<p>All of you guys saying that Harvard has no social scene are crazy!! As a freshman, I go out and party every Friday and Saturday nights (and would on Thursday as well if I hadn’t had quizzes every Friday morning). On any given weeknight, there are at least 5-10 sizable parties in upperclassman rooms, not to mention weekly ones at Sigma or Final Clubs. After having a long yet incredible week of activities, classes, studying, etc, I love going out with my friends on the weekend. ANYONE who says Harvard is lacking in the social scene is simply wrong. We party hard.</p>
<p>I love how the stanford forum has a “101 Reasons Why Stanford is Awesome” thread and we have…this.</p>
<p>^^No, you are not paying attention. We have this:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/272904-101-reasons-go-harvard.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/272904-101-reasons-go-harvard.html</a></p>
<p>In fact they probably copied the idea for the thread from reading the Harvard board. And as of this writing the Stanfords have been able to think up only 51 reasons.</p>
<p>Wow, I apologize for “not paying attention,” although in my defense, I haven’t even been on CC long enough to even know that the thread you posted even existed. -_- </p>
<p>As someone who will likely have to decide between a few colleges next semester, I’m not getting the vibe that H is a very welcoming place :(</p>
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<p>Reason 102 to go to Harvard: Thin-skinned whiners go elsewhere.
(Just kidding Tiger-eye)</p>
<p>Based on what I’ve seen on the facebook group, I can tell there’s no shortage of acerbic wit amongst Harvard admits. Not something that I’m used to, being the southern gentleman I am, but I’m sure I can cope ;)</p>
<p>Check out the original post. The purpose was really more for self examination. There are enough posts from all schools about why all of them are so wonderful. It is thoughtful (and a show of confidence) to also examine the potentially negative sides.</p>
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<p>Hmm, not sure how you slipped by admissions without some evidence of acerbic wit in your essay…but never mind that, I’m sure you’ll do just fine.</p>
<p>Granted, you won’t find many individuals who came to hate Harvard as bad as I did (the vast majority of students like their universities at least somewhat), but here’s an old tirade of mine that ruminated on why I left after my first year: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/12947105-post85.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/12947105-post85.html</a></p>
<p>Also, if as a prospective student you don’t drink and don’t have any intention of doing so, you’ll find that the alcohol policy is totally useless. Assorted liquor possession in the freshmen dormitories (against the “rules”) and underage drinking occurs in large abundance. Of course, it’s to be expected, as it’s behavior that will happen anyway. But it was annoying when I couldn’t use my dormitory’s recycling/trash room because a) the alcohol smell was tremendously nauseating and b) every container was perpetually glutted with beer cans and bottles, and hard liquor containers. There’s absolutely no point in having rules if, in practice, they can’t/won’t be enforced with any regularity or stringency.</p>
<p>Mifune, I’ll set my acerbic wit aside for a moment to extend my heartfelt wishes that you find peace and happiness in the future.</p>
<p>I think the relative dearth of actual students posting here contributes to the repeated death of the awesome things about Harvard thread: Dwight and xrcalico (or are you an alum, now?) and I can only post so many times before it gets super awkward. Whereas this–what are the few things that do dim the luster of the school with the best reputation on the planet–is a source of more continual interest.</p>
<p>If you read the other posts in the thread, you’d see that I responded to mifune’s post somewhat in detail, but the gist of it was: any other four courses here is probably a better four than the ones that made him/her so unhappy in the spring. (The grades of excellence I would give my own past courses: A, A, B+, A; A, A+, A-, C+; A-, A-, B+, A-.) Also, LS1b has been rehauled because it got so bad. I’m still sorry he/she left (and feel a little awkward I’m still uncertain of his/her gender), and hope being in Europe is working out even better than they had hoped.</p>
<p>How about… the dismal acceptance rate? 
For us prospective students, it’s… not the greatest thing. Though I suppose a Harvard that’s easy to get into wouldn’t be Harvard at all.</p>
<p>Maybe… the uncertainty that lies in your chance of admission?
Though again, if Harvard admissions were guessable, they wouldn’t be Harvard admissions.</p>
<p>Perhaps the large number of talented and qualified applicants?
Nah, these people are what make Harvard what it is.</p>
<p>The low chance a worthy individual will be accepted?
I’m sure one of you could easily come up with a counter.
So, I leave it here. There’s nothing. Harvard’s the best. End of story.</p>
<p>Wow, that’s pretty shocking stuff, Mifune. Exultationsy: I haven’t read this entire thread, but are you pleased with the undergrad teaching at Harvard? Is it what you expected it would be?</p>
<p>Just to clarify my position on the whole going crazy thing, I don’t think anybody in there right mind expects Harvard to compare to Wisconsin in terms of straight partying, but even in terms of extra curriculars. You’re going to have a lot more student run organizations at a school with 40-50k undergraduates than you will at one with 7000 undergrads. That’s to be expected as well. Not only that, schools like Wisconsin, Purdue, Illinois, IU, Penn States routinely bring in expensive artists and entertainers on the school’s dime. My university (Purdue) has had Lewis Black, Robin Williams, Darrius Rucker, Lady Gaga, BOB, Kid Cudi, Wiz Khalifa and many others just in the time I’ve been here. It’s just a different type of social scene than at Harvard. There is a lot of partying to be sure, but there’s a lot of other stuff that Harvard does not have too.</p>
<p>Almost everything about Harvard isn’t so great.</p>
<p>And what about Princeton? 
Princeton’s a whole hec of a lot better, I’m sure? lol I’m just shocked to hear about the undergrad educational experience of many students at Harvard. I would like to hear more from current/former students at Harvard. </p>
<p>Undergrad education should be the #1 priority of any college.</p>
<p>Exulsy has a great many thoughts on this subject, most to the effect of: undergraduate education here is very good, I’ve been very satisfied, so have most of my friends; there’s the potential for mifune-level disasters, of course, but I think that’s so at any institution, and I think it’s probably statistically insignificant here, given our 98% retention rate. Exulsy has a lot more specifics. Unfortunately, exulsy is sleepy, and just spent ~30 minutes writing 1000-1500 words of response (I think), all of which she just lost by accidentally hitting “backspace.” (That was about 2/3 of what I had to say.)</p>
<p>Exulsy, being tired enough to be referring to herself in the third person, is going to go to bed and provide more thoughts sometime tomorrow.</p>
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<p>…and with that, I’m going to say this thread has officially turned absurd. Good night.</p>
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<p>Oh how I missed you…</p>
<p>Anyway, I second exulsy in saying that mifune’s spring semester contained the worst Harvard classes ever, although I didn’t hate LS1b too much when I took it in Spring 2010. It certainly wasn’t enlightening but not the worst class I’ve taken. I mostly objected to Dan Hartl’s jokes as an abomination to humor. </p>
<p>My advice to freshmen is, yes, there is poor instruction at Harvard but there is also excellent instruction and it’ s up to you, as a wise adult, to make your (parents’) money go to good use and use shopping period wisely: for electives, shop classes. for required classes that you can’t shop, shop TFs. I don’t really follow my own advice because every semester I convince myself “oh, the class sounded so interesting, I can look past this awful TF.” Nope.</p>
<p>I’ve taken 21 classes at Harvard so far and my honest appraisal is that out of the 21, 8 were excellent, 7 were good, 4 were fair with a major flaw or two but I’m still happy I took them, and 2 I wouldn’t take if I could pick again.</p>
<p>Why is that absurd?</p>