<p>Just a question, when did you know Harvard was the one? And why Harvard?</p>
<p>I think it was the 26th week after conception. My higher brain functions were just developing and I received a message telling me to go to Harvard. =)</p>
<p>In truth, I think it happened this past summer after attending SSP.</p>
<p>Welcome to the forums, Otter.</p>
<p>First of all, I saw in another post that you're in 8th grade. All I can say is, it's WAYYYYYY too early for you to be thinking about college, and it's DEFINITELY too early for you to have decided that one college is "the one."</p>
<p>High school is an interesting and wonderful four years that you'll never get to experience again. It's sometimes difficult and it's sometimes miserable and sometimes you'll just want it to be over, but it can be a great experience too- unless you turn it into a four year audition for one school.</p>
<p>Don't waste high school thinking about college. Waste it doing high school stuff! Get drunk! Go on dates! Crash your car! Play sports! Every once in a while, LEARN something in school!</p>
<p>The other important thing about high school is that it can change everything. You'll change- maybe your ambitions will change too. You DON'T have to be decided on Harvard right now! In fact, you shouldn't be- it might turn out that you'll like other colleges more if you're open to them. Even more importantly, if you think of Harvard as "the one," and keep that attitude for years, you could be setting yourself up for a terrible disappointment. I wish you good luck on getting accepted, but if you aren't, then you should be prepared to have a great time at some other school. If getting into Harvard is your ultimate goal for your whole teenage life, then you might not be ready to face this.</p>
<p>What's more, think about this. You're in 8th grade. That means that you'll only find out if you got into Harvard in FOUR YEARS AND TWO MONTHS. Do you really want to spend that time in constant anticipation? If you quit thinking about college for a couple of years, the time will pass a lot faster.</p>
<p>So I'm begging you- leave these boards for a few years. Feel free to come on to ask questions about classes you should choose to take, or for advice about extracurriculars, but please don't keep focusing on Harvard, and don't even think about which college you want to go to until at least your junior year. You'll be much happier if you focus on working hard and pursuing the things you love, instead of living in constant anticipation of the admissions process.</p>
<p>Life ISN'T about college, and it sure as hell isn't about preparing for college. Work hard in school, play hard outside of school, and the rest, including college, will fall into place.</p>
<p>"Crash your car"...funny Admiral...that was the one day during high school I'm not so fond of. haha...</p>
<p>that was beautiful, admiral. (tears tears)</p>
<p>chill out guys... He's just asking. He never actually said he was going to apply to Harvard and spend next 4 years thinking about it, did he?</p>
<p>decided to apply around oct nov of this year lol.</p>
<p>i havent been prepping for ivy league schools my entire life. Just last january(2006) i decided i would apply to some top 20 schools and study for the SATs etc.</p>
<p>^ same here. Actually I decided to apply after I went to Harvard Square AFTER I already passed in my ED app for another school. What a silly desire against my good reasoning that ED gave me the best chance. Then again, I realized that I'm not stoic enough to live by reasons alone. That's probably why I hate math.</p>
<p>I decided...like last year I think. I was 17.</p>
<p>2 weeks ago</p>
<p>The answers in this thread are just too funny for me not to join in. I am forty-something, and I have decided no such thing about Harvard. I was in my twenties before the first time I met a Harvard graduate. (A girl from my school district went to Harvard a year after I graduated, but I lost contact with her.) He seemed like a nice guy. Later, I had occasion to visit the campuses of Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, U. of Chicago, Georgetown, Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, Duke, and assorted other colleges on business trips. Now whenever I read about Harvard, I have distinct mental images of the campus and memories of conversations I had there. </p>
<p>It's entirely up to my son where to apply to college. He is older than age thirteen and nowhere near finalizing his college list. Here in town, he and I have attended college information sessions for Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, U of Virginia, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard (again), Penn, Columbia, Rice, U of Chicago, and Carnegie Mellon. My wife took him to a meeting about Yale one evening when I had another meeting. We try to gather lots of information, and let my son have plenty of opportunity to make a well informed decision for himself about where to apply. </p>
<p>Good luck to everyone applying this year, next year, and in future years.</p>
<p>I have enough fun as it is already. Plus, I don't really want to do those silly things like crashing my car and having my mom go all out furious and be like What the %^* were you thinking?</p>
<p>There's no way that I am leaving these boards in a few years. I can come here and post if I want! All I'm trying to do is educate myself.</p>
<p>Plus, I'd like to add that I'm a SHE.</p>
<p>I believe you've just wasted 10 minutes of your life, Admiral.</p>
<p>Sigh. Admiral, it was worth a try, but only experience can manage to teach some things.</p>
<p>When: I started liking H a lot in 6th grade....definitively decided it was my dream school the summer before 10th grade. </p>
<p>Admiral, I don't think it's wrong for Otter to be highly interested in a school in 8th grade. Yes, I'll admit that high school changes ALOT of things but he's free to change his mind about his dream school at any time.</p>
<p>^Her. ;)</p>
<p>I decided Harvard was "it" when I was five, I think. No joke. For some reason I remember having the idea that I needed to get into the "right" elementary school for the "right" middle school for the "right" high school so I could get into Harvard. I didn't even know what Harvard was, just that only the best college would do. (That's what trying to test into magnet schools in San Francisco does to you, I'm afraid. I think I didn't quite understand what my parents were trying to say... haha... in any case, I ended up moving to a little town and going to a public school anyway.)</p>
<p>I think I forgot about that second grade, when I discovered a cute boy. It wasn't too hard. And then there was a nasty bratty 7-year-old blonde girl who thought she was the smartest in the world so Harvard took the back seat to beating her.</p>
<p>I re-decided that Harvard was "it" in high school, worked my butt off for it, and then after getting in realized wasn't sure, and that I might like Yale instead. (There was also a brief unmentionable tryst with Penn. It ended badly. I don't like to talk about it.)</p>
<p>So, I guess that's it. Don't commit too early, because you might have second thoughts, and then people accuse you of arrogantly assuming it's your right to pick among amazing "dream schools" (when the "reality" is that you should just feel "lucky" and "let other people get in too"...please*...).</p>
<p>*If you didn't get my sarcasm you are probably guilty of thinking this way.</p>
<p>I agree with admiral, except the part about getting drunk. Don't get drunk. But high school is so much more than creating that perfect application. I myself was already thinking about college in 8th grade, and I really regret that I didn't live a little more in high school. I was class rank 1, I took the most advanced classes, but I ended up burning out the beginning of junior year. I just became unmotivated. Don't let that happen to you.
I started reading these forums at the beginning of senior year, and I was completely hooked, but in the end, they just make you worry way too much for no reason. If I found these in 8th grade, I don't know what would've happened to me.</p>
<p>for me it was literally in november when i visited with friends who were looking and WOW it just kind of won me over.</p>
<p>The spring of my junior year. I visited bitterly, expecting only to receive a tiny boost for "displaying interest", only to find they didn't even keep a log of who visited. I went along anyway and felt progressively more elated and depressed. Elated because it sounded amazing, depressed because I was sure I wasn't going to get in. At the end of the tour, my dad took a picture of me touching the foot (bad move!) and I felt a cold pit in my stomach as I wished for lots and lots of luck. I couldn't sleep that night as my SAT scores and GPA flashed before my eyes.</p>
<p>I then got in early.</p>