| Thanks for your thoughtful replies, gadad and h-bomber.
A couple of your points are similar:
1. Resources/funding for interships/activities: Isn't this really a function of how much money the college has? I know Harvard has the most money, but other colleges with similar endowments should be able to provide this too. Besides, if one was enough of a go-getter (which most H students are), one could probably do the same elsewhere. So it's not really a Harvard-specific reason.
2. Close work with faculty: same as 1, you could do this somewhere else too. It would depend on how hard you chase the opportunities.
3a. Variety of extracurriculars: It's funny but I've always heard that Harvard suits the kind of people that know what they want beforehand and pursue it singlemindedly. So the variety of ECs wouldn't help me because I would just delve straight into my passion. If it happens to be something esoteric interest/club that other colleges might not have, one could just start it there, no?
3b. This is a fantastic reason. That's exactly what I mean - something unique to Harvard - the culture - not how much money or how many organizations. Anything else like this?
4. People: I don't get what you mean by all the stereotyping. Obviously that's inaccurate and you'll find all sorts of people everywhere. So it's being world-class in a certain thing and bringing new angles to the table? But couldn't one find that at another top college too? This one isn't quite unique to Harvard.
5. Boston: You could go to BU/BC/whatever else college near Boston. Or Columbia, where you'd have NYC.
Keep 'em coming. |