<p>LaRentHead, if you want to leave home, do it. Believe it or not, many happy and successful people went to school somewhere other than Harvard. I have friends (professor types) who have their doctorates from Harvard and their undergrad. degrees from Michigan, and they think that was a very fine combination.</p>
<p>You don’t have to answer, obviously, but are you a H faculty kid? I could easily see why you would want to go to school elsewhere if that is the case. Now, if you were considering H vs. Podunk regional college, I wouldn’t say go to Podunk…</p>
<p>^ I agree with midmo. Most people faced with this choice would choose Harvard and for most of them that would be a sensible choice; even, as some have said here, a no-brainer. But that doesn’t mean it’s the right call for everyone. If you really want to get out of Cambridge, you should. You can get an outstanding education at Michigan, especially since you’re in LS&A Honors where your Honors classmates will be virtually indistinguishable from Harvard undergrads in their stats and accomplishments. Sky’s the limit as to how far you can go academically as an undergrad there; most Honors students end up taking mainly graduate-level courses in their major by the time they’re juniors and seniors, and Michigan’s grad programs are outstanding on almost every front. </p>
<p>Don’t be bullied by all the prestige hounds. Go with your heart. And if you end up at Michigan, you’ll be able to say all your life that you’re one of the elite few who turned down Harvard—thus making you a member of the only group that is even more select than Harvard grads.</p>
<p>If you never attend a large public school, and you want to discover it, go to Michigan. The crowd and personality at Michigan is different from Harvard’s. You will learn a great deal from this kind of experience. And Ann Arborn is a great town, such as Boston, or Berkeley. Academically, they are the same to you since you are a Harvard faculty kid.
my 2 cents</p>
<p>Alexandre, I agree with you that Harvard is overall stronger than Penn but let’s imagine the OP is a business major and got in both Wharton and Harvard. Would your statement still hold true that Harvard over Penn is a no-brainer?</p>
<p>So my point is, let’s ask the OP about his major first before we can give advices.</p>
<p>There are a number of students who turn down Ivy schools to attend Michigan although I agree with Alexandre that there would need to be a special circumstance to turn down Harvard.</p>
<p>^^^Exactly. The OP is a human being, not just a potential diploma holder. </p>
<p>I find it ironic that CC common wisdom holds that students should <em>always</em> choose a college away from home because of the opportunity to experience new places, new people, new environments, yet when this kid says “I would really like to leave home”, he gets the opposite advice–because it’s Harvard. If this student has been living and breathing Cambridge (and maybe Harvard?) his/her whole life, and is tired of it, then who are we to question that wish to experience something new?</p>
Woah, lets not push things here. LSA Honors students at Michigan are nowhere near the level of the average Harvard undergraduate. There’s even a large disparity in SAT scores but the true academic difference extends well beyond anything standardized testing can ever measure such as the innate drive to succeed, a worldly upbringing, natural intelligence, a strong work ethic, etc. etc.</p>
<p>I went to a top public high school in Michigan that sends about 75-100 kids to UofM every year and maybe 20 to LSA Honors. Only about 4-5 kids got into Harvard from my school in the past decade and they were all quite frankly strong candidates from being the smartest and most accomplished kids in the entire state of Michigan.</p>
<p>To the OP, if you absolutely can’t stand the thought of Cambridge and are absolutely heads over heels for Michigan, then by all means pack your bags for Ann Arbor. Otherwise, I think you’re turning down the opportunity of a lifetime that millions upon millions of kids worldwide dream about. This is really a once in a lifetime opportunity so set your doubts aside and go to Harvard.</p>
<p>^^^I think it is safe to say that if the OP has “the innate drive to succeed, a worldly upbringing, natural intelligence, a strong work ethic” and whatever else you mean by etc. etc., then it is a safe bet that the OP will be extremely successful at Michigan and will have a wonderful future. AND, the OP will get out of the town s/he is tired of, and put a little distance between him and his family, if that is a goal.</p>
<p>I was irritated the first time I read post 28, but upon rereading it, I’m laughing.</p>
<p>Yeah, actually. Like I said, Michigan is a perfectly fine place to go to school, but no way is it comparable to going to any of the private colleges you’ve listed, especially to people who get in there in-state. (Well, maybe in some ways) I think it would be perfectly fine to choose Duke or maybe even Cornell as an alternative to Harvard, and many people do. People probably choose Michigan over Harvard too, but I think the comparable rate is for far less, and a lot of people probably do it for financial reasons. (Michigan is cheaper for the “very well-off but unable to afford everything kind of student”) So no, I don’t think choosing between Harvard and Chicago as opposed to Harvard and Michigan is comparable at all. Just for fun, I will list some reasons:</p>
<ul>
<li>class size/personalization (even at Honors programs I doubt that you can get the intimacy that you can at any good private school, and I will continue to think so unless someone can give me personal experience otherwise)</li>
<li>student body strength (I don’t know anything particular about Michigan’s honor program, and I bet it is probably very selective, but the average student there in the school at large is definitely not as strong as the average student at any of the other schools you’ve listed)</li>
<li>hardness of getting in (it is much harder to get into Cornell or Penn than it is to get into Michigan-at-large, especially for an in-state student)</li>
<li>prestige (your mile may vary, and so does everyone else’s, but I don’t think that going to Michigan, even the honors program, quite has the same ring as going to Duke)</li>
</ul>
<p>I’m not saying that prestige or any of the other stuff I’ve listed is what is the most important. I think the OP could probably end up going to Boston or Kalamazoo Colleges and end up having a similar life. But no, that doesn’t change my opinion that the OP should go to any of the schools you’ve listed instead of Michigan.</p>
<p>
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<p>If the OP is qualified enough to go to Harvard and can afford to go to other schools, I don’t think he should waste to qualifications and hard work to go somewhere that he didn’t need to work so hard to get into. I think the fancy Dartmouth-or-so diploma (seeing that he can afford it) should be a mark of the hard work the OP did during high school, even if it won’t make a gigantic difference later on in life. That is my personal opinion, but I’m not sure what is so wrong with that. </p>
<p>I’m not sure what has made you come up with your conclusion that Michigan and Northwestern and the like are the same. As far as I’ve heard on people with the opportunities to attend both top-ranked publics-Cal and UNC-as well as privates, I’ve only heard that the public schools were inferior in teaching and rigor. Sure, anecdotes don’t mean everything, but seeing as they’re the only evidence available to me, I’m just going to run with those. Maybe the opportunities for Michigan and Northwestern are incredibly similar, but like I said, the OP would probably have a similar life anyways going to Western Michigan. I’d like to see what you evidence you have.</p>
<p>You know, I think that when the schools most similar to Michigan or those that are application overlaps with Michigan are listed, its most commonly-cited peer is usually Cornell.</p>
<p>Why are you even asking this question? A good GPA at Harvard plus good test scores will get you into any graduate school. Even if you’re not going to graduate school, just the name “Harvard” will get you any job granted you do well. </p>
<p>You can still have a college experience even if you’re close to home.</p>
<p>I don’t know where you came up with this nonsense about “innate drive to succeed, wordly upbringing, natural intelligence, strong work ethic etc.,” or how you would measure any of those things, or how you know Harvard undergrads have them and Michigan Honors undergrads don’t. But let’s look at things we can measure. SAT scores: Harvard’s middle 50% are 690-800 CR, 700-790 M, meaning a quarter of Harvard undergrads are below those levels. Michigan LS&A Honors sets a minimum cutoff of 700+ CR and 700+ M. So there may be a few more 750-800/750-800 students at Harvard, but also more <700 students at Harvard than in Michigan LS&A Honors. Similarly on the ACT: Harvard’s middle 50% is 31-34. Michigan LS&A Honors sets a minimum cutoff of 32. So a lot more students below that level at Harvard than in Michigan LS&A Honors. I’ll concede that for a Michigan resident who has the right stats Michigan LS&A Honors is an easier admit than Harvard, but that doesn’t mean the Harvard admits have stronger stats or are inherently more intelligent, have a stronger work ethic, or any of that other nonsense. That’s just pure mythology.</p>
<p>Hmmm, where is the OP? Seems like s/he has not given any more indication of criteria for choosing, including differences in net cost after non-loan financial aid and what major(s) s/he is interested in. Such considerations could override what has been discussed here so far.</p>
<p>Yeah. I agree that Harvard is overall the best school however it doesn’t mean that they are significantly above from all (and a person should only consider when it comes to Harvard or Y,P,S,M.) I can’t help but noticed that a majority of Harvard professors did their undergrad somewhere (not Harvard.) </p>
<p>As long as it’s not Harvard versus University of Phoenix, the OP should carefully consider his options. Happiness doesn’t always come with the prettiest spouse.</p>
Eh? I don’t know what to say. You’re missing some logical links here. How is the work OP may or may not have done in HS even remotely relevant to what he gets from the school he chooses?</p>
At the highest levels of academic aptitude, the SAT and ACT exams aren’t difficult enough to truly distinguish the cream of the crop. For instance, many Harvard admits have won a whole host of academic accolades that are frankly much more impressive than earning a perfect score on the SAT and ACT such as performing very well and winning prestigious math/science/humanities competitions such as USAMO/USPho/USCho/USABO/National History Day or attending invite-only summer camps like RSI/TASP the summer following their junior year of high school. If you’re from a disadvantaged background or come from an underfunded school district, Harvard won’t count not achieving some of these great things against you but they expect brilliance from an academic/extracurricular POV from applicants hailing from the nation’s best public and private high schools.</p>
<p>The Harvard admits I know from the top Michigan high schools like Detroit Country Day/International Academy/Cranbrook/Troy/Novi/Grosse Pointe North are nothing short of over-the-top spectacular, as in there are maybe at most 10 kids in any given University of Michigan graduating class that are as accomplished as they are. I bet about 30-40% of Michigan LSA Honors come from those 6-7 Michigan high schools alone and yet they may send 1 kid to Harvard every year if its a good year.</p>
<p>Sure, there are academic superstars who are wooed by scholarships and special Honors designations at universities scattered across the nation, but the lion’s share of them are at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford and MIT but mostly Harvard.</p>
<p>
Well, lets see how Michigan’s strongest cohort compares with Harvard, shall we?</p>
<p>NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLAR CLASS OF 2010
Harvard: 261 out of approximately 1,650 students in the graduating class (15.8%)
Michigan: 60 out of approximately 6,500 students in the graduating class (0.92%)</p>
<p>I don’t think what college you go to has any huge difference to what you do later in life. Yeah sure, there are some exceptions, but those are exceptions. I think it’s like choosing between a used (but functioning) Ford Taurus and a BMW. If you can afford the BMW through (what is hopefully) your hard work, then go for it, but it’s not really going to change if you can get to point A to B. And if you don’t drive your BMW well, it obviously isn’t going to be that great of a ride either. (Yeah a bit of a stretch, but I hope you understand)</p>
<p>I just think the OP should take a lower series BMW if he wants to get out that badly. But I’m really confused as why Michigan and Harvard are his only choices.</p>
<p>^ Still don’t get it. The only way high school work relates to the school chosen is that it dictates the schools available to choose from; ie, one must work in order to get into Harvard. Choosing to enroll at Harvard doesn’t require any additional accomplishment beyond admission. Therefore, the admission itself is the external validation of OP’s work in high school. Feeling pride for admission to a very selective school is in no way contingent on choosing to enroll at that school.</p>
