<p>Mathswimmer, as long as you work hard, it doesn’t matter.
Obama finished law school at Harvard, but he did undergrad at someplace few people know about (can’t remember off the top of my head)</p>
<p>There are also plenty people who go to HYPS and suck and drop out.</p>
<p>Getting into Harvard doesn’t make you automatically better, you iust have a headstart. Be prepared to have people from community college become more successful than you are.</p>
<p>We can agree that MOST successful pol have graduated from top universities, but there are also people who graduated from small, unknown schools who still become wealthy and powerful.</p>
<p>That’s completely true. Going to a top school is by no means a master key to success, and not going to a top school is by no means a barrier to it. But it does help to go to one of them.</p>
<p>Also, Barack Obama transferred to Columbia to finish up his undergrad from Occidental. So he graduated from Columbia, the 4th-ranked school in the country.</p>
<p>But he started off at Occidental.
You going to harvard does not mean you will graduate (not meaning to curse you or anything), same as a person going to community college doesn’t mean he or she can’t transfer to harvard. Hard work pays off.</p>
<p>Now, This is only in America. Other countries do no provide as many opportunities, and hard work rarely gets you anywhere.</p>
<p>
It may matter for the amount of money and power you’re able to accrue, but again, I maintain that it’s largely irrelevant to the kind of person you become and the quality of life you lead (not “quality of life” in economic means, but quality of your experience of conscious existence).</p>
<p>These aren’t real problems. No one here will starve if they don’t get into Harvard because this girl does (and admissions offices don’t have a strict number they take; they have a ballpark, like “around 2000” and they take the candidates that work for them, hence variable admissions numbers). If you’re a viable candidate at a selective school, you’ll be going to college somewhere. You’ll be better off than the vast majority of humanity. You’ll have roughly the same shot at economic success, not that that’s particularly important.</p>
<p>I can’t make your decision to report or not report for you, but don’t get overly angry and don’t treat this like it’s a bigger deal than it is.</p>
<p>I’m sure this situation is long over, but no one brought up an important point: If OP is doing such a wonderful thing, why should she report the girl anonymously? Surely, if the accusations are true, then she has nothing to hide. Many of you have stated that she should indeed be proud of what she is considering…I don’t think it’s very consistent, then, to encourage her to call up on a pay phone like a rat who needs to hide herself.</p>
<p>Oh, wait: maybe that’s exactly what she is.</p>
<p>If she didsomethingaboutthis, the OP is a whistleblower, not a rat. In a similar position, I would repoert before acceptance letters were out, not after. That may have been part of the issue with the girl who was ED at Dartmouth. It appears vindictive.</p>
<p>For anyone in a similar position in the future, the first step is the guidance counselor, then possibly a tip to the college in question, if itseems the GC doesn’t care,or there is credible evidence.</p>
<p>There is always a risk of retaliation, so be sure of why you’re reporting, and be prepared for your own possible consequences. Someone who lies onthe application is bad enough. Someone who brags about it or is indiscrete is worse.</p>
<p>There is a similar case at my school. Even before applying for colleges, when we had to fill out forms for NHS she lied about her positions and achievements in school clubs. And a teacher even pointed out her lies! But the teacher was chill so she didn’t get in trouble, but still…you get my point. </p>
<p>Anyways, my friend told me that if a bunch of people write to the school the person is applying to (in your case, Harvard) to complain about the character of the applicant, there is a chance that Harvard takes these into account. </p>
<p>Obviously complaining about someone else who’s applying to the same school you are will not benefit you in any way (and most likely will hurt you), if several people complain the school must take the complaints into consideration! Maybe if more people at your school know about this girl lying, you could tell them all to write some sort of collaborative letter, or individual letters, about this girl’s character.</p>
<p>If you are positive about her lying, you definitely SHOULD NOT do absolutely nothing about it…even if you’re the only one to call Harvard, you should still try.</p>
<p>I typed up a whole response, but oops, it disappeared, so this will be shorter.</p>
<p>Play the devil’s advocate. </p>
<p>What will happen if you DON’T tell Harvard? There’s a 5.9% chance she’ll take the spot of ONE deserving applicant. Wouldn’t that deserving applicant be put on the top of the waitlist if they were that close to getting in? What if Harvard isn’t even that person’s number one choice? If they were deserving of HARVARD, wouldn’t they have gotten into some other deserving universities?</p>
<p>What will happen if you DO tell Harvard? There’s a 94.1 chance she would have gotten rejected anyways, but you’re GUARANTEEING her rejection at the MAJORITY of colleges. Do you honestly want that on your back? She’ll end up at community college with only the option of getting her Associate’s degree, because even if she finishes that, she’ll have a tough time getting into a college that lets her get her bachelor’s degree. </p>
<p>Think about it. If you don’t tell, a deserving applicant might have to go to Yale/Princeton/Stanford/MIT/Duke/Caltech instead of Harvard. If you do tell, you’re substantially ruining a person’s future.</p>
<p>But I guess OP already made her decision because this is an old thread, so consider this a note to anyone else considering the same thing.</p>