<p>Hey guys!</p>
<p>I'd forgotten about the CC forum, but a recent post on the Harvard Class of 2015 facebook page made me remember it. And I just wanted to give you a heads up.</p>
<p>What college accepts you has absolutely no bearing on you as a person or your future success.</p>
<p>What makes me say this? I got into Harvard. I also got rejected from eight other schools. I didn't get into a single Ivy (or any of the other fancy name brand schools). And it's not like my Harvard application was different from any of the others...I mean, it was just the Common App right?</p>
<p>Some fluke of fate got me into this school, and I don't deserve it. I'm not being falsely modest. Some of my fellow classmates deserve it--they've singlehandedly saved Africa or are the top high school mathematician in the world. I don't even have the excuse of being recruited for a sport.</p>
<p>So what can you take from this? As often as you've heard it, please believe it when I say it: admissions to schools like this are luck. You'll be successful no matter where you go. </p>
<p>Please please please don't let college admissions rule your life--enjoy high school while you can! I can promise you that, almost exclusively, no Harvard kid ever imagined they could possibly get into Harvard. Everyone I've talked to thought they had no shot. What does that mean? If you think you have a decent chance....well, we'll leave it at that.</p>
<p>Happy summer! :)</p>
<p>Thanks so much for that good advice (:</p>
<p>But still means that because of luck, I wont get a high paying job in the future :(</p>
<p>who says? No one really knows if you will or if you won’t.</p>
<p>I think it’s healthy that most of the freshman class spends the first week, at the very least, feeling like they’re the one mistake the admissions office made. I certainly did, and I don’t know anyone who said they didn’t. ([Here’s</a> an ancient Crimson article for the lulz.](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1980/9/8/woops-pbabrmand-linkmuller-84-trooped-into/]Here’s”>Woops | News | The Harvard Crimson))</p>
<p>However. I disagree with people’s tendency to say that Harvard admissions are completely random (“crapshoot” is the usual term for it, I believe). In my opinion, that both invalidates the success of admitted applicants, and gives no-chance applicants false hope. I’ve been quite impressed with the quality of my classmates. Yes, sometimes section seems invaded by complete dullards. But every time I’ve found out more about one of those dummies, I discover something amazing about them, like one guy who turned out to be both a very good basketball player and a brilliant painter. And I think that saying we’re all here by luck invalidates that. I’m in favor of modesty, but I feel like this form of it often crosses the line from self-deprecating, if it’s coming from an admitted student, or trying to fairly warn applicants, if it’s coming from a guidance counselor or something, to putting our entire school unfairly down.</p>
<p>Also, I trust that the admissions office knows what they’re doing. They certainly at least know what they’re doing enough to winnow it down to the most qualified 4,000-5,000 or so students. I, personally, believe that the decisions among those 4,000 are mostly correct. Other people believe that it’s completely random among those 4,000. Regardless, saying that admissions is a crapshoot for everybody is wrong. It may or may not be random for the top students, but it isn’t for the middle, and it definitely isn’t for the bottom.</p>
<p>Wow OP. If iDoNotTrustTime’s post is true, you have successfully made me feel even worse about my chances. Good day.</p>