Paul, please read this. It’s brilliant, colorful language and all.
http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-you-better-person/
^, 
Thank you neatoburrito, love a great cracked article. As for notjoe, my bad for rubbing that annoying spot, if you have a truly great university, instead of going crazy, why not tell me about it. I believe that I owe you my full undivided attention, and will love to learn more about your university.
Also very intriguing about that deep spring college. Honestly ladies and gentlemen, it is great that I have a forum where people can give me great advice, and whip me into focus as required. I am a man (all right, young boy who strives to be one), who wants to really learn everything there is about my current system before I go full rebel and join the startup community.
Love the advice, now I understand that I think of myself highly, and this ticks of quite a few people (skimmed the first page of this forum, as soon as I saw that rage building up, however it has always helped me. Like that article above, the world does not like to be nice, and inflating your head with self confidence helps you muffle all the pain and problems in your life. It’s both a self defense mechanism and a tool, it prevents you from just falling down and crying for ever, and it allows you to continue to push on, even when EVERYONE says to stop.
Keep the advice coming, I am really enjoying this post now.
building up,) however * incase you get confused on that part
“As for notjoe, my bad for rubbing that annoying spot, if you have a truly great university, instead of going crazy, why not tell me about it.”
This is what you wrote:
“I however fear, that normal colleges may not offer the incentive and reward that is justified in paying 4 or more years of your life for.”
You’re a kid who hasn’t even pass a single AP course, and you think “normal colleges” aren’t good enough for you? That is the single most arrogant sentence I’ve EVER READ on College Confidential! ROFLMAO!!
No “annoying spot” here. Not for me. Both my kids go to Harvard. I’m just laughing. There are thousands of colleges and universities in the United States. For months and months, folks have been telling you that there are great schools other than Harvard (here’s the real “annoying spot” - Harvard - a school to which you’ll never be admitted). Out of your monumental ignorance, you have dissed great schools from coast to coast. Most of these are schools you couldn’t qualify for you if you begged…
However, there are schools which WOULD take you ,and where you MIGHT succeed. IF you really work at it. And, because of your income status, many of them would come with generous financial aid, and would be affordable for you.
But, I know, you just can’t be bothered with “normal” colleges. LOLOL!!
It’s curious that the OP’s writing ability surpasses his alleged academic stats.
@latichever,
It doesn’t appear that way to me.
This is off topic, but the Harvard forum seems to attract a lot of unqualified kids like Paul.
Do you think Harvard College gets a greater number of applicants like Paul than similar colleges? Hence the uber low acceptance rate.
I can’t imagine, say, Williams, Middlebury, Cornell etc… attracting this type of applicant.
Don’t be ridiculous. Many “normal schools” (including state flagships) have incredible alumni networks with connections all over the world. There is no “magic” to Harvard.
If I were you I would keep up your efforts to improve your grades, hope you do well on the ACT/SAT and set your sights on the honors college of your state flagship (hopefully, along with some scholarships). There are many, many kids with Ivy-level credentials who do that.
Yes I do think Harvard gets a greater number of unqualified applicants than schools such as Middlebury, Cornell etc.
A student from my son’s class applied at Harvard and U of Michigan with a 28 ACT and the usual 4.0 with a smattering of AP classes. His mom was actually talking to everyone that he might be going to Harvard…I would just smile and cringe inside for the upcoming rejection letters. Got rejection letters from both of course and he now is happily enrolled elsewhere. These types of students haven’t even heard of schools such as Middlebury, whereas everyone knows Harvard.
I think you’re on to something. In fact, I know you’re on to something. That’s implicit in the point I was making to Paul. You’ve heard of Harvard, and so it’s Harvard or bust, disregarding that there are over 3,000 colleges and universities in the US that are NOT Harvard.
I guess part of the problem is that there are so many schools that it’s difficult even for the most diligent student to get familiar with more than a handful. I know that the college guidance counselor at our school, for all his other faults, always tried to encourage students to look at schools other than the obvious names. And with a few decades of experience, he often recommended not-so-very-well-known schools that were good fits for individual students.
I suspect that the “Harvard effect” (large numbers of applications that originate from the school’s brand name rather than its intrinsic value) applies on a smaller scale to regional favorites. I’ll bet Stanford gets a certain number of these applications. I know our state flagship gets the same sort of thing - for so many in-state kids, it’s the “obvious” choice, and it’s a local brand name.
@arwarw said:
and @notjoe said:
@notjoe I agree that @arwarw is on to something.
I believe Harvard and Stanford get plenty of these unqualified types of students applying because of the so-called “Harvard/Stanford effect”…but, it seems the Harvard CC forum attracts more of the louder delusional “entitled” types 
^^Harvard has been Harvard for a lot longer than Stanford has been Stanford.
That’s a lot longer for the mindset to sink in and become part of the DNA.
^^ :))
Just so long as they leave Yale alone
In the triage of Harvard admissions, what do you think the $75 app fee buys the unqualified applicant? one read? two reads? 2 minutes? 5 minutes? 10 minutes? I’m just curious.
Probably two minutes from the work-study clerk whose job it is too add up the GPA & SATs and mark the file with a big numeral in magic marker.
What I find interesting is that if you suggested to some of these applicants that they should try for the Heisman trophy, or, AT LEAST, play Div I football, they would look at you like you were crazy.
“What? I would be crushed by those guys! You would seriously have to train, like 4-6 hours a day, 6 days a week to even stand a chance! They would run me over like a steamroller! I would not even WANT to be on the field when those guys were playing.” Something like that.
They can be perfectly happy playing at a very high level, say Div III, but know that they are not willing to put in the work and do not have it in them to compete at the Div I level.
When it comes to academics, these same people seem to think it is some sort of lottery win- an entitlement trophy handed to the lucky few; and they want to get that “golden ticket”. They do not see the downside of being trampled and left behind if they manage to (somehow) attend. They do not see that the pace and the level of study will be appropriate for the uber-academically attuned.
Somehow, this idea of “fit” makes sense for some things (like a football team), but not for colleges and universities. And the idea that you can get some of that pace and depth at the appropriate level (say, Honors) of many colleges is similarly evasive.
^^ I liked the analogy in this thread of showing up to Juilliard with a violin that you don’t know how to play. I recently completed a MOOCC of an undergrad class at Brown and the pace was pretty swift. A dense novel every week. Tough stuff to unpack like Woolf and Faulkner. I was amazed that the undergrads were able to synthesize the work and make so many connections to mythology, folklore, international literature etc…
I think @gibby had calculated average time with each folder at some point. It was measured in a couple of handfuls of minutes. For the lesser qualified, some small fraction thereof.
With most of the students who post here, I get it. They’re at or near the top in their class, they have great grades, pretty good (or even better) test scores, and are well-liked in their environment. If the top SAT score at a high school is 2000, and you’re the kid with the 2000, you figure that scores much above that are probably pretty darned rare. So, why not think that your application will be highly-competitive? It may be difficult to imagine just how many folks are at your level, or well above it.
But I really don’t get it when we see students with modest grades and test scores thinking that they’re going to Harvard, or should even try, or that, if they were to accidentally get in, that it wouldn’t be, for them, a complete disaster.
^ We simply are attracted to the prestige. A very good quote that I heard somewhere, when I was talking about my business goals was this. A lad told me that if I wanted the employee that made my coffee to be impressed, tell him that my alum is Harvard, however if I wanted a investor (basically people that matter), to be impressed, tell him that my alum is Wharton. Now Wharton is very prestigious when it comes to business, in-fact I will say right now that I will very much accept Wharton over Harvard, simply because Investors will be much more likely to side with Wharton than a run of the mill Ivy like HYPS etc.
I have the beautiful option of skipping my college education altogether, simply due to the fact that my career does not require a degree. I therefore can afford to have the mentality that notjoe is so angry about, the mentality of simply saying, ohh I want Harvard, or ohh I want Yale (bringing in the Yale Ixnay). I have that beautiful option of honestly not caring if I get rejected from every university that I apply to. I feel that the posters hostility is justified, as they fear that I will simply be smacked from all schools that I apply to, and thus lose out on that incredibly important college experience.
You don’t have to worry about my future, for I will be successful whether I get a nice sheepskin on my wall or not. I know that there are thousands of universities, trust me I am not blind when it comes to college. Sally mentioned that many schools have great alumni networks, and I believe him. I simply need to find schools with the alumni connections that I want.
“But I really don’t get it when we see students with modest grades and test scores thinking that they’re going to Harvard, or should even try, or that, if they were to accidentally get in, that it wouldn’t be, for them, a complete disaster.”
Notjoe:
Now I have no idea on the exact statistic, however back in the 1940’s, I believe that Harvard’s admissions was around 60%. That’s the same statistic as many state colleges out there. During that time period (not entirely sure, so don’t go crazy if I mess up on a statement), we had Harvard alumni help design the atomic bomb, use the tech that England gave the US to help win the sub war, and make many notable achievements in the scientific field. I don’t know how much influence Ivy scientists had with the early ICBM rocket programs and NASA, as many inventions were from the German scientists, however I believe they influenced quite a lot in these programs as well.
The best argument that I’ve got against your statement joe is that many years ago, average gents applied and got accepted into Harvard. These average gents then were creating and researching incredible inventions that changed the world (think some military scientists from Ivies created the internet as well). You say that modest students that may accidentally be admitted will be the worst thing in the world, well go look at these average people who after getting an education, became the best minds of the 20th century.
Before you say that the inventors where the cream of the crop and that times have changed, inventions are very interesting through history. Michal Faraday, who never got an education, nevertheless managed through consumption of books, be one of the most important scientists in history. Many people who never even set foot in a school were creating great things, and none of them had to worry about a piece of paper.
Again, I have the option to think like this, for my career does not involve being scared to not be accepted into an institution. I however am getting tired of Harvard peeps and parents (trying to not be offensive here notjoe), to think that they are the ultimate minds of the nation, for honestly anyone with a good teacher, or excellent work ethic and plentiful supply of books, can both beat and exceed anyone from any Ivy school. Gents we have all been deceived, we love the name so much that we fantasize about the institution (have a lot of that on my end). We need to step off the high horses and look at additional options, and make sure that this smacking down of kids who think that they are not good enough, and prevention of brilliant minds from their intended careers because of Ivy league racism, ohh you are not part of the elite club, time to hit the curb mentality that DOES exist in the work force.
So, let’s start by naming excellent schools with great programs for a future CEO business tycoon like me to attend. Think Wharton and great business schools for an example.