<p>As a 16 year old HS student, I remembered my teacher talking about her days a student at Harvard University. At the time, I never knew about Harvard being the best school in the world. The name never appealed to me at that time. However, after reading about the school, my impression about Harvard was mixed because I became convinced that the university was a continuation of a Prep School, like Phillips Exeter Academy, which I hate so much because of all those snoblish rich kids. Here is a link to the real Harvard University as I saw it as a kid.</p>
<p>The majority of Harvard College students hail from public schools, not private schools. And those who come from private schools are usually perfectly nice, pleasant, smart and interesting people as well. Are there some not-so upstanding people? Sure. But I can find them at the local state university or community college. It’s a collection of people, like anywhere else. With the good and the bad.</p>
<p>OP: what’s your point? To say you have a narrow perspective? To say you’re open to having your impression expanded? I don’t get it. </p>
<p>You’re sixteen – you’re excused – you don’t have to have a correct image of Harvard. Most people think it’s like “Legally Blonde” (I know it’s the Law School) and that Yale is like “Gilmore Girls” or “Skullz” anyways.</p>
<p>Not necessarily surprising. For one thing, there’s TFA. One common way to jump up the educational hierarchy is through teaching. The superintendent in my district is a former Yale alum. </p>
<p>Finally, there are some people who actually want to teach. Nothing wrong with that.</p>
<p>Redline - If you are worried because your (mis)perceptions of Harvard don’t fit what you want in a college, feel free to consider other schools. There are thousands of fine colleges and universities on the US. I’m sure there are many that can fill your needs.</p>
<p>You used to post on this board a lot about the Harvard Extension as a possible way into Harvard. You should quit thinking about Harvard and focus on finding a college that fits what you want and will likely admit you.</p>
<p>not everyone from harvard does more interesting things than being a teacher, and she could have been one for financial, personal, ideological or family reasons,</p>
<p>indeed, Im still a HSer but I prolly won’t apply to harvard undergrad at least, even though it’s a good school, my perception is there is too much emphasis on grades and not on character or genuine intelligence, unlike MIT, UoFC, Princeton, etc…</p>
<p>also 2/3 of harvard are either Liberal arts students or student athletes, nothing wrong with either, just not my fit</p>
<p>Coureur,
I was refering about Harvard while I was a 10th grade student in High School in 1999. My perception has since changed. It’s true that I talked about HES because I wanted to get a better picture of the classes that they offer. And I like the classes that they have. I have not talked about any other aspects about Harvard, other than the academics. The academics are the only thing about HES that attracts my interest. I don’t care if it’s not Harvard College. I don’t care if people say that it’s not the REAL HARVARD. They are not paying for my education. I am the one who has to pay for my classes. No one else. I don’t care if a ALB is worthless relative to a Harvard College AB. The education is the best thing that HES has to offer.</p>
<p>Your post is a bit puzzling to me. Care to clarify? </p>
<p>I’m not sure about your characterization of Harvard. What do you mean by “there is too much emphasis on grades and not on character or genuine intelligence unlike MIT, UoFC, Princeton”? How do you quantify or even qualify an assertion like that? What are you basing it on? Are you talking about criteria for admissions? If so, I’m not sure how you’d know. How IS it different from Princeton (or a number of other schools)? Are you talking about the student body as a whole? Again, if so, how do you back up your assertion? Hearsay? </p>
<p>Further, while I’m not sure about your fit at Harvard or any school (as I don’t know you), I’m almost certain your assertion that “2/3 of harvard are either Liberal arts students or student athletes” was randomly pulled out of thin air. For your information, every undergraduate at Harvard studies for a ‘Liberal Arts degree’. Even the small percentage of engineering students studying towards a BS (instead of a BA) have to complete certain ‘liberal education’ requirements such as general education/core courses in the sciences, social sciences and humanities. For that matter, Princeton degrees are also Liberal Arts Degrees.</p>
<p>(Unless of course, you seem to be making the classic mistake of conflating ‘humanities’ with ‘liberal arts’…)</p>
<p>I’m a 16 year old HS student who will eventually apply to Harvard. What’s wrong with becoming a HS teacher afterward? Does harvard allow any kind of double major/concentration? If so, I would obviously consider majoring in another more “useful” subject such as engineering. But there’s nothing wrong with wanting to become a teacher. I’m a damn good one. I taught five of my friends the equivalent of a semester of ancient greek in like three months, and they got high scores on a national greek exam.</p>
<p>@Interficio: Yes, you can do something called a joint concentration with some departments and you man minor (secondary concentration) in certain subjects as well. (However, some larger departments such as Gov and Econ no longer allow for joints) However, I believe the engineering school does not have secondary fields in general (with the exception of comp sci I think). Joint concentrating in engineering with any other subject is probably one of the most brutal combinations I can think of, as the engineering department is the only (or one of few) that does not reduce the course load for join concentrators. Also, you’ll have to do a combined thesis on whatever two concentrations you’re combining, and finding a suitable topic that’s acceptable to both faculties is not necessarily easy (or in some cases, downright impossible) esp if they’re not closely related fields. For example, try thinking of something that’ll make the Classics and Electrical Engineering departments happy…yeah.</p>
<p>Um… LOL… my first major WOULD be classics… so… LOL. Engineering was a “broad” term that I used as a placeholder while I get used to physics and ap physics next year and figure out what careers I should go into. I’m considering classics, russian lang/lit (maybe as a secondary concentration), journalism, and something “practical” involving science TBD. I found it very surprising that a lot of the top tier schools have no real journalism department. But I was surprised that a lot have russian!</p>
<p>I go to a decent, large public school and I’ve had two teachers who graduated from Harvard. One of them is probably only around 30 or so, so this isn’t like a retirement career for him or anything. These two teachers are also two of the BEST teachers I’ve ever had and most of that comes from the fact that they legitimately love to teach and don’t teach directly to the AP curriculum. Honestly, it’s a bit insulting that teachers are so looked down upon in our society that it’s so unbelievable that someone could graduate from a top school and <em>want</em> to be a teacher. (In China, at least, teaching is HIGHLY valued and on par with being a doctor.) I’ve also had a middle school teacher even who graduated from Harvard, did the Peace Corps, and ended up teaching and loving it. Living in the Boston area, teachers who went to Harvard really aren’t uncommon.</p>
<p>Point being, don’t call someone a ■■■■■ just because of your snobbery towards the teaching profession.</p>