Ok in all seriousness, just get off of this site and come back strictly for SAT/ACT help only. I did a chance me thread in February and had A LOT of people hating on me for applying to many schools because of my low ACT score. Guess what, when I came back with a 33 ACT, I did a chance me thread and everyone said I would get into Cornell CoE. Well…I didn’t. Now I can make up excuses, but instead I chose to rewrite my essays and now feel as if I have a better chance to some of my RD schools. Everyone on CC focuses on ACT/SAT scores a lot, so Chance Me’s will be inaccurate. Furthermore, there are some people on this site that will ask others whether they should partake in an EC. Yep, just a bunch of people who will try to do ANYTHING to get into a school, chill out, it’s undergrad, if I don’t get into a great school in the states, I still have plenty of prestigious Canadian schools to fall back on, and so will you(have other prestigious schools to fall back on, not necessarily in Canada, where I am from). The thing that pisses me off the most is when a parent brags about his/her children just to say hpw he got waitlisted at MIT nd therefore, you should not apply.
There are a lot of good things about this site, but many bad. Just use this site for SAT/ACT help, essay help, general questions about a college or the process. Follow your passion and just do you, if they dont accept you, it just wasn’t meant to be, but who gives a crap!
@albert69 yeah I am not too familiar on that cuz I dont really require aid at the moment, and will be looking at scholarships when my first sem exams end(Jan 23).
Also OP, why are you attracted to Harvard? Is it the name? If so, then that is okay, just fake your interest in the opportunities the school offers, 99% of the people that apply to a top 30 school do not care about anything but the name. I won’t lie, I did the same thing, I sent apps last min to Vandy, Dartmouth, WUSTL, and Harvard. I seriously applied to Brown, Duke, Carnegie Mellon and Johns Hopkins, and semi-seriously applied to UMich and NYU(Didn’t edit essays much). You can just reuse parts of your essay for other schools but remember, you can’t use all because if you do, it is not a good essay. Just re-use parts where you talk about your interests or what you have to offer a school. Message me anytime if you need help on ACT, I can give you advice on how to get a high science score, personally went up from a 25 to a 36, got a 35 in math, so I can help you in that dept. Ask others for help on essays and what not.
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Throw out a wider net of 5-6 wonderful universities you would be happy attending. The admit rate is 4%, about 2% if you are not an athlete, legacy, international student, a child of a faculty member or have some major hook. Look at high schools in your area. Some have success in getting students in every year and avoid high schools that never have students accepted.
Try to develop a passion instead of being well rounded. You like chess? Aim to become a FIDE master. You like science? Aim to make a study camp for one of the Olympiads. You like basketball? Try to win your school a championship. Unfortunately, most high school school counselors give people the idea that top-tier colleges want “well-rounded” applicants who are “good” at everything. That’s not really the case. These schools want people who are leaders, not followers, and who have a strong passion and can bring positive change to society. If you try to be well rounded, you risk the chance of becoming a jack-of-all trades and achieve nothing meaningful.
I am sorry but this kind of single minded focus on Harvard for an 8th grader is kind of disturbing. As are some of your statements about studying day and night and so on.
We don’t know anything about you but chances are you need more education on the schools out there. I always recommend Loren Pope’s books, “Colleges that Change Lives” (also a website and national fairs) and “Looking Beyond the Ivy League.” Frankly, many state universities are great too.
You have no idea how often people come on here saying “Harvard is my dream.” Please, understand that that is unhealthy. Can you tell us why you are dreaming of Harvard?
You are in 8th grade. Give the college thing a rest for a few years. Do your work and your extracurriculars naturally, explore things, make friends, and forget about Harvard for awhile, and any other school.
In junior year make sure you are well-informed on possibilities because your fixation on Harvard tells me you are not.
Please put that Harvard stuff away. Even for those who get in, a lot of it is just plain tacky. But you are nowhere near applying yet. Better then putting it away would be getting rid of it entirely. Give it to a charity.
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