<p>Check list to Harvard:
2300+ SATs
750+ on 3+ SAT II’s
34+ on ACT
4+ on all AP Exams
Top 10 in Class Rank
3+ Leadership positions
Sports?
Continuing Volunteering?
Summer Programs?
Awesome Recs?
Good impression?
Unique characteristics?
Passionate Essays?
idk..some others..</p>
<p>Evidence to why most otherwise strong applicants dont get into Harvard? Because most would probably think that this is a good essay. </p>
<p>All this does is show you in a pompous and ignorant light. It makes you look stuck up and conceited. You look down on your own family because they want to make money for a comfortable living. Saying that the purpose of education isnt to make money is such an upper class thing to say.</p>
<p>Im not shelling out thousands of dollars to learn a bunch of crap I dont care about, Im doing it for that piece of paper at the end which might not guarantee wealth, but definitely helps.</p>
<p>^ wow. wow wow wow. “learn a bunch of crap I don’t care about?”
I hope that is a ■■■■■ post. If not, when people ask me why I want to live in another country, I will use you as an example.</p>
<p>^ one word- GO ARMY, BEAT NAVY. USA! USA! USA! rawrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr</p>
<p>
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<p>You are going to move because I do not care about calculus, organic chemistry, psychology 101, etc.? You have bigger problems than getting away from this country pal.</p>
<p>No, I want to move because I’d like to get away from the overly materialistic mindset that pervades this country; I don’t view success as equal to the zeros in a person’s paycheck. I’m tired of people equating happiness with the amount of junk their job allows them to buy.</p>
<p>You don’t have to like every mandatory subject, but if you have no desire to learn ANYTHING, then why the hell are you going to college? You can still earn money without a degree, if that is your sole desire in life.</p>
<p>Easy to say when you dont live in a ghetto.</p>
<p>look, you guys, I really have lived in the ghetto… not the hardcore ghetto.. but in a lower class neighborhood where 80% of the population doesn’t speak English, 12-year olds having children.. I’ve seen what happens when people go after the money.. they become unable to understand that the small things accumulate and become who you are.</p>
<p>Now, if my sisters want to go to medical school because they want the money and a more appealing lifestyle.. that’s fine.. It’s the american dream. It’s what they think truly makes them happy. I’m happy for them.. I really am. </p>
<p>But to me, money doesn’t matter. I don’t care if I live on the street. People think education is to go to school to get a career. But, in its purest, most stripped form, it is just a way to learn to make choices about life. But, if I have to freaking sacrifice my soul for money.. to hell with that. The problem is, is when they try to impose their thoughts of money and life on me, and its dangerous. It really kills me.</p>
<p>Id sacrifice my soul to money if it meant allowing my future family not to grow up in this place.</p>
<p>My father grew up in poverty in China and could only make it out for being at the top of his class. Only the top 1% could make it to college during the time he grew up. I went back to the village with my dad recently, he says it’s much better now, but they still have to work hard to survive.</p>
<p>The Bible doesn’t say money is the root of all evil. It says that the love of money is the root of all evil. It’s when you are preoccupied with money and will even commit crimes for money is when it will ruin your life. I find money to be a necessary part of life, and I would like to be decently prosperous so I don’t have to worry about money.</p>
<p>but if you live on the streets, you’ll be around people like your shallow, heathen family</p>
<p>and it seems you can’t stand being around them</p>
<p>so why do you say you not care about living on the streets?</p>
<p>and if you truly don’t, and if teaching is all that is required to make you happy, don’t go to Harvard - just teach for godsake</p>
<p>oh, and save your family from eternal damnation first, you selfish boy</p>
<p>omg everyone calling him selfish is being completely unreasonable. the OP loves his family, I’m sure, but he wants to better himself. He’s not like them, he wants more out of life, doesn’t make him proud or shallow</p>
<p>if i were you i would quit complaining and actually work towards your dream.</p>
<p>SELFISH!!! I ***IN’ PUT MY BACK INTO THAT STUPID RESTAURANT SINCE I WAS 12!!!</p>
<p>I have tried numerous times to be loving to my family, okay, maybe you have a family that is proud of your endeavors, but I don’t.</p>
<p>When I proposed a fundraiser for children in Afghanistan, my parents and my sisters laughed at me and mocked me for giving money to terrorists. They thought I was becoming Muslim. </p>
<p>Every Tuesday and Thursday when I tutor students, my sisters always tell me that the stupid black kids will never ever do anything great with their lives. All they are good for is drugs and crime and taking all the welfare money. Don’t you think that this is what happens as a result of elitism? I want to move away from social hierarchy. To an even middle class, or a social structure where money doesn’t matter, or where money isn’t in one’s thinking. </p>
<p>Now every week when I go to the Kabbalah Centre to work at Spirituality for Kids, they crack jokes about me joining a cult, wasting my time, and getting a bald haircut, which I did.</p>
<p>But, I don’t do all these things so that I could end up with a check at the end of the day, a thanks or even glory, I do it so that somewhere halfway around the world, kids can have school supplies to learn and make better choices that make less of chance of fighting, and so that kids can learn to love and share with each other.</p>
<p>Okay, maybe God is angry with me to be more caring of my family and their well-being, but I try, dammit. I have tried to practice what I preach, but it is hard, and I can’t take it anymore. You know what, I poured my heart out and I don’t deserve this. Shut this stupid thread up.</p>
<p>
Sorry to break it to you, but it will be near impossible finding a place like that in western cultures.</p>
<p>Why Harvard? If you want to teach, there are many other schools that are better for training you to be a teacher.</p>
<p>Why Harvard?</p>
<p>You can get a job teaching anywhere, just with the reputation of the school. It is also much easier to move into another profession with a Harvard degree. It’s also used to prove his sisters wrong.</p>
<p>Okay, I feel better now, lol. This thread became all about my family, it wasn’t meant to be. At the end of the day, I love them, and I would die for them, I just don’t agree with them on everything. But thank you to everybody, this really shed some light as to whether my motives to go to Harvard were pure or not.</p>
<p>I really want to go Harvard, because it is the greatest institution, probably on the planet for learning. What a lot of people think teaching is, is really just passing out knowledge to other people. </p>
<p>However, in my opinion, I believe teaching requires me to know something. And to know something, I have to learn something. Now, what is great about Harvard, is that you can find a professor who teaches the most obscure, yet still very important subject on anything. You can find about in the vast collection of books at the libraries and the museums are just amazing. </p>
<p>Now, I want to be a teacher of history. To be a teacher of history, one can’t just be a teacher, one must be a historian as well. To find books and people with knowledge on various topics that are to the average person, unheard of or pointless, is in my opinion, a great opportunity to explore new ways of thinking. Harvard may not be the greatest institution in terms of teaching methods or educational policy, but that doesn’t matter. Everyone on this planet is a teacher. Some are teachers of music; they are called artists. Some are teachers of experience; they are called authors. Some are teachers of life; they are called leaders.</p>
<p>To be part of an institution that produces the greatest teachers in the world, to be in an environment that fosters this growth, and then give me the tools necessary to spread this knowledge, is what I see myself in the future. And that is why I want to go to Harvard.</p>
<p>just curious, what grade are you in? sorry if i missed it.</p>
<p>you write very well, especially for a boy (not being sexist!)</p>
<p>Thanks! I’m actually going to be a junior.</p>
<p>cool same here</p>
<p>it seems like this whole board is class of 2010</p>
<p>but my advice would be, there are so many more great schools besides harvard which is a reach for everyone. do your research</p>