<p>I bet many of you have spent a certain amount of time dreaming about Harvard during class, in bed, in the shower or while driving. What computer to buy when accepted, what to wear on the last day of high school, etc.</p>
<p>I think it's important to understand that at any tier one school, not just Harvard in particular, that there is no reason to get any pre emptive euphoria. I can say with absolute certainty, that there are PLENTY of downers about Harvard, as there are with any other school. Just the academic rigor involved puts a cap on many potential activities. </p>
<p>No matter how much you like the school, or how many times you've been on campus or done SSP, there is simply no good reason to speculate on getting accepted. Legacies are nice, recs from government officials rock, but the bottom line is for every acceptance, the officers have to reject 16 other candidates. Those odds are hard to come by for anyone.</p>
<p>So, don't write off other schools on the spot, just because they're not famous in some respects. If you like finance, consider Fordham, a tier-one business school blocks away from Wall Street that has a more relaxing and calmer admissions process. Or your flagship state universities, such as Ohio State, Penn State, and the University of Florida. Tech? How about CalPoly or UCBerkley?</p>
<p>I know it’s illogical; I know it’s improbable; I know it’s the very definition of idiocy, but I savor that very hope. Come the 15th I most probably will be sorely disappointed, and even worse, sorely jealous, but until then I’m happy I’m happy now. Is it nobler to be forever sullen in the hope that you’ll never be disappointed? Is it wiser to defer a dream because the harsh morning light will surely break through? I can be prudent in the future but only now can I revel in a possibility. I taste the sweet victory and bitter defeat, but dwell only on the former. No rationale can dissuade me from my irrational hope for these short days are too brief and too few and I have too many hopes to hope and dreams to dream. Let me hope and dream while I still can.</p>
<p>Haha, I wish. If only I could be accidently eloquent when it mattered. Besides, most of what I said was hackneyed and trite. But it’s how I feel right now…</p>
<p>You’re basically telling us to go against our human nature. It’s only natural for us to establish ideals and expectations based on our hopes and dreams, especially for those who are having a pretty crappy go at life right now. In the back of our heads, we all realize that acceptance is a crapshoot but if fantasizing about a holistically great school helps us feel a little confidence in contrast to our overwhelmingly stressed-out lives, there’s nothing wrong with that. Of course, I’m not trying to justify anything close to obsession or plotting out what courses you’d take all four years, but there’s nothing wrong with wanting to know about the rigor of a course or about the workings of a certain Harvardian institution, publication, etc etc. Dreams and goals are what keep us going and add figurative fuel to our fire; To entirely embrace rationalism would be just as ridiculous as entirely embracing the fantasy of attending Harvard. I personally, at least, will still continue to think of the possibility of getting to attend a great school, take ridiculously-advanced classes like Latin and Greek K, and join the school ballroom dance team. How the hell else am I going to be motivated to trudge through a four-hour outline for AP European history? (just one example of the mindless work we sometimes put up with). If (and possibly when) I get rejected, I won’t regret having been excited by the strange intrigue and potential of Harvard. It’s only natural.</p>
<p>Thanks, but no thanks for “making things less painful for most in March and December.”</p>
<p>Most everyone on this forum knows that getting in to such a prestigious tier 1 school is a miracle…that’s what makes it special. Just having the guts to apply knowing how many qualified applicants one is up against is pretty amazing. Most kids wouldn’t dream of applying to Harvard.</p>
<p>I am proud of myself and all the other kids on this forum for taking that risk; for believing that they have what it takes to hack it at Harvard.</p>
<p>All I can say is best of luck to everyone who applied EA and RD.</p>
<p>@Sebelius and @Interficio…very poetic; your posts hit at the heart of what it means to apply to Harvard and other top schools.</p>
<p>I don’t think you all are going to be enjoying it so much if you’re rejected after over dreaming of the school. That is my point, there is no reason to go overboard with the dreaming. Unfortunately there are many who do this every year.</p>
<p>I understand it’s natural to distaste a generic calming post like mine, however you should also understand there is no place of counting your eggs too much before they hatch, no matter what it is. I hope fewer people in the future are caught in this emotional trap with Harvard admissions. Good luck to you all.</p>
<p>A “calming” post would be “I got in, but I feel incredibly lucky to have done so. Everybody’s odds are extremely slim. Regardless of whether you get in or not, it will not define you. You’ve accomplished remarkable things even to be in contention for admission; I wish you all the best of luck.”</p>
<p>So I originally thought you were an aspiring applicant trying to console yourself and others and resign yourself to defeat, making an acceptance a wonderful surprise, and a rejection an “oh, well, saw that coming.” Even then, your post was dark enough that I, as someone who goes here, found it upsetting to read!</p>
<p>And then I discovered that you, in fact, do go here, and I was upset for rather different reasons.</p>
<p>The Harvard app is a funny thing. It messes with your head in strange, wonderful ways. Of course, like every great love affair-my girlfriend calls the Harvard app my “love affair” :P-there is that potential for disaster, for an unsavory end, for bitterness. But that doesn’t mean we stop loving no? We revel in the feeling, we celebrate it, we build castles and we dream. And yes, we have the goddamn right to do that.</p>
<p>I have a countdown timer on my desktop that says: “28 days. 14 hours. 36 minutes”. And these will be the longest albeit sunniest 28 days of my life-lit up by a hope-sun so brilliant and all-scorching that I honestly don’t care what happens at the end of the 28 days-I’ll always cherish all this roller-coaster ride of emotions.</p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>I find this poem very inspiring. Especially now. See if you can relate</p>
<p>Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.</p>
<p>In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.</p>
<p>Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.</p>
<p>It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.</p>
<p>And the 16 people admissions officers need to reject to accept one student are less deserving? I’ll share it again, there is no point in destroying yourself emotionally because Harvard doesn’t have room for you. Realize that it’s still just a college, and an extremely difficult one at that, so things aren’t going to be so hunky dory when you’re a student because it’s a full time job with no overtime pay.</p>
Good luck to you all.</p>