<ol>
<li><p>It was my goal because of all the advantages, so that I worked persistently hard for higher GPA, higher SAT, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>I didn’t have a desire to go to a good college but actually just did well because i naturally find school and studying fun</p></li>
<li><p>Other?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I will answer this, because I got into Harvard so long ago it no longer seems like bragging to talk about it.</p>
<p>Everyone I knew at Harvard, pretty much, was like this:</p>
<p>From an early age, we were the smartest kids in the class. We scored at the 99.9 percentile on every one of those standardized tests all the way through elementary school and whatnot. We did well in school because it came naturally, and when it didn’t, we took enough pride in being top-notch students that we would work hard enough to get the results we were accustomed to. We were involved in a lot of activities, because we had lots of interests and talents. People elected us to leadership positions because we were good leaders. We aced the standardized tests like PSATs and SATs because they were just another standardized test, after all. We’d always aced them.</p>
<p>I actually never thought of going to Harvard. I imagined myself going to a small liberal arts school, specifically my mother’s alma mater. But when I was a junior in high school, I visited a friend of my older sister’s (a Yale freshman at the time) at Harvard, just for completeness’ sake. I mean, why not check it out? I was a straight A student with National Merit Finalist PSAT scores.</p>
<p>I got there and found that the people were the wittiest, most interesting, most engaging folks I’d ever met, and they were having the time of their lives. I decided I wanted that experience.</p>
<p>Nowadays it is much harder to get into Harvard than it was in my day–my grades, class rank (#1), SAT scores (800-v, 740-m, before recentering), and extracurricular record would just be enough, basically, to buy me a ticket to the Harvard admissions lottery.</p>
<p>But I know that whoever gets there will probably find the same thing I did: people who are just being themselves.</p>
<p>I’ve got a couple daughters there, and DeskPotato’s synopsis would fit them both, as well as just about all of their friends who I know.</p>
<p>Also, check out Lowellbelle’s very insightful thread from 2006:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/205530-how-get-into-harvard-harvard-student.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/205530-how-get-into-harvard-harvard-student.html</a></p>