<p>The average GPA at Harvard is 3.7. It seems like a very, very fine difference in a class of 2100 if you earn a 3.6 or 3.8. Why is there any stress at all at Harvard?</p>
<p>To me it seems like any Harvard grad is the same as the next one.</p>
<p>Most every Harvard student has been at the very tippy-top of their high school class and wants to remain so during their college years. If you group 1660 “type A” kids together, and make them go head-to-head, competition and stress will naturally occur.</p>
<p>No. Do the math. You are in. You are golden.</p>
<p>Well, that’s what it may seem like to an outsider, but it’s not the reality. Most Harvard students, including my daughter and her friends, DO NOT take their acceptance for granted. They know they are not ‘golden’ until they prove it to be so by besting their fellow students in class. They also know that while some tippy-top students get great jobs upon graduation, there are other students who are unemployed. See: [Where</a> We Stand: The Class of 2013 Senior Survey | News | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“Where We Stand: The Class of 2013 Senior Survey | News | The Harvard Crimson”>Where We Stand: The Class of 2013 Senior Survey | News | The Harvard Crimson)</p>
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<p>Harvard’s Mental Health Care System is overwhelmed from the sheer number of students seeking care due to the stress. If stress were not an issue at Harvard, then I doubt so many kids would end up seeking some form of mental health care during their 4 years at school.</p>
<p>gibby: if the class size was 500 or less I get it. but 2100? do the math.</p>
<p>I confess I haven’t kept up with the story but apparently the “stress” of just one exam was enough to make a student shut down the entire university for a day.</p>
<p>I know an extremely brilliant kid who just graduated who worked his butt off for a 3.8 in a non-STEM major so I don’t know that you can just cruise through Harvard with a 3.7 as you imply. Either that or he picked the wrong major.</p>
<p>There are about 1650 in each class not 2100.</p>
<p>The fact is that the average GPA is 3.7. Maybe A bested B in Math, then B bested C in Biology, and B bested all in Econ. The average GPA is 3.7.</p>
<p>First off, the class size is not 2100 – that’s approximately the number of students Harvard sends acceptances to each year, but Harvard has an 82% yield, which translates to about 1660 students.</p>
<p>Secondly, competition varies from concentration to concentration. Those students who are are ultimately vying for a Wall Street job must maintain a higher average than other students – and tenths of a percentage count when the big boys come recruiting. There could be 300 students with a GPA between 3.8 and 3.9, but when recruiters come calling, they put applicants in rank-order and understand where students are in the pecking order. It’s just like college acceptance, all over again!</p>
<p>Lastly, because you don’t get it, doesn’t negate the reality: Harvard is a stressful place.</p>
<p>Btw, stop saying do the math. What do you mean? What does having 500, 2100, or 1650 have to do with it? Caltech has 264 students and you can’t tell me it’s not stressful there.</p>
<p>@ Gibby Exactly! Both of our daughters can tell MaterS a thing or two about stress.</p>
<p>So why not stretch out the grading scale to differentiate among students?</p>
<p>Every top college is not stressful for every student. Many students at top colleges came out of top prep schools and it is just another day for them.</p>
<p>Yes!
Cal Tech, MIT, Pritzer.
Stressful,
Yes Falcon1!!</p>
<p>@MaterS What you don’t seem to get is that these kids were not just plucked from a McDonalds somewhere and handed a 3.7 average. These 1650 kids are among the brightest, most driven kids in the entire world! My daughter had all perfect scores, 18 college level courses in HS, played sports as a captain and with all that her major accomplishments were actually outside of school which made her highly sought after! She is working her tail off now at Harvard and she could run circles around most kids in HS. So yeah, do the math.</p>
<p>Really?</p>
<p>Really?</p>
<p>Every top school will say they can replace their Freshman class man for man with another class. Numerous campus visits say this over and over.</p>
<p>Statistics cannot be based on a single data point. </p>
<p>Harvard Law is vey stressful.</p>
<p>Counting my child and her classmates and siblings I know well over 200+ students that have matriculated to HY, Stanford, Deep Springs, or the like. </p>
<p>Still confused about the stress.</p>
<p>I think you’d better stay in your state of confusion since you really don’t like to get out of it.</p>
<p>Well, whatever MaterS just said makes me realize I should quietly say goodnight…</p>
<p>Every student should go to a school that is suitable for them. </p>
<p>If an ambulance needs to be called during midterms or a student makes a stupid bomb threat the school is a bad fit.</p>
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<p>assumes facts not in evidence.
The actual quote is that
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<p>considering that the survey mentions the excessive cheating on homework and exams, the cocaine and lsd usage, the alcohol usage, the fact that over a quarter of the class would chose a different concentration if they could start over, there are a lot of reasons why people would want to go for some mental health care.</p>
<p>“Harvard Law is vey stressful.”</p>
<p>Did you go there? </p>
<p>I did.</p>
<p>It was not stressful for me, as a graduate of the place, or for any of my friends or acquaintances there, for what I could tell.</p>
<p>No matter how well or how badly you do at Harvard Law School, you will get a very good job at a reputable firm. Period. Thus people aren’t worried or competitive. </p>
<p>I went to a small liberal arts college for undergrad and found the LAC to be much, much, much more unpleasant and stressful because there, you have to do well or else you’re basically never going to get admitted to a decent grad school or get a job with a reputable employer.</p>
<p>My first exam period at HLS was intimidating, but the whole experience was much more enjoyable for me than college was.</p>