<p>Your “pledge” is just your deposit, not an unbreakable vow. My friend’s brother deferred admission to Princeton for a year, reapplied to schools, and ultimately enrolled at Wharton after a gap year abroad. As a side note, this was an incredibly qualified kid applying in the early 2000’s, before the real college frenzy started, and he was rejected as a senior and during his gap year. It’s a fickle process, and it’s possible they just aren’t looking for an applicant like you. Why worry about that when so many great schools are?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>On an unrelated note, though I just took H off my college list, I really loved this about H students: that they could be critical of their own school and really flattering towards others. OP, I think there’s something to that, that even Harvard students aren’t goony-eyed over their school and think others are equally fantastic. Unless you have a brilliant gap year plan–ie, something you would do even if you were accepted at Harvard–it’s just not worth it.</p>
<p>^I don’t think it’s right to say that a college is “not worth it” to someone without having attended it or without knowing the specific reasons that person might have for wanting to attend that college.</p>
<p>In response to your unrelated note, I would remind you of the fact that there does not exist a perfect college, and as such, in all colleges you would and should find students who critique some aspects of their school. If you are deciding to not attend Harvard simply because you realized it’s not perfect in all respects, I would advise you to think about your decision again.</p>
<p>“without knowing the specific reasons that person might have for wanting to attend that college.”</p>
<p>Yes, I’ve known a few people with truly justifiable reasons to keep striving for Harvard over any of its peers: an overpowering interest in certain fields of pure math, or Francophone (as opposed to French) literature; a burning ambition to be a budget travel writer or write for the Simpsons/David Letterman or run a homeless shelter; a few other paths. People in that group talk about their interest left, right, and center. Their obsession is with their ambition, not with Harvard per se. An OP who doesn’t specify any reason for continuing to focus on Harvard despite admittance to “several Ivies” doesn’t sound like part of that category.</p>
<p>I’m the biggest Harvard fan you’ll ever meet, and I knew that no school fit me quite as perfectly, but I was joyfully preparing to go to Penn before Harvard said yes that final time. Harvard’s advantages over Penn were icing, not the cake. That’s true for most of us.</p>
<p>That’s certainly not the reason. Harvard was never on my list in the first place–I never had any illusions about its perfection–but I applied after the umpteenth argument with my dad over the ir/rationality of applying to many top schools because admissions can be so unpredictable. After getting in, I did a fair amount of research on the strengths of my fields of interest and on student life, etc, and got the vibe that it wasn’t the sort of place I was looking for. My visit confirmed that, while also bringing to light or solidifying what is really fantastic about H (for me and for others). My decision was not a result of discovering that Harvard isn’t perfect (which I never believed in the first place) but from realizing that its “imperfections” (or those things I personally perceived to be imperfections, though others might not) made it a fundamentally different college experience than the one I was looking for.</p>
<p>The reason I advised the OP to consider other options is because I didn’t get the sense that she was seeking from Harvard something uniquely Harvardian (?); she is, from what I can tell (and OP, correct me if I’m wrong), seeking for an all-around fantastic college experience and the sort of post grad opportunities that many high school students seem to think only Harvard can deliver. There are so, so many schools that offer that, and I imagine the OP’s been accepted already to one such school.</p>
<p>Woah now.
I’m a little surprised by the amount of negative comments on this thread. I am in the exact same situation as you, except for the fact that I don’t have any other selective school to chose from…haaa.
The advice I have been given so far has supported taking a gap year and re-applying, hopefully with a stronger application. I have been told that adcoms see this as persistence. There’s probably nothing you could do to better show your dedication to Harvard. Since Harvard doesn’t do ED (am I right in assuming they will only have EA next year?) it very well could help, although a school with so many incredibly applications may not remember specifics from one year to the next.
It’s VERY important that what you do with the gap year is enriching! Unless there is something academic about it, or something that enables you to give back to others, it is almost meaningless. My high school is somewhat unique in that 40% of my senior class will also doing something similar next year. This happens with every senior class. I have watched qualified upperclassmen who didn’t make the cut one year absolutely screw their chances the next because they made their gap year all about getting in to a good school. Adcoms can tell if a privileged kid is using resources that others might not have just to get into school. That being said, you should probably take the SAT or ACT again, even if your scores are perfect or nearly perfect.
My thoughts? Go for it. Although I don’t know what it is that makes Harvard so special for you, it’s worth trying again if you believe in it. Every single person I have talked to (with the exception of my parents…haa) either says that they thougt a gap year was one of the best choices they ever made, or that they wished to heck they’d done something of the sort.
Good luck!</p>