<p>Hi everyone. I'm a nervous rising senior with a pretty well-figured-out college list. I want to study physics, and I never really gave Harvard a thought, because nothing jumped out at me at first glance and I always associated Harvard with business, law and medicine.
My father is encouraging me to apply and I also got a letter from Harvard encouraging me to apply as well, which casts doubts on my decision to ignore Harvard during my college search.</p>
<p>Some quick stats:
2330 SAT, Hispanic female, >60k combined family income, cerebral palsy and non-fatal arrhythmia. I research with a prof and volunteer at a science museum, I'm an officer in Science NHS... but nothing really remarkable.</p>
<p>But a little more about me as a person:
I love languages, and writing... I've won a few competitions with my poetry and in my free time I learn Italian and Hindi and maintain a blog. I've taught myself German and learned Spanish in school, and am fluent in both. While I love science, artistic expression is a big part of me. I love to learn on my own, I'm perpetually curious... reserved, not much for parties. I'd love to study abroad. And of course I work hard.</p>
<p>MIT sounds wonderful but one thing that disappoints me slightly is the apparent lack of dimension in their humanities departments. I suppose I could cross-enroll at Harvard if I got accepted at MIT by some miracle.</p>
<p>But could any current attendees or alumni at Harvard elaborate on the Harvard experience? I still don't know whether I should apply...</p>
<p>The things you’ve shared here make you sound like a viable applicant.</p>
<p>But be careful about that. Harvard gets about ten times as many viable applicants as it needs to fill its freshman class, so the overwhelming majority of viable applicants are not admitted.</p>
<p>That letter you got from Harvard was designed to do exactly what it did: to prompt interesting applicants who might not have considered Harvard otherwise to think about applying. But don’t be misled, Hypocrates. Tens of thousands of students who scored well on the SAT or ACT got such a letter, and it means next to nothing about your prospects for admission.</p>
<p>So…should you apply? Maybe. If you’re one of the top few students in your graduating class, and you can count on two very strong teacher recommendations, and you can write interesting and thoughtful essays, and you either can afford the admission fee or qualify for a fee waiver, then you could certainly give it your best shot if you’re inclined to.</p>
<p>Sorry, typo. <60k family income* … I’m guessing EFC=0</p>
<p>I figured as much. It’s why I mentioned fee waivers.</p>
<p>If you do get the waiver and it would be free for you to apply, why not? You might as well add in one extra app (as long as you’re willing to do the work). Then if you get in, you can make the decision based on other acceptances, and if you don’t, you at least know you tried. In the end you don’t want to regret not applying.</p>
<p>OP: it sounds like you are one of those individuals who want a strong STEM program (physics) with a strong humanities program (languages/poetry) and you don’t want to compromise…you should seriously consider not only Harvard but Stanford, Princeton, Yale, Chicago, Columbia…MIT, Harvey Mudd, Caltech seem too restrictive in what you are interested in…</p>
<p>…now, if you were strictly STEM then the latter three schools make more sense. Just food for thought.</p>
<p>There is no reason for you NOT to apply. The information you offered suggests that you would be statistically competitive as an applicant. As you know, the chances of getting in are low for EVERYONE. And even if you were accepted, you are not required to attend. Therefore, there is NO reason to stress out about applying, since you are realistic about the admissions rate.</p>
<p>RE: the Harvard experience? There IS no one Harvard experience. It is yours to create from the expansive opportunities that the university – and others at this level – provides. Harvard expects its students to have the imagination and the ambition and the self-confidence to create meaningful academic/personal/extra-curricular experiences for themselves. It will not hold you by the hand and lead you to “a Harvard experience.” If you are the kind of person who is challenged rather than intimidated by an almost overwhelming array of available opportunities sought also by other such ambitious, self-directed students, apply and see what happens. You have nothing to lose, UNLESS you are OVERLY INVESTED in the idea of attending Harvard. If the latter being rejected will be more difficult should that happen, than it need be.</p>
<p>Good luck. And be open to a wide range of colleges as you prepare your application strategy: reachs, matches, and safeties. No reason, though, why Harvard could not be on your short list of reach colleges if, after further research of your own, you discover that it can provide what you are seeking.</p>
<p>Everyone else has already given fantastic advice. I just want to add that a) you sound like a fantastic person, b) go for it! Why not? and c) what other colleges are you looking into applying to?</p>
<p>Thank you for the advice. I think I’d be able to get fee waivers… and I realize that Harvard is what you make of it, but each school has different qualities. There’s a friend of the family that went to Harvard in the 40s and I was thinking of asking him about it in person, but I gather the school has changed since then … :P</p>
<p>@thelemonisinplay, I’m planning on applying to MIT, Princeton, Cornell, URochester and UF.</p>
<p>I’ve actually had the pleasure of workshopping some writing with Laura Harrington, who is a member of the theater faculty. She is a first rate playwright and a superb author. If she is at all indicative of the quality of the humanities, you have nothing to fret about. My Chicago interviewer was a grad student at MIT, and he was impressed with the quality of the philosophy classes. For the little it is worth, I like the MIT area of Cambridge better than the Harvard area (I’m local).</p>
<p>The '40s?</p>
<p>Good Lord, I shied away from telling you what Harvard was like in the '80s because I thought that was ancient history! Even then, it was a very different place from the Harvard that my father (Class of '55) attended!</p>
<p>In the 1940s, Harvard had no women, and undergraduates were required to wear a jacket and tie to dinner. Um…it’s not like that any more.</p>
<p>Instead of people blasting Psy or whatever rapper is famous nowadays from their dorm rooms there were young men nodding their heads to Glenn Miller & his Orchestra on the gramophone… yes, I gather times have changed. (But thank God I can still listen to Glenn Miller lol)</p>
<p>Also Rubbish, thanks for the MIT side of things, and I’ll have to look up Laura Harrington
EDIT: Oh wait, is she also an actress? I think I saw her in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape</p>
<p>Oh, and maid service! There was literally maid service. When my father was there, Harvard students actually referred to them as “the biddies.”</p>
<p>Political correctness had, apparently, not been invented yet.</p>
<p>To Hypocrates: they may also have been commiserating with Count Basie’s and Jimmie Rushing’s “Harvard Blues” (early 40s)! By the way, I applaud your musical tastes. I too listen to Miller, along with Ellington, Shaw, Goodman, Basie… and a few of the more modern fellows like those dern Beatles.</p>
<p>Plus, the supplement is (along with Dartmouth’s) one of the most painless. It has one essay, which is prompt-less and optional. Consequently, applying would require a relatively small investment of your time, especially since you could just recycle one of your other essays for Harvard’s additional essay.</p>