually. I’ve studied up on it, and I’ve been searching for every scholarship, grant, or aid possible! Thanks for your input. I’ll make sure I’ve looked at other colleges for the programs that I might enjoy more than Harvard’s(Although I don’t think that’ll happen!)</p>
<p>I hate to say this, but you should also consider Yale if you love Harvard that much. ;)</p>
<p>Hahahahha!!! I couldn’t do Harvard like that!</p>
<p>well theres a harvard student accepting questions in the harvard general forum. base your ecs on what you’re interested in majoring in. And if you don’t know, just find good ecs that just interest you. you need awesome grades. awesome test scores (i would start practicing now just to get used to the tests). APs are good. If your school has IB and you want to do it, i’d definitely go for it. So on top of good grades, test scores, and ecs…you need to do something that separates you from other applicants. I’ve actually read this great book by cal newport “how to be a high school superstar” you should check it out if you want. its all about standing out. but look at it this way, a bunch of applicants have stellar resumes, but anyone can get good grades and test scores. what makes you a great candidate for harvard? if you can answer that question honestly and really well, i think you just might have what it takes to get in. BUT dont take my word on it, im only a freshman haha. anyways, what major are you interested in? maybe i could help you on your selection of ecs :P</p>
<p>Omg! Not to be a creep because you are older than me, but I LOVE YOU! Thank you so much for your help even so far. I want to be a lawyer. I’ve now noticed that there are SO many different types of lawyers, and I was wondering if the program is for all up-coming students.I like being detective-y. I’m “gifted.” Honestly, the classes that I’m going to be taking aren’t as challenging as I want them to be. Last year recently moved to Georgia. Not to down Georgia, but their educational system SUCKS! In Florida I took Algebra I, advanced science, 10th grade English, and a yearbook class. I had to re-take these classes. Well, not those classes but classes much less challenging. Basically, they wer classes that I took years ago. I would’ve been able to take geometry in 8th grade. I don’t want to be rejected because of the State I live in. Anyway, <em>sigh</em>, had to get that off my chest. What do you think I should do to “stand out” ?</p>
<p>alright wow haha i just moved to georgia too. well in june. i had the same problem, i was taking Pre-IB classes. they’re setting me way back but be affirmative. if you dont ask for the class they might not give it to you. you know how people say APs are reserved for juniors and seniors? I took one AP class freshman year and im about to take 2 this year. you know where you wanna go. a lot of people in the georgia school systems have NO IDEA what it takes to get into harvard, so you have to take control of as much as you can. Alright on to law lol there are LOTS of internships out there for high school students. in fact once i get back from wal mart, i’ll do a little research for you to get you started (:</p>
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<p>Airin, you seriously need to change the way you’re thinking about Harvard. Or don’t, I suppose, but the way you’re fixating on Harvard (“fetishizing” it, to borrow another frequent poster’s word) is unrealistic in the extreme.</p>
<p>First of all, you are doing yourself a great disservice if you don’t confront the hard reality that whether you get into Harvard is almost completely beyond your control. The only thing you can do is to make sure you have credentials good enough for admission. But after that, it’s just not up to you, and it is no exaggeration to say that for every successful applicant to Harvard College, there are ten rejects whose credentials are just as good. Harvard admission was something of a crapshoot when I entered a generation ago; since then, the applicant pool has more than doubled, while the size of the entering class has not increased. Fewer than 7% of applicants to Harvard College are accepted; the overwhelming majority of the 93% who are turned away are every bit as good as the admitted students, but simply unlucky.</p>
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<p>The competition for admission is intense. But there’s no simple recipe. You need to take the most demanding courses available to you in your high school, and you need to excel in them. Most successful applicants favor one academic area (math and science, or literature and arts, or social studies), but they excel in all of them and they take demanding classes in all of them. Not all successful applicants are valedictorians, but most of them are among the top few students in their high school classes. There’s no formula for extracurricular activities, either, but as you make your way through high school, you can try to do two things: make your classes, your extracurriculars and your summers all contribute to a narrative that will tell admissions officers who you are; and show progress in your courses and extracurriculars every year. If you participate in a wilderness program one summer, go back and be a group leader another summer–that sort of thing.</p>
<p>The process for applying is very much like the process for applying to other selective colleges. In the fall of your senior year, you’ll submit an application that includes your biographical information; some essays; a list of your extracurricular activities, awards and honors; recommendations from two teachers; a report from your high school that includes your official transcript; and standardized test scores. If at all possible, Harvard will arrange for an alumnus or alumna from your area to interview you; the interview carries almost no weight in your application.</p>
<p>There is one thing you can do to your application that’s the kiss of death (at least, I considered it a fatal flaw when I used to do those alumni interviews): apply to Harvard with no particular reason why you want to go to Harvard. It’s not enough to say, “Omigod, because it’s Harvard, and I’ve wanted to go there since I was a little kid!” Find out about Harvard. You don’t have to know exactly what you want to study, and with what professors, but know something about the College that explains why it’s your first choice.</p>
<p>But here’s my best advice: make yourself good enough for Harvard (if you can), and then make the most out of wherever you go, whether it’s Harvard or not. If you aim for Harvard and you miss, you’re likely to wind up at some other institution that offers a vast array of life-changing academic and social experiences.</p>
<p>Omg! Somebody that understands my situation! Hahaha! Thanks, and hope you have/had a good time at Wal-Mart. I thought you said you were a freshman, but I can’t find it. What grade are you in?</p>
<p>“Omigod, because it’s Harvard, and I’ve wanted to go there since I was a little kid!”</p>
<p>Hahaha! I thought that was funny! But thanks, I’ll really take this in!</p>
<p>Good luck, Airin.</p>
<p>And seriously, don’t fixate on Harvard. This is a big country, with a lot of really good colleges and universities. Harvard is one of them, but far from the only one. My wife and I met as undergraduates at Harvard, but we both hope our kids will go elsewhere.</p>
<p>Yeah, Sikorsky is SO right. It’s not the only good school and unfortunately people with “harvard worthy” resumes dont get in. </p>
<p>Sorry. I’m a sophomore, i just have to get used to saying that lol</p>
<p>Alright so i did something better than google. I started a thread in the general harvard forum titled “Law ECs” to get some input. People on here are really great so there should be a few good ideas soon (:</p>
<p>I know you think you’re sure, but you will probably change over the next four years, and what you want in a college will become more defined. It might also move away from Harvard: if you want Harvard because you want to be surrounded by smart people (as sounds like the case from your frustration with your current school; I do know lots of people here from Georgia, btw), that could be more defined. Want a solid and challenging grounding in a canon? You might like Columbia, UChicago, or Yale’s directed study program (or possibly even St. John’s) better. Want to stay up to 3 a.m. talking about Kant all the time? Reed and Swarthmore are probably more likely places for that to happen, although I know a bunch of people who do do that here. (Even that group, here, spends more time just normal-person socializing than we would, I think, at those two schools.) Where do you fall on the Ivory Tower spectrum? If you want to be engaged with the world, places like NYU and UPenn are probably better than Harvard, which is about in the middle. Amherst, Dartmouth, and Williams would be more solely undergraduate-focused if you want that. This is, by the way, probably one of the opinions that’s most likely to change as you grow more independent from your parents.</p>
<p>I feel like telling you “don’t be so sure yet! your opinions will or should change as you grow up and grow more informed”, while accurate, would make at least me dig in and go “I know what I want! I’m right!” and less willing to change. So here’s an anecdote (adapted from another post of mine on these fora) about my college-finding.</p>
<p>When I was about your age, after my freshman year of high school, I didn’t understand the difference between my local half-commuter private college (barely in USNWR top 150), my excellent state flagship (top 40), and the Ivy League. I was sort of interested in going to the first one, because people said that some smart kids went there. Smart kids? I was a smart kid! I would go there! What was all the hype about HYPS, anyway? They were probably not all that different from the first one, or they were full of arrogant people. This was all as the daughter of overly highly educated American parents (three post-graduate degrees between them, two of those from Stanford). By late junior year, I realized that I would have liketa died at the first one, probably died at the second (not academically: I’d probably be doing as well as I am at Harvard, but it’s very much not my social scene), and that yes, HYPS etc. were more for me.</p>
<p>MORAL OF THE STORY: Wait about until you have significant numbers of acquaintances in college (probably, the juniors when you’re a freshman) until you really start thinking about this, because there is no way that your ideal college won’t change as you change and grow over the next four years. (I mean, you’ve changed and grown since fourth or fifth grade, right? Your next four years will be the same thing, or even more so.) And knowing people who go to them is a good way to begin sizing up your options; if all of your acquaintances go to Georgia Tech and you don’t want to be with them, that at least tells you to look elsewhere. If you want to aim high for college, aim high in your academics and extracurriculars, but (a) bear in mind that the Ivies aren’t even for everybody, or most people, or most smart people, (b) aim high such that you’ll be content with your high school experience if you don’t get in, and (c) be open to changing your dream school.</p>
<p>dude. you should write a book lol :P</p>
<p>Thank you all for your input and I’ll definitely look into other colleges, just in case.!</p>
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I wasn’t kidding. Btw why do you love Harvard so much?
People love Yale for almost the same reasons as they do Harvard.</p>
<p>OT: Why is the 2015 section everything except 2015 stuff? Shouldn’t all these threads (this one included) be in the regular forum? =/</p>