<p>No decal on our cars either. I do drink my morning coffee from a Harvard mug though. </p>
<p>EAO1227 - Good luck to your son in his applications. We have one coming up in three years. I just don’t even want to think about it.</p>
<p>Thanks, EAO1227. Who knows! Maybe my daughter would have been admitted to Harvard, though I highly doubt it! She didn’t apply to any Ivy League colleges. She is a first-year at Smith College in MA. She is happier than ever, has found like-minded peers, and feels right at home. You’re right – that’s all that matters. I came over to this Harvard thread out of curiousity. What a nice, grounded, humble group you all seem to be! </p>
<p>There was one boy from my daughter’s class who was accepted to Harvard (and Princeton, Yale and Stanford, too). This brought significant press coverage. At the end of senior year there was a lot of ribbing in class if he made a mistake or didn’t know something. I wondered if he felt he had to perpetually prove himself. I’m ashamed to admit I felt a little satisfaction when it was my daughter he called for help in AP Physics.</p>
<p>Sorry to hijack your thread. It was fun reading! Best of luck to all your children.</p>
<p>Come back any time, jnsq - glad to hear your daughter is happy at Smith. A friend’s daughter is also there and also just blossoming - got a wonderful summer internship in art history at the Chicago Art Institute.</p>
<p>JNSQ - Hey, please join us anytime! I get a little tired of hearing only about campus life at one school all the time. Your D is at a top LAC in a classic college town setting in the midst of five very different colleges - I’ve always thought of the Northampton area as a form of college utopia! That’s the other type of a classic college setting that the rest of our kids bypassed when they decided to go to H. What particular aspects of Smith and the Five-College is she finding so enjoyable?</p>
<p>Yes, we were all surprised that our local superstar was turned down at H. But he and D1 talked just after the EA applications went in, and he mentioned to her what a snap he thought the H application was. She was surprised to hear that - she’d put 30 to 40 hours into it, obsessing over writing and rewriting essays, creating a resume and vocal and piano repertoire lists, and networking with faculty in her possible areas of concentration. We thought that the amount of effort and detail put into the application may have been a key factor. Or, perhaps the combination of good grades and SATs coming out of a rural HS with student data that’s typically much lower might have resonated with H’s current efforts to tap lower socioeconomic talent pools.</p>
<p>Hmmmm . . . think I’ll put Smith down on DD2s eventual list.</p>
<p>Summer after freshman year, my D looked for internships in our area, but the few she found were unpaid. She also considered looking for some sort of career-oriented office-type job, but she was tired and wanted to take advantage of probably her last summer to take a break, and she especially wanted to earn some cash, so she took a job at the clothing store where she worked before college. She endured a fair amount of comments from others who seemed to be surprised or critical (one person said he thought it was “weird”) that she “goes to Harvard but works in a clothing store!”</p>
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<p>In the spring of my son’s senior year of high school, after the college acceptances had come in, he and I flew to Hartford, Conn., rented a car, and drove to Amherst, where we spent a couple days and he did an overnight visit. (We then went on from there to Cambridge and did the same thing at Harvard.) This was the first time that either of us had ever been in Mass., much less at these schools.</p>
<p>Based on that experience, I heartily second the notion that the Northampton/Amherst area and colleges seem, in many respects, idyllic. And Amherst is one of several other schools that I would have been more than happy for my son to attend. (And as a longtime Emily Dickinson geek, for me it was a thrill to be able, while my son was hanging out with his student host, to tour her house, then visit her grave.)</p>
<p>jnsq-feel free to join in and put in your two cents anytime. Smith is a great school-and its awesome that your daughter is happy and has found like minded students. I actually was looking at list of great engineering programs for my son and saw Smith high on the list, said Oh hey what about Smith before I remembered it was all Women, Son said, hey I don’t mind being a minority-I’d love to apply 
Mammall I must admit I am not ready to do this again!!!</p>
<p>Bay - my D says there’s lots of talk already among the H freshmen about summer internships. She doesn’t want to do that sort of thing with her summer. I think she’d love to work in a clothes store! This past summer she worked for about a month intensively at a company owned by a friend’s dad. It was very lucrative and over quickly. Then it was a lot of hanging out at home and with friends, sleeping, relaxing. I’d be fine with another summer just like that one. I know the internships are considered important but I think as long as they give their utmost effort to classes and EC pursuits during the college academic year - at least the first few summers should be relatively without agenda.</p>
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<p>I’m there now. Harvard has come and gone for D1, and D2 is up to her eyeballs in the application process.</p>
<p>“my D says there’s lots of talk already among the H freshmen about summer internships.”</p>
<p>I would say there is a mild amount among my friends. I think people have been talking for two reasons. The first is that many programs expect applications to be turned in by December or November. The second is that the career fair just rolled through down. I’d advise all potential students reading this to go next year. Not only can you talk to reps from Google, Microsoft, CIA, Bain, ect, but there is also an amazing amount of fun free stuff. Also, many big time companies have started hosting dinners for interested students. Bridgewater and D.E Shaw have both had theirs I believe, and Bain’s is coming up. Unfortunately, not many of those are for freshman :(</p>
<p>I guess I don’t see what the big deal is in putting a decal on the cars. We do have a Harvard decal on the car that my son drove before he left for Harvard. He also has his high school decal on it, his soccer team decal, and a Christian cross on the car. I drive it now and I’m fine with it. Where we live many many people have their favorite sports team decals on their cars along with all the colleges that they’ve been to or their kids currently attend. It’s just a fun thing to do around here. Maybe it makes a difference depending where you live.</p>
<p>guitars101 - more power to you. I did order a decal but somehow don’t feel right putting it on my car - after all, it’s my kid going to Harvard - and my D just absolutely wouldn’t agree to one on her ancient old car. My husband has the “new” car in the family (2 years old) and he waited so long for it that he will allow nothing to detract from its pristine beauty. </p>
<p>I do have a zippie with a very discreet “Harvard” that I clean house in and is very satisfying.</p>
<p>As I think I may have mentioned at some point on some other thread, my wife has a very nice, very comfortable, zippered, hooded sweatshirt, crimson with “Harvard” across the front, which she wears out and about from time to time (to our younger son’s baseball games, etc.). And, no, wearing a piece of clothing that openly reflects the H connection doesn’t seem to have drawn any undue notice, or triggered any adverse reactions, or been regarded as any sort of big deal by anyone else - maybe in part because others who know my wife know that it’s just not that big a deal to her; she’d wear a sweatshirt with our son’s school on it wherever he went, and Harvard happens to be where he goes.</p>
<p>White_Rabbit,
Has the career fair already taken place for this year or did you mean to say to watch out for it sometime next year?</p>
<p>I meant to encourage people to look out for it next year. Though, many companies are still in the process of hosting dinners at the Charles Hotel. I know Bridgewater and Bain have been advertising on the back of the Crimson every morning.</p>
<p>Thanks. I will let D know about this, in case she missed reading this!</p>
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<p>There was an interesting [editorial</a> in The Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=524330]editorial”>http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=524330) a few days ago regarding internships. Mammall, you would be happy to hear that the author of the editorial said:</p>
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<p>I like to wear long sleeve T-shirts when I go running in the cool of the early morning. And I have 2 or 3 nice Harvard long sleeve Ts that I frequently use for that purpose. In the few times anyone has commented on the shirts I always reply: “I don’t go to Harvard but my money does.”</p>
<p>I have always worn t-shirts/sweatshirts from my kids schools, teams, etc. I also wear Vans, Hurley, and many other surf t-shirts and I DON’T surf. I think we all wear t-shirts with some kind of logo on it. I may not necessarily ride, surf, swim, play football, baseball but it’s fun to wear favorite teams names. One of my favorite shirts is a USC t-shirt and my kids don’t go there, but I like the shirt </p>
<p>Just me :)</p>