So I’m pretty tired of asking people who want to go to Harvard “Why do you want to go there” or "Whats your plans after Harvard. Usually the responses are: I want to go to Harvard because its the best. I don’t know what my plans are after Harvard. etc. No one is asking you to predict the future, but don’t just go about your life without atlas a plan The reason I opened this thread is a) to get some stress away from the college admission process and b) to show some people what harvard is truly about. Ill start the discussion.
I want to go to Harvard due to the connections made their and because of their plentiful resources. After Harvard I want to continue my education to Med School and become a Neurosurgeon.
Okay, but just a couple of items I’d like to correct.
Not every department at Harvard is the best in it’s field. Other colleges have stronger engineering departments, or computer science departments. And, although a student may get in, Harvard may not be the best fit for everyone.
For example, some students at Harvard graduate being in the bottom 50% or bottom 25% of their class. Some of those students might have been better off going to another college and doing their pre-med requirements somewhere else and being at the top of their class, rather than the bottom. There’s not one right answer for every student.
You’ll find the same kind of connections and resources at Yale, Princeton, Stanford and a bunch of other schools too. Harvard isn’t unique in that respect. Ninety-Five percent of students are rejected from Harvard and most rejects have done pretty well where they matriculated: http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3201481
Your taking my text out on context gibby. I said: "So I’m pretty tired of asking people who want to go to Harvard “Why do you want to go there” or “Whats your plans after Harvard. Usually the responses are: I want to go to Harvard because its the best.” Obviously I was trying to sound like an ignorant individual applying to harvard. And your right about the fact about connections, but most schools will have similar aspects, so let me add that I also like Harvard due to its historic significance as well.
I agree with gibby’s points above. OP, your specific reasons are connections and plentiful resources but, as gibby points out, great connections are not exclusive to Harvard and also, while Harvard’s resources are plentiful, other schools, such as Princeton, have more financial resources per student.
As for your desire to go to med school to become a neurosurgeon, well, you might but, statistically speaking, you’ll probably change your mind. Even if that does remain your goal, there might be better pathways to reaching it. I’m reminded of one of my son’s friends who went to Brown and initially wanted to study art, but is now in Harvard’s neuroscience PhD program. Good luck, wherever you land!
Most kids give pretty generic reasons for wanting to attend H, things that could apply to 100 universities. I’ve almost never heard a kid say things like that they hope to use the resources at the Yenching library or that they can’t wait to take a seminar with Harvey Cox.
Not a Harvard student, but I do think it’s hard to explain why you want to go to a college when you might have only visited once and don’t even know what kinds of things you’ll appreciate about college yet.
However, I do think that OP could be more specific based on his / her own personal interests. For example, I go to Hopkins, and when I applied, I had said that I wanted to go there because it had a large and strong series of departments devoted to the brain sciences, but was also strong in other fields because I was undecided on a major. I was interested in some of its extracurricular opportunities such as Tutorial Project, because I had been involved with tutoring and teaching as a volunteer. When I had visited, I learned that all students “put their academics first” (it was said a million times throughout tours and info sessions), and that the social life wasn’t that big; that was definitely an environment where I knew I would fit in. Heard it was going to be a rigorous / possibly stressful environment, but I was really drawn to the challenge and thought it would teach me maturity and independence.
The reasons why I enjoy Hopkins remained pretty consistent with what I was looking for. Except, I’m not involved with the brain sciences anymore. I wasn’t premed before coming here, but that definitely worked itself out, lol.
I think a little introspection will go a long way when applying. Especially to top schools, because they know that the prestige plays a role, if not a very large role, in most people’s decisions to apply. Every other reason may or may not be true; I’d be so suspicious if I were an adcom, lol.
I want to go to Harvard so I can study under Brian Bacskai in the program of Neurosciences. I want to go to Harvard so I can contemplate the remarkable works of art at the Harvard Art Museum. I can go on and on. So what I meant to say was that I want to go to Harvard due to its unique resources.
That’s a video created by an advertising agency on behalf of Harvard Admissions. The reality though is that it’s extremely rare for an undergraduate to enroll for a Harvard Medical School class.
In other words, undergraduates are the LAST priority of the medical school when it comes to cross-registration.
FWIW: While this article is not about enrollment in classes, it will give you an idea of the life of a pre-med at Harvard. Suffice it to say, students have little or no time to take classes at the med school, unless they are super human and can get permission of HMS to do so:. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/9/26/the-real-premed-requirements/?page=single
FWIW: My 22-year old son graduated from Yale in May 2015 and is now working as a Data Analyst for a well-known tech company. Most student’s have the company’s app on their phone and computer. His starting salary (which blows my mind): $90,000 a year, plus $25,000 stock options, plus $12,000 moving allowance (we live in NYC, so this was a moving allowance allowing him move less than 3 miles from our apartment to his own apartment), plus free medical and dental, plus free breakfast and lunch, plus free gym membership to the club of your choice, plus dollar-for-dollar matching on 401k, plus 4 weeks paid vacation. That’s a lot more money and perks than some starting salaries for doctors. You really must have a strong passion for medicine to go into a field where the money you make is dictated by how much money a patient’s medical insurance company will re-imburse for the cost of a visit or procedure. Many student’s when looking at making the kind of money my son is making vs. going into debt for 4 years of medical school, choose anything but med school.
It’s nothing that a student can’t find out from navigating the website and communicating with students from the university through College Confidential (I didn’t even know this existed until after I had applied, which is a shame). I think that something high schoolers should start practicing is thinking critically about the decisions they’re making and how they align with their goals / values vs. getting distracted by all the shiny features the school highlights.
Colleges never market their full selves to students. They’ll show all the cheerful pictures and talk about how the students are leaders doing ground-breaking research and making a difference in the community. But you also have to be willing to take on the bad things that come with the school. Many of my friends here are very passionate about social justice, and they were disillusioned to find that many students were ignorant / apathetic towards society’s issues.
Moreover, not everything that is good is good for you. Duke was my #1 choice initially, because I was extremely drawn to the liberal arts curriculum and the “work hard, play hard” concept. Wrote in my essay that I loved the school’s spirit and looked forward to being a Cameron Crazy. Then I actually visited and, after spending a lot of time wondering what was so off-putting about the campus, I realized that I don’t actually like playing hard; never have. Also, I don’t like basketball. And now that I’m at Hopkins and have been given the freedom to shape my own education, I realize that I’d much rather immerse myself in a few subjects than have a liberal arts education.
Many young people think they want to go to Harvard because they have heard of it and they don’t know much about any other colleges. Or for prestige. There are many many colleges with the same resources as Harvard. It is all about fit. Harvard’s financial aid is a good reason to apply, though. And yes, if there are details about a department or faculty that interest an applicant, that is a good reason, but that takes some deep research on the website and elsewhere.
I don’t know if you are posting with a phone, because there are some spelling and grammar errors in your posts. You might want to post from a computer
