<p>I graduated a long time ago and am a Harvard alum interviewer. This was my experience:
1. Competitive students - I didn't find that, unless you were pre-med. The pre-med students did tend to be more anxious and worried about grades and the curve. However, they didn't appear to be competitive to the point of sabotage or anything like that. Occasionally, we'd meet a student who would sign up for impossible courses, thinking they'd be a snap, only to drop them within a few weeks. Everyone there is very very bright and the tougher courses are very very difficult conceptually.
2. Any teacher/professor enjoys having students who are engaged and ask questions. However, there always seemed to be one student in every class who tried to "show off" by asking lots of inane questions. The profs can see right through that - they're very smart and not taken in by cocky undergrads.
3. Harvard is best for students who can function independently and are self-starters. It was intense, but not impossible. We had a lot of fun and made lifelong friends. If you thrive on independence, you'll be fine there.</p>
<p>i know two guys who are premed. both put a lot of (extra) time into their classes. one is a bit obsessive with it, and the other can be a bit catty at times when he doesn't get enough sleep. Yet, somehow, they both know how to take a break and turn it off and just hang out. We play video games, we go bowling, we get ice cream. </p>
<p>I am sure that anywhere you go, you will be able to find a subset of kids that you like and get along with. There are like 6000 undergrads at harvard. If you don't want to hang with the crazy premeds, fine, don't. It's not like they're going to break down your door. </p>
<p>bottom line: this cutthroat competitive spirit that pervades the entire campus? it doesn't exist. stop generalizing. find more interesting things to talk about.</p>
<p>"I'd say no to the "excessively" part but yes of course professors will focus more on the students who speak up than the ones that don't. This is college, and the professors aren't there to babysit you--if you don't want to take advantage of having the opportunity to speak to brilliant professors that would love to help you out/advise you in class and other aspects of life, they won't and shouldn't chase you down."</p>
<p>Yeah this poster has a very good point. What you're finding is not specific to Harvard, but a general thing about larger schools with exceptionally reputed faculty. They don't HAVE to believe you exist -- you're a spec of dust at the feet of grad students, who're a microscopic spec of dust at the feet of the professors there. You really have to show some enthusiasm visibly -- I'm sure if you're annoying and ask questions for the sake of it, that's not going to help either. BUt if you're trying, and actually bother to communicate with the professor, you'll see better results. If anything, this is a useful skill to develop, and not something to lose out on a great university over.</p>
<p>I haven't looked carefully at the other complaints, but none of them seems overly specific to Harvard really -- take any very good school, and you'll find those complaints likely. Matters like food of course are a different story, and I know little.</p>
<p>The Kennedy era was 45 years ago. Don't you think the current undergrads and recent alumni can give you a better idea of what Harvard is like today? I mean, among other things...this interviewer attended Harvard when it was all male! That's like living on a different planet from Harvard today.</p>
<p>My DD is a freshman pre-med at Harvard. She had heard that H was very competitive and could be cut-throat...she was very leary about attending at first. Her perception so far is that this is completely not the case. She LOVES her fellow students and has made lots of friends. She has found it to be a very collaborative environment and has mentioned how everyone gets together to work on problem sets etc. She loves her professors and we are just thrilled for her. PLEASE don't judge H by this one interviewer. </p>
<p>Oh...and I can also comment on the food - she really doesn't care for it much!</p>
<p>Harvard isn't cutthroat in the sense of students attempting to do each other in. But I do find that is alot of work if you try hard in every class and want to do well. But then again I'm taking 5 classes right now. Yahhh second semester freshman year......not. </p>
<p>p.s the food gets very boring after a while.</p>
<p>p.s.s The Professors have very little to do with most student groups. You're an adult now, and we're supposed to be "smart and hard working." We can manage ourselves :)</p>
<p>it's funny how huge an impact the interviewer can have on the applicant's opinion of a school</p>
<p>i loved my harvard interviewer so that was fine
but, like, my penn interviewer was just so clueless and very unprofessional and ignorant about penn and the admissions process and everything and just seemed so out-of-touch with... everything. and now my perception of penn is just really negative</p>
<p>apparently unaware that we don't receive our admissions decisions directly following our interview, she said "i'll be sure to send in your report tonight, so you should receive your decision by the end of this week"</p>
<p>and then she asked "do you think the schools got a lot of resumes this year?" and i'm like "...what?" and she goes "like, when people send in the resume... when they want to go to the school..." "OH like... applications?" "yeah! that's what i meant..." "ummmm yeah this year's supposed to be like, the highest number of applicants ever, statistically..." "mmmmm i can't imagine that's true."</p>
<p>and when i asked "how do you think penn has changed since you graduated?" she replied "oh my GOD they put in this BRIDGE!!!! i had to walk SO far to my classes but now there's a bridge! like, it's so annoying! why wasn't there a bridge when i was there, you know?!?!?!"</p>
<p>and when i asked "what were your favorite and least favorite parts about penn?" "favorite: i did, like, NO work at all and had so much fun! least favorite: THERE WEREN'T SNOW DAYS!!!!!! like, after huge storms, they didn't cancel classes!!!! i was like, oh my god like i want a snow day!!! hahahahaaaa!"</p>
<p>lol, plumsnow :)</p>
<p>my princeton interviewer was great, so was my harvard interviewer. The yale interviewer was nice, but he read off the questions he was "officially supposed to ask me" off a yale website print-out.... Has that happened to anyone else?</p>
<p>My Harvard and Brown interviews were the best.</p>
<p>Princeton was average, but the guy was pretty nice.</p>
<p>Yale was horrible-the guy asked me to list what I wanted Yale to know, and then he thanked me for my time and ushered me out. I felt so bad.</p>
<p>My Harvard interview was the worst one. It was at Starbucks, and my interviewer wouldn't make eye contact! Which made me nervous, then he kept looking out the window, which - even if I'm incredibly boring - is kind of rude/anxiety-provoking, finally, in the middle of my sentence, he bent over his chair to play with a dog that was walking by, cutting me off to tell me "I like dogs". My mouth was probably hanging open, not that he would have noticed because he was much more interested in the poodle than me. </p>
<p>I went into the application process liking Cornell the least, but my interviewer was amazing, which did change my impression. She was interested, straight-forward, HONEST, knowledgable, friendly AND studied my major. I could not have asked for someone better.</p>
<p>Every interviewer I've met with made me want to go to his/her alma mater except for Harvard's.</p>