<p>Ok so maybe it's not YOUR guy's duty to explain to me why Harvard is such a great school but honestly speakin, besides its g******* name what the h*** is so great about it? In other words why would you choose harvard over yale or princeton or stanford or any other university, ESPECIALLY as the harvard undergraduate program isn't that great???? Maybe I'm just missing something but I think "HARVARD" just relies on its friggin name to much and maybe thats why it can afford to slack off</p>
<p>I really don't know where people get off saying the undergraduate education at Harvard isn't great... I love the undergraduate program and found it a good fit for me, that's why I applied, and that's why I'll be there next fall. If you honestly think it sucks, then don't apply.</p>
<p>But it would be a lie to ignore Harvard's name recognition. I know a guy who was all set to apply to Princeton early, but realized 2 weeks before the deadline that Princeton was binding and promptly switched to Harvard. (He got in, by the way) But you have ppl who apply to all top schools simply for name recognition becuase... truth is, they are all great schools...</p>
<p>but for me I really hadn't considered an Ivy until fairly recently.</p>
<p>However, the names of all the schools you mentioned also have some clout, so it wouldn't be enough for any of them to get by on name alone.</p>
<p>Applying to Ivies for the sake of them being Ivies is not necessarily a bad idea. They are well-known and revered because, simply put, they are great schools for just about anything you want to do.</p>
<p>That is true to a certain point... but a cousin of a friend of mine applied to Princeton just for the hell of it and got in, but after a semester or two realized the atmosphere wasn't for him and transferred elsewhere. It's important to find a good fit for you.</p>
<p>They say that what makes Harvard so great is the studnet body but then how great can the student body be if they all applied to the university for the name or lets say th MAJORITY of them did? OK I won't lie to you I mean who can't resist the "I got in to HARVArd" snob I mean it IS Harvard.. I was just asking I mean I'm not applying to colleges for mmmm lets just say a fair amount of time</p>
<p>Tens of thousands of kids apply. Only a small group gets in. So the enrolled group is not representative of the applicant pool. A kid who doesn't actually care about anything in college besides the brand name is going to find it tough to explain his hopes and dreams in his essays and (especially) to his interviewer.</p>
<p>"A kid who doesn't actually care about anything in college besides the brand name is going to find it tough to explain his hopes and dreams in his essays and (especially) to his interviewer."</p>
<p>Very true. I hear variations of "because it's Harvard" all of the time when I interview, and I am not impressed. What such an answer reflects is a lack of critical thinking and research skills. It's a very lazy, superficial answer.</p>
<p>Yeah good I hope all the people who go to Harvard "BECAUSE IT'S HARVARD" get REJECTED ....but then why else would one go to Harvard?</p>
<p>Harvard has a few things besides just its name:</p>
<p>1) A great location in a great college town.
2) Vast, unparalleled resources including the most money of any university and second-to-none graduate programs whose classes are open to undergrads.
3) A top-notch faculty and student body.</p>
<p>You can find some of those things at other colleges, especially the other Ivies, but there are very few besides Harvard that have all three. That's not to say that Harvard doesn't benefit from its name. Of course it does; it's a brand like any other. But it's also legitimately one of the top undergraduate schools in the world.</p>
<p>OK .. don't get me wrong, it's not as if I'm some anti-Harvard freak or anything .. but I'm just pickin all the bad things about Harvard because I don't want to end up going there just for its name . Heres another one:
Soeone told me that when they visited the campus there was no luscious grass growing like other campus but instead they spray painted the mud green :( helllooooooo is that true .. hah cheapskates.
And also the competitiveness of harvard but thats a good thing for me bescause i'm a competitior.. just wanted to confirm</p>
<p>Overall, thefootscrubber, I think you're relying a bit too much on "what you've heard" and not enough on what's accepted as fact.</p>
<p>Harvard has a great undergraduate program. It isn't for everyone. People, on the whole, love it here. Did name play a part in their coming here?--arguable. Name certainly played a part in applying, for many people; but when you consider how many people were accepted to extremely comparable universities, prestige-wise, it's hard to argue that they chose to matriculate here purely because of name. Relying on a college's reputation when deciding whether or not to apply is not a bad thing--every school has a reputation, and to work independently of it is not possible. Oh, and the grass here is real.</p>
<p>There are many great schools out there, including the schools you listed as alternatives to Harvard. People have to choose their match, or choose for prestige, or choose for WHATEVER--but if you get in, you're going to have to choose something, and you shouldn't have to justify your decision.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>Soeone told me that when they visited the campus there was no luscious grass growing like other campus but instead they spray painted the mud green helllooooooo is that true .. hah cheapskates.<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>If you visit in the early spring you may see the green sprayed dirt. That's because the lawns kind of die off during the long snowy winter. When they reseed them in the spring they spray on some sort of green flocking to cover the new seeds. A month or two later the new grass is growing in nicely and looks great until the following winter.</p>
<p>Harvard isn't perfect, but cheapskates they are not.</p>
<p>I don't know, I had some pretty good reasons for going to Harvard (only place where you'll find top-notch astronomy program and incredible research opportunities--over 300 Ph.D.s working there--along with world-class programs in everything from philosophy to Sanskrit...like a Caltech that specializes in more than just science) and expressed that in both my supp. essay and my interviews, and I still got deferred :p So advice to all applicants: if you want to go to Harvard, know why, and have a good reason!!</p>
<p>you said it guitarman..
and thanx for the explanation of "Harvard's Mysterious Grass" coureur</p>
<p>Harvard also has:</p>
<p>A strong four-year residential system that keeps everyone tied to campus and provides a smaller social network as well as advising and grad school resources right in your dorm</p>
<p>A galaxy of world-class concerts, speakers, events, etc. going on every day</p>
<p>A culture of ambition and audacity in what students dare to do. Harvard students run a 24-hour, 365-day homeless shelter; write, edit, and publish America's best-selling line of budget travel guides (Let's Go); sing on an annual six-continent world tour; invite huge Hollywood stars who come to campus for the privilege of being made fun of by undergrads; etc.</p>
<p>Again, you can find various elements at other colleges, but for me, Harvard was the only place that brought them all together.</p>
<p>I'm a little different from most applicants, I think. For me, Harvard is like icing on the proverbial cake of education. (Yes, I am aware of how corny/cheesy/stupid that sounds.) I didn't set out at the beginning of highschool to blaze a trail to the gates of Harvard. On the contrary, I just went with the flow, did what interested me and enjoyed highschool (mostly). I actually didn't do certain clubs becuase I thought it might look like I was trying to package myself or pad a transcipt (which I am strongly against) I feel that I went through highschool the right way. I'm not going to go drop all my classes or anything. When it came time to apply, I first thought of what I wanted in a college and then did the college comparison, eventually parring down my list. It just so happened that Harvard had what I was looking for and matched my desires. Under slightly different circumstances all that could have easily changed. Harvard still isn't perfect and I do have my reservations, but relatively it seems to be a good match. I'm irritated when people asume that I want to go to Harvard because it's Harvard. Thankfully, my reputation demostrates that I'm too whatever to be that shallow.</p>
<p>So, why Harvard, and not a school of equal reputation, such as, say, Yale? Just out of curiosity, what are your reasons?</p>
<p>Well, if I were to sum it up in one word I'd have to say "location". I first visited Yale and Harvard during Thanksgiving break last year. My initial impression of Yale: "If only it was in Cambridge." Although, I said that about Princeton too. And Stanford also actually. However, like I said, Harvard isn't perfect. I wonder whether Yale's residential system is better and Princeton's emphasis on undergrads makes it extremely appealing. Moreover, Stanford seems more diverse (ethnically). I wouldn't have applied to Harvard if the decision was binding. I still have a lot of research to do. Good question though. It just so happens that half of the schools I liked happened to be Ivies. I don't blindly like the Ivies for the sake of being Ivies though. Just my personality I guess.</p>
<p>Well, the great thing about an Ivy is that it has everything. A science guy can go to MIT or Caltech and get an amazing education, but get one just as good at many Ivies while still taking top-level courses in so many other things.</p>
<p>I think we call ourselves "a best-selling budget travel guide series" rather than "the best-selling budget travel guide series" nowadays.</p>