<p>Seriously, they just love to degrade people and tell them that they're worthless. </p>
<p>They also told me that it'd be a waste of time to try to pursue a "dream.." because I'm "not good enough."</p>
<p>Are the actual people at Harvard that cold?</p>
<p>Um, obviously because they’re better than you
EVERYBODY knows that the USNews ranking of your alma-matter predicts not only how much money you make, but how much you will enjoy your life, how happy of a marriage you will enter into, how much people will respect you, how proud your parents will be and whether or not you go to heaven.
Post-life admissions depend heavily on the prestige of your undergraduate institution you know…</p>
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<p>not all of them… but probably a lot more than you would find in other places.</p>
<p>I take delight in knowing that most Harvard students turned down superior schools because they wanted to revel in its prestige.</p>
<p>I haven’t ventured to the Harvard sub-forum yet but I assume it’s a case of elitism?</p>
<p>I guess if you’re not as elite as they are, they weed you out immediately.</p>
<p>As soon as I stated to them that my GPA is 3.0, they started freaking out at me for “Wasting their time.”</p>
<p>Well if they are “mean” as you put it, then karma will get them. For example, calling you idiot, moron, etc.</p>
<p>@kwu:</p>
<p>Care to provide examples of definitively superior schools? I recognize that Harvard certainly isn’t perfect, but they do have strong programs in just about everything, along with an automatic resume boost and a decent chance of developing friends in “high places” just for having attended the school.</p>
<p>The latter two reasons in particular are pretty good justification for turning down schools that might otherwise be “superior” (though with any luck, University of Chicago will improve its reputation sufficiently that it’ll be worth roughly as much as the schools now in the “top top top” category [Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, and Yale, off the top of my head] for general reputation).</p>
<hr>
<p>@ TC:</p>
<p>The people who got in on a merit basis are probably a lot nicer than the people over on the forums. I know a few people who got in and/or attended (one opted for St. Andrews University in the U.K., but he’s the only one), and they’re all pretty happy people.</p>
<p>Those who got in more on the basis of having a network of alumni among their relatives, or being in the same general group as the people who do, probably are a lot closer to the stuff on the forum, though.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that a decent number of the forumgoers are parents of people who were admitted, and they understandably may be somewhat offended by the idea of someone with ‘only’ a 3.0 even applying to the school that their children (generally) worked so hard to get into.</p>
<p>jonnosferatu, in your post, you appear primarily concerned with the “resume boost,” “developing friends in ‘high places,’” and “reputation.”</p>
<p>Well, then, I can’t and won’t argue with you in that respect.</p>
<p>I love how Jonnos took that comment so seriously and launched into a diatribe. Ahh, cc.</p>
<p>WishWish - All you have to do is remind them that our alcoholic, hard-partying president went to their school. Sometimes they forget.</p>
<p>What? It’s a serious concern. In an ideal world, the education value would indeed mean everything and the institution would be judged on that basis rather than reputations built up largely as a function of age and wealth of founder.</p>
<h2>Unfortunately, we don’t live in an ideal world, and while the US is definitely a lot better about personal merit vs. reputation of college/grad school than some other places (England being the easiest example), going a college with “great” educational value and a very large number of merits on the side is going to do a lot more for most people than going to a school offering a better education and atmosphere but fewer such side benefits. It’s not so much that I’m primarily concerned with it as it is that the people doing the hiring are.</h2>
<p>EDIT: I should probably note, just as clarity, that this really only applies to the ‘universal big top’ places and the places regarded as top in individual fields (Chicago for economics, etc.). Anything short of those, better value of the education itself is going to worth a lot more.</p>
<p>That doesn’t sound “mean” to me, that sounds realistic; they’re doing you a favor. Sometimes we think we’re hot **** and we forget just how many people are out there that we have to compete against for the things we want. They’re saving you time and effort, because with that gpa your application will be thrown out as soon as it arrives. They won’t even look at it. Just because you want something, doesn’t mean you’ll get it. Maybe you won’t see it now but you might even come to appreciate their candor some day.</p>
<p>P.S. If you really wanted Harvard this wouldn’t phase you for a second. So why are you making a big deal out of it? I’m sure there are things you could do. Maybe donate an airport? All kidding aside, if you really want something you can’t let anything stop you.</p>
<p>I will never understand why people end up with 3.0 gpa’s in high school. It’s so easy to get good grades.</p>
<p>^ Depends on the school.</p>
<p>Unless your school has rampant grade inflation (…like mine) a 3.0 isn’t a BAD GPA. It just means that you may have to put a tad bit more work into your other application stuff (for Harvard specifically, that’d be the CommonApp essay, the Supplemental Essay, the Interview, some good extracurriculars, and SAT scores [some emphasis on the SAT IIs here]). If you’re a great writer and an interesting person, it won’t gimp you THAT much (I hate to pull out the uber-conservative point here, but it’ll mean even less if you’ve got a minority background).</p>
<p>Don’t worry. Grade-wise, you’re still in the range.</p>
<p>Because they’re horrible people who feel bad about themselves and think they can only fill the holes in their hearts by hurting others.</p>
<p>My advice would be to stay away from that particular subforum.</p>
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<p>Uhh, when you’re in 5 AP’s, in 3 sports, 2 theatric productions, 2 clubs, have a part time job (5 hours every night), volunteer occasionally and tutor, AND play 3 musical instruments in which you have lessons for, getting amazing grades isn’t “Easy.” And a 3.0 isn’t bad. It’s above average.</p>
<p>I would hardly consider general ease of high grades a sign that a high school is garbage. If that ease is because the classes are pathetically easy (relatively fair grades), then yes, there’s a problem, but if it’s just grade inflation, the quality of the classes demonstrating the problem is a lot more important.</p>
<h2>Then again, he COULD just be ■■■■■■■■. But that never happens here on CC, does it?</h2>
<p>Just for the record, though, if you’re in 5 APs, 3 Sports, 2 Theatrical Productions, 2 Clubs (I assume this would be dedicated membership with some work involved, not the run-of-the-mill ‘join and get pizza at meetings’ situation), and play multiple instruments, and aren’t getting at least a 3.0, you’re probably doing a tad too much (indeed, Captain Obvious IS in town right now). If you’re doing the rest on top of that, there’s something very wrong with either you or the psychopath who thinks that a teenager should be doing that much if they can’t maintain at least a 3.0 with relative ease (and hell, even then, unless they’re managing it and still getting at least 6-7 hours of sleep every night).</p>
<p>That situation might change a bit if you’re at boarding school and thus have a much more direct focus on ALL of it (if nothing else, you might see less wasted time), but it’s still completely absurd.</p>
<p>I don’t read the Harvard forum, so I cannot speak to specific examples of meaness.</p>
<p>I think it is true that when someone or some group thinks it occupies the absolute top of the food chain, as it were, mostly because no successful challenges to that perception have been launched, it is up to those who would launch such challenges to come up with a reason or reasons to show how that particular conceit, displayed by some Harvardians (not all, of course), rests on less than impervious foundations.</p>
<p>In Harvard’s case that may be indeed hard to do. One way to appraise that esteemed institution is to look at its value system and compare it against one’s own. Are there things being done by H, be it the students, faculty, the administration, or – that most sacrosanct entity – the Board of Overseers that are insults to one’s values, ethics, politics, environmental concerns, etc.? </p>
<p>My guess is one would not have to dig too deeply to find ocassional or perhaps even numerous instances that would take old “Newtowne College” down a peg or two.</p>
<p>I’ll throw out just one of the most recent and well publicized instances, that of the loss of nearly one fourth of its endowment to short-sighted and, well, just plain greedy investment strategies. Harvard is, of course, not alone in its finacial foibles, as many colleges have lost endowment value. This does however, make H look very much like the other mere mortals in the game, does it not?</p>
<p>Let the digging commence…</p>
<p>you realize a lot of the people on cc who claim to be from a certain school might not actually be telling the truth right?</p>