Welcome to Reality

If you've been getting letters from your friends telling you how they envy the bigger-than-life experiences you're supposed to be having because you're at Harvard, or if you've seen the throngs of tourists wandering around Harvard's campus taking pictures of everything, then I'm sure you've laughed inwardly and wanted to tell them something like what I told my friend Khosrof.

I recently received a letter from Khosrof that said, "You are having the experience of a lifetime...it just seems like whatever I'm up to is insignificant compared to the feats that you have accomplished in this short amount of time." Well for all the Khosrofs our there who might be reading this, I hate to disappoint you, but my life here is probably no more exciting than yours. I am not having the experience of a lifetime simply by virtue of the name "Harvard" beside my picture on the Summer School I.D.

If I am, (and it would be nice if someone would let me know), it is because I, as a high school student, am getting a taste what it's like to be out here on my own in this place called The World.

Okay, my experience here as a Summer School Student is no doubt very different from that of a year-round student, but I think most Harvard students would agree that the whole experience is a tad overrated.

I mean, have you ever had a tourist approach you and ask you to take their picture on Widener steps, or to have their picture taken with you? And why? Because this is Harvard, the oldest university in the nation, and academically among the best This is true.

So what?! So, here I am at Harvard, eating my three meals a day (which, if you eat in the Union, is not necessarily a good thing), washing my laundry every week, and taking the trash out. And people glorify this?

This, Khosrof, is life. Nothing more.

And no, my classes are nothing special. They're interesting, don't' get me wrong; it's just that I could have gone to California State University, Los Angeles (where I have been taking courses over the past two summers) and gotten the same quality of education I'm getting here.

In fact, from some comments made by two of my friends in the Intro Psych course here, it sounds like the same course that I took back at Cal State was actually better. Better then Harvard, you say? Well, yes.

Granted, it very well could have been the other way around. How much you get out of a course can depend on your professor, on your classmates, on your own personal motivation, or on any number of factors, which will vary no matter were you are.

You could sign up for a course that looked really good in the course catalog and end up with a professor who does a lousy job because he or she has just been through a bad divorce.

My Sociology professor back at Cal State used to yell at us in class every time he'd had a bad night the night before.

Here, one of my professors completely forgot to come to a course meeting one day because her weekend had been a little too good.

Hey, people are not perfect. Not even at Harvard.

The same goes for the students. I came here expecting to be surrounded by people who were just as motivated and competitive as I am. And I am- but to no more or less of a degree than I am at my home school. Harvard has its "slackers", if you will.

Sure, you could argue that you have to be a cut above to even be here. Everyone knows how selective Harvard's admissions process is. The only requirement for the Summer School Program, however, was that you show yourself to be "academically motivated," and that you be able to pay, of course. You don't say to yourself, "I hate school, I hate life...I think I'll go to Harvard." Common sense: you have to be able to expect a little more out of yourself than the average student in your high school class in the Summer School Program or the college program.

But once you get here, you find just as many lazy people as you do motivated people. There are still the ones who sit in the back of the classroom, try not to participate in the class discussions, and barely skim by. Or sail by with flying colors.

Once again, this can depend on the professor, or on how a particular course is structured.

No matter how good an institution makes itself look, it is still susceptible to these idiosyncratic details.

The fact of the matter, is shit happens, and Harvard is not exempt.

That's not to say that I regret spending my summer here. Harvard does have its clear advantages. They just don't abound like some would expect them to.

My advice to a prospective applicant is this" Know exactly what you're getting yourself into. As you've probably heard more times than you can count, your education is what you make of it anywhere you go. That's very true. And the most you may come away from Harvard with is name that drops jaws on your resume.