<p>Hello there everybody
I am a Canadian who will be attending an excellent high school next year and taking full IB. My lifelong dream has been to get into harvard, but i have a few questions that i want to ask REAL harvard students.
firstly:
Extracirricular activities: quality or quantity? i volunteer regularly, but what more should i do?
secondly: no transfers, so does that mean that i have to get into harvard DIRECTLY from high school? no chances of taking the basic courses here then moving there for med school eh?
thirdly:
I am fluent in english, farsi, and french. Will dropping french in high school hurt my chances?
AND LASTLY! THIS HAS BEEN DRIVING ME CRAZY!!
You can't take biology AND physics in full IB. I want to go to med school, so i picked physics, but harvrd med asks for 2 years of college level biology and 1 of physics. how do i get into physics in college if i cant take physics in high school, and how are you supposed to complete college level courses if you can't transfer?</p>
<p>help please
i do great in school, but when it comes to this stuff
im just like anybody else :)
NOTE: CONGRATULATIONS TO THE CLASS OF 2013!</p>
<p>You’re confusing Harvard College and Harvard University. Harvard College is the undergraduate school that was founded in 1636 that everyone on this forum discusses. Harvard University is the full range of 14 colleges and graduate schools that includes Harvard College, Harvard Medical School, Harvard Law School, the JFK School of Government, etc. Harvard College has a moratorium on transfers, so yoiu can’t start someplace else and then get your undergrad degree from Harvard. But you can get a bachelor’s degree froim anywhere - U.S., Canada, or throughout the world and then apply to Harvard Medical School.</p>
<p>Oh okay
I get it then
Thanks
How about extracirricular activities though? Quality or quantity?
Like 600 volunteer hours versus being in three clubs?</p>
<p>You need to excell at something in order to stand out. Better to be the best at a few things than a participant in a lot of things.</p>
<p>BTW: you don’t need high school anything (physics) to take college level anything (physics). That doesn’t mean there might not be other classes you may have to take first (like calculus).</p>
<p>directly from high schools, yes. med. school is whole other topic (graduate school).</p>
<p>dropping french will not necessarily hurt your chances. harvard students take the most rigorous courseload though. and if you’re fluent, you might want to prove this with AP/SATII tests.</p>
<p>Does your school offer French for Native Speakers or Extended French? If so, take one of those courses, because the simple fact is that admissions committees like to see students improving their foreign language abilities all four years of high school.</p>
<p>Oh really? I thought physics 30 was a requirement. Thanks then, that helps a ton!</p>
<p>My school offers IB French? I think that should constitute. </p>
<p>And for extracirricular, i think my quality should be solid enough as i volunteer very frequently. Ill still try to join a club or two though. Maybe Model UN or the debate team</p>
<p>Take French HL, then. Either your writing and speaking skills will improve or you will earn an easy A that will boost your GPA. It’s a win-win situation.</p>
