<p>"What is misleading about this is that it implies that Harvard admits people almost purely based on passion. This is true to the extent that most Harvard students are passionate–they’re passionate about being successful and intellectual. </p>
<p>Most of Harvard’s students are incredibly hard-working type-A’s. Almost all of them studied extremely hard in high school and scored very well on SATs, etc. And most of them are just really smart to begin with. "</p>
<p>Wow…I feel like this is turning into an argument, haha 
ah well, such is life. </p>
<p>I guess I assumed that this would be tailored toward people who have the scores/grades/etc. to have a good chance of getting into Harvard, and then these tips would be that extra “edge” over the other applicants, as crass as that sounds…I hate saying “average people” or whatever but I assumed that whoever takes themselves seriously enough to apply to Harvard would NOT be “average”. Sorry for the confusion, and if I’ve offended anyone…again, such is life. I would write it in French, but I can’t remember the spelling at the moment, lol.
As for what you said:</p>
<p>“Just “loving life” and being “passionate,” and happy, and “living life to the fullest” is a nice idea, but Harvard admits its students to be successful, not to be happy (not to say that Harvard students are unhappy!!!).”</p>
<p>Did I actually <em>say</em> any of that? I certainly didn’t mean that as the ONLY thing one should do…</p>
<p>Also…okay, I’ll admit, I literally wrote my essay in half an hour, never studied for the SATs, had far too much free time, etc…so I’m probably the exception to the rule. I just don’t think people should sacrifice social skills (speaking as a generality) for grades, because THAT is why they turn away half of the perfect-scores people. </p>
<p>As for Harvard students being unhappy…that depends on the student. I personally am extremely happy with my choice, but I know many others who worked hard their entire lives and then ended up miserable because Harvard was not the environment they wanted. </p>
<p>Ciao!</p>
<p>~lb</p>