<p>“I found the post kind of funny, but also “full of myself” in a way that irked me O:”</p>
<p>Yeah, that’s right - I said it!"</p>
<p>Northstarmom said, “No big deal, and probably is a typical reaction to Harvard humor. What Harvard people think is funny is snarky, and many other people view people with such humor as being full of themselves.”</p>
<p>Ironically enough, this idea that there is such a thing as “Harvard humor” is irksomely pretentious. </p>
<p>I am convinced Harvard’s student body is diverse enough so as to enjoy diverse types of humor.</p>
<p>Is it not the greatest irony that this Harvard grad is criticizing the very system that she has fostered and grown to the extent that it has. Have not your nearly 17,000 comments created this culture that you right now are so brilliantly criticizing? Of course, you say you want to help students, but the fear mongering that you create with your comments makes these universities seem like an unreachable utopia. The students that you impact and comment to in these threads are the same ones asking for chances in order to seek a sense of security and who can blame them? Certainly not me.</p>
<p>“The students that you impact and comment to in these threads are the same ones asking for chances in order to seek a sense of security and who can blame them? Certainly not me.”</p>
<p>Anyone who gets a sense of security by soliciting on the Internet estimates from uninformed strangers about their chances of admission to Harvard lacks the kind of critical thinking skills that Harvard wants of their students.</p>
<p>They don’t seem to have evolved beyond the stage of magical thinking.</p>
<p>" but the fear mongering that you create with your comments makes these universities seem like an unreachable utopia."</p>
<p>My comments have nothing to do with the fact that fewer than 1 in 10 students will get admitted to Harvard, though it may be comforting to blame me.</p>
<p>“My comments have nothing to do with the fact that fewer than 1 in 10 students will get admitted to Harvard, though it may be comforting to blame me.”</p>
<p>Who is doubting this fact? I am criticizing the way you make it seem the chances are so out of reach for everyone. Simply look at your first post. You make Harvard and other Ivy League schools seem so unreachable for everyone that you, and many others, create this cult which makes these kids ask for chances in the first place.</p>
<p>“Anyone who gets a sense of security by soliciting on the Internet estimates from uninformed strangers about their chances of admission to Harvard lacks the kind of critical thinking skills that Harvard wants of their students.”</p>
<p>Your entire post is a confirmation of this fear mongering. Again your hypocrisy is ridiculous; you say Harvard wants a well-rounded class yet you also say you must be this or that. You force students to want to conform to this person with incredible “critical thinking skills” or they will have no shot at their dream schools.</p>
<p>“No big deal, and probably is a typical reaction to Harvard humor. What Harvard people think is funny is snarky, and many other people view people with such humor as being full of themselves.”</p>
<p>Apparently Harvard students are just completely different from the rest of us. Or how about this completely original though: Maybe it is true that you are full of yourself and maybe you tell these high school students your twisted “facts” in order to fulfill your Harvard past. In any case, hopefully I’m using your “critical thinking skills” to think for myself instead of listening to you. :)</p>
<p>I agree with magic123; this thread, from its very beginning, hid its pretentiousness behind the failed humor and stupid, “Harvard” jokes that the author said someone has to understand in order to be “Harvard material”. </p>
<p>The initial purpose of this thread is pointless too, in that fails to recognize that humans are social beings that can have various psychological reasons, ranging from completely illogical emotional to very reasonable ones, for asking others’ opinions about themselves.</p>
<p>As human psychology will stand, so will, naturally, chance threads too, and they are nothing hard to ignore if one finds them particularly troublesome.</p>
<p>“Your entire post is a confirmation of this fear mongering. Again your hypocrisy is ridiculous; you say Harvard wants a well-rounded class yet you also say you must be this or that. You force students to want to conform to this person with incredible “critical thinking skills” or they will have no shot at their dream schools.”</p>
<p>Saying that Harvard wants a well rounded class means it wants a diversity of students when it comes to hometowns, countries, ethnicities, extracurriculars, religions, socioeconomic statuses, types of secondary schooling, etc.</p>
<p>There are some things, however that are essential: excellent critical thinking skills, excellent verbal abilities, intelligence high enough to be able to pass classes at Harvard, a strong sense of ethics. It doesn’t want a well rounded student body that includes felons, people actively psychotic, people with low IQ or people who try to problem solve via magical thinking.</p>
<p>That last paragraph is important at every college. Not having good critical thinking skills will hurt you in any academic environment. She’s not being hypocritical, she’s being realistic.</p>
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<p>Well, Harvard is that out of reach for everyone. Anyone who doesn’t think this is kidding themselves. The most perfect applicants ever get rejected by HYPSM all the time. Making chances threads is hopelessly pointless if people are already aware of how super-ultra competitive admissions are in the first place. Just because people on the internet say that you can get in with a 3.8 GPA and 2300 SAT doesn’t mean Harvard will actually accept you. Most people probably just do chance threads, especially those for the very selective schools, for reassurance, and not to actually find out their chances.</p>
<p>“Making chances threads is hopelessly pointless if people are already aware of how super-ultra competitive admissions are in the first place.”</p>
<p>My point exactly. Is this not the very reason people make chances thread? That this culture that is created here by the OP and this website makes people want to make these threads because they know how ultra competitive it is?</p>
<p>You’re missing my point. People should make chances thread when they really don’t know where they stand in regards to a school’s admissions. But with a college like Harvard, no one really knows where they stand in regards to admissions, which eliminates any value of chances thread.</p>
<p>I don’t understand what’s so bad about how competitive admissions for schools like Harvard are. It’s not like it’s some sort of secret. I doubt it really causes chance threads, since seeing how incredible applicants get rejected should put in perspective how much of a crapshoot Harvard is for everybody. Also, I doubt the OP has perpetuated the chance threads considering that she already said she doesn’t entertain them</p>
<p>“Also, I doubt the OP has perpetuated the chance threads considering that she already said she doesn’t entertain them”</p>
<p>magic123 argues that the OP perpetuates chance threads, which are obviously designed to bolster confidence, by depicting the admissions process as a completely orderless chaos. Indeed, the OP makes the “snarky” claim that someone who has opened a chance thread has no possibility of being admitted.</p>
<p>Northstarmom said, “Anyone who gets a sense of security by soliciting on the Internet estimates from uninformed strangers about their chances of admission to Harvard lacks the kind of critical thinking skills that Harvard wants of their students.”</p>
<p>“That last paragraph is important at every college. Not having good critical thinking skills will hurt you in any academic environment. She’s not being hypocritical, she’s being realistic.”</p>
<p>Agreed - one needs critical thinking skills to achieve success at a world-class university. Nevertheless, the idea that an anxious lack of confidence is a mark of inadequate critical thinking is rather specious. I believe “chance threads” are the symptoms of collective hysteria, and not of weak-mindedness.</p>
<p>P.S. Though I sympathize with chance threaders’ anxieties, I too find chance threads utterly annoying.</p>
<p>Love the post!!
I’m going to be applying this year, and so many of my friends have already started acting in a decidedly disturbing manner. They’ve stopped doing things because they want to, and started doing them because they think they’ll get them into college.
I’m going to mail this to everyone i know who’s planning on applying to Harvard
Though, it might just get them worked up and terrify them to death. :)</p>
<p>I found Northstar’s op kind of harsh, actually. She’s an interviewer for Harvard, an insider. I read her post and wished she could maybe bring a little more compassion to the issue. Sure, kids get crazy in their lust after admission to schools like Harvard but is that really, really such a despicable thing? At least they’re not doing drugs or blowing off school. There are so many worse things a kid can get obsessed with. I’m a mom of a kid at Harvard and I remember very well the dashed hopes of some of his high school friends who tried like the dickens to get into HYP but didn’t quite make it. Sure, they and their parents were very bummed but it seemed to last maybe a month at most and then they just got on with things. Is trying to do the right thing in high school to “get in” really so bad - it essentially means trying your very best in challenging classes and striving to make meaningful contributions to ECs. I have seen some kids who are a little sad in that it’s obvious the parents are orchestrating the application. But I think that kind of family dysfunction is going to manifest anyway, even if the obsession isn’t HYP. </p>
<p>FWIW, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if my kid came on CC sometimes back in high school and floated his chances on these threads. He was very insecure and wanted very much to go to a big school. And he wasn’t that mature. I don’t find that particularly pathetic or stupid. And my impression is that most of his friends at Harvard were pretty much like him coming in - thrilled and a little shocked to be there, lots of insecurities . . . human.</p>