<p>I should preface this by specifying that I was admitted to Harvard, but wait-listed at Wesleyan and UChicago. I’m trying to decide whether it’s worth it to pursue the other two schools, and whether I might have a better time at one of them than Harvard.</p>
<p>I really want to go to a place that’s academically intense with students who are interested in learning rather than treating everything as a stepping stone to get to another place. (Ie let me ace all these classes so I can go to law school so I can become a highly paid lawyer!!) I want a place where learning is collaborative rather than competitive. I want somewhere with strong programs in foreign languages, psychology, and english. I want somewhere where professors are accessible and interested in their classes.</p>
<p>I also would really like to go to a college with a vibrant theater scene, where there are great theater facilities and passionate, artsy students. I’m also super interested specifically into getting into improv/comedy in college, so the Chicago comedy scene and the Lampoon are especially appealing. </p>
<p>I go to an NYC Private school, and I guess I’m a little afraid of running into the same kinds of pretentious and competitive people I’ve met at my school at Harvard. Could anyone speak to the ways in which Harvard does and does not fit its stereotype? Is it possible that Harvard is not for some people despite having the reputation as the best university in the country? And is there any value to be found in choosing a different college over Harvard or would I be wasting a wonderful opportunity?</p>
<p>**I should also mention I have a lot of family who went to Harvard, so part of my reluctance to go there stems from a desire to break away from the norm and resist the family pressure. </p>
<p>The beauty of being a teenager is that you can break the norm, as well as play the role of a rebel. Perhaps on stage, and perhaps in real life. It also great to consider following a different path. </p>
<p>Ultimately you will have to go with your heart. But also realize that there might more people like you who feel somehow “forced” to follow the family history and might secondguess the choices that appear too obvious. You will meet great kids in college, and also a good number of the insufferable fools you are afraid to meet. They are everywhere. </p>
<p>To help you (perhaps) you might evaluate how difficult transferring from Chicago or Wesleyan to Harvard would be, and then the opposite. I happen to think that you could be break the norm at … Harvard, by being a student who takes risks and enjoys thinking outside the box.</p>
<p>“I also would really like to go to a college with a vibrant theater scene, where there are great theater facilities and passionate, artsy students”</p>
<p>This certainly wasn’t the U. of C. I went to. New facilities have been added but “passionate, artsy students” at the U. of C. - are you kidding?</p>
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<li><p>The Chicago city theater and arts scene may be great but the Hyde Park UChicago scene is pretty disconnected, far removed both geographically and culturally. </p></li>
<li><p>On campus, Wesleyan is probably best suited to your theater interests, but Harvard has the luxury of all of Boston/Cambridge to tap and financial resources other schools can only dream about (incl Wesleyan, in particular, with a challenged endowment and recent need to go need aware in admissions). </p></li>
<li><p>Careful about stereotypes as gadad warns. Harvard hands out more financial aid than almost anyone out there. There will be princes of industry and, well, real princes sharing your dorm, but there will be plenty of working class and Pell grant products sitting side by side with them at the dinner table. ALL these colleges will have kids that remind you of the worst you knew in HS. But I’ll guarantee that the kids you’ll meet at Harvard will be, as a group, about as intellectually accomplished and driven as any found anywhere in the country. And, yes, many of their goals will be in the pursuit of art, creativity, or altruism.</p></li>
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<p>Boston/Cambridge, alumni connections, and branding that can’t be beat - a wealth of oppourtunities making for certainly not a perfect undergraduate experience, but darn close.</p>
<p>I think one thing to consider before going to Harvard is that the kinds of things you are interested in (theater, comedy improv, etc.) are extremely competitive and oher than the Crimson, the Lampoon and a few other places, the extracurricular facilities at Harvard are not very good. The Wesleyan scene would certainly suit you better, but as others have noted, you would of course be giving up the Harvard name.</p>
<p>Bottom line: send in your deposit, but hold out for Wesleyan.</p>
<p>In case you want to wait for a decision that would please our old friend Circuitrider/JohnWesley by becoming one the very few (if any) who would turn down Havard for Wesleyan, this might help a bit:</p>