<p>Glad to help, shrivats. Still, I think are are a lot of negative ideas out there about Harvard that are worth addressing- some are true, some are somewhat off-base, and some are completely ridiculous. (Note these are just a freshman's opinion.)</p>
<p>1)"Harvard students are arrogant and preppy"- DEFINITELY false. If there's one group of people that know that going to Harvard doesn't make you special, it's Harvard students. As for preppy- I know a few preppy students here, as well as goth students, emo students, jock students, hippie students, and (by far the majority) REGULAR students. Harvard isn't the W.A.S.P.-ridden institution it was a century ago- the diversity here, be it in race, religion, class, or just clothing style, is actually astonishing. (All it takes to get rid of this perception is a visit to the campus).</p>
<p>Funny story, actually- "Legally Blonde" filmed a scene in front of Harvard Yard. They had the option of using real Harvard students to walk through in the background as extras. However, they chose to use actors instead- because they said the Harvard students "didn't look Harvard enough." Might just be an urban legend, but still funny.</p>
<p>2)"Harvard doesn't pay attention to its undergraduates"- not true at all. xjayz and I (along with other Harvard students) have written extensively on this in past threads, so I'm not going to go into this much.</p>
<p>The important thing is that while professors are NOT "distant" or "focused entirely on research," and many will go to the trouble to learn everyone's name, even in a class of 200 or more students, it's true that you won't build the same relationship with professors that you will at a liberal arts school that's focused on smaller classes and closer professors. This is true of any national university- whether it's Harvard or Yale or Dartmouth or UC Berkeley or University of Wisconsin at Madison or whatever. (By the way, I have a number of friends at liberal arts schools- some say that the general atmosphere of "being close to professors" is overrated. I'm sure it's a matter of opinion, but make sure you know what you want.)</p>
<p>3) "Harvard is extremely expensive." Completely ridiculous- this one bothers me the most. With a total cost of about $41,000 a year, Harvard isn't anywhere CLOSE to being the most expensive school in the country (that dubious honor goes to Sarah Lawrence, in Bronxville NY, by the way, with a total cost of $48,000 a year). Literally dozens of other schools are more expensive, including the vast majority of the top 100 liberal arts schools in the country, and a great number of top National Universities- Harvard fits very neatly into the list of tuitions.</p>
<p>This misconception is made far more ridiculous by the fact that Harvard's financial aid is incredibly generous. Harvard completely eliminates tuition for families making under $60,000 a year, and the tuition for families making $60,000 to $80,000 is very low (I think it's in the range of $2000 to $3000 a year, but I'm not positive). This means that if you're disadvantaged, it's probably easier to pay for Harvard than it is to pay for most other selective private universities in the country.</p>
<p>4)"It's hard to date at Harvard." Actually somewhat true. While I know a few people in comitted relationships within Harvard (and I'm in a relationship with a student at BU), from what I hear it's difficult to find relationships. I have no idea why, and I have no idea how it compares to other schools, but it's true. One advantage of going to school in Boston is that it's possible to have relationships with students from other schools, like MIT, Simmons, Northeastern... you know, the other sixty schools in the immediate area.</p>
<p>5)"Harvard students are nerds." Not true at all. There are a number of nerds, but (by definition) they tend to keep to themselves, so most people you interact with on any given day are socially very normal. Again, this perception can be fixed just by taking a trip to the campus.</p>
<p>6)"Harvard's easy once you get in." Geez, I wish.</p>
<p>If you choose an easy concentration (Government is often considered the easiest concentration) and take only easy classes, you can get by without doing much work (as is true of almost any college). However, most concentrations involve a TON of work with really difficult classes. I can only speak for myself- I'm taking almost entirely science and math classes, and the workload is really intense.</p>
<p>7)"The weather is crummy." Yup. Not going to deny it. It's in New England on the coast- it's pretty cold, it rains a good amount, and it's often foggy or muggy (I hear the spring is particularly horrible). This is true of a lot of colleges in the Northeast, of course, and each has its own issues with weather (I visited Dartmouth in January once. Yikes.).</p>
<p>Point is, if you want sunny weather and palm trees all year round, try California schools.</p>
<p>OK, I think that covers a lot of it... good to get that off my chest. I know the last thing all of you are interested in right now is whether you should go to Harvard once you're accepted (you're probably too focused on, well, getting accepted) so I'll shut up for now. In the future, though, if you have questions about these conceptions about Harvard, let me know.</p>