What Is Wrong with Harvard?

What is wrong with Harvard? This is a staple question in many interview and club applications. For many clubs I applied to, I was asked in interview after interview to lament every possible one of Harvard’s shortcomings, and I’ve heard similar conversations occurring in other places around campus. Yes, perhaps there are some reasons to complain. In fact, the list goes on — roommates making noise at 3 a.m., ten-minutes of waiting for the non-existent water flow of my sink to rinse my toothbrush clean, and of course, the chronic, constant anxiety everyone here seems to experience, our collective inability to separate work from home.

Any of us can name various things that have bothered us in our few months or three years here, but what is the point? Do we ever solve our problems by moping about our dorms, unfair situations, and busy schedules?

On campus, I often hear passersby complain about their clubs, their classes, their meal from Harvard University Dining Services. Yet they still involve themselves in the very activities they criticize. Pre-meds will take classes they despise, while others will pursue boring internships for the sake of adding a line on their LinkedIn account. People who came to Harvard hoping to win a Nobel Prize will decide to give Wall Street a chance, not because they suddenly become interested in finance, but because it seems like the way to get a leg up. Though venting can be useful our constant habit of complaining only cultivates a culture of finding the bad in life, refusing to see new perspectives, and avoiding the beautiful things happening around us. Although asking “What’s wrong with Harvard?” originates as a call to improvement, our responses often manifest as an optimal opportunity to allow our negativity to consume us.

While we should seek to improve our lives, we should also embrace what we love doing, and move towards fixing our issues with anything within our ability. Although it is certainly easier to simply acknowledge Harvard’s imperfections, we should seek to improve our surroundings in a more direct, actionable manner. Clubs, such as those affiliated with the Phillips Brooks House Association and the Institute of Politics’ public service initiatives, are making great strides in helping our environment, increasing voter turnout, and engaging young kids with their passions and democracy at large. These groups are solving some of our society’s greatest issues. So for the many of us out there who have complaints, let us change the question we are always asking. Rather than ask “What’s wrong with Harvard?” let us ask “How can we improve Harvard?”

Only through this shift in mentality will we start noticing the positive changes occurring around us daily. We will all remember that every person on campus has diverse passions. Everyone has something they care about. Everyone has something they can bring to the table. Many of our problems with the College stem from an expectation that everything needs to be already perfect, already in place, but we, as students who attend Harvard should be the individuals the action driving what is happening around us. We can fix things and our acknowledgement of problems is our call to fix it. Each student here should find causes important to them and working towards their goals. Moving forward, we need to create a campus that can see more than the scandals and our differences. We all come from different backgrounds and live by varying morals, but together, this is our chance to fix things.

Pessimism can spread like wildfire, but positivity can serve as a powerful extinguisher. We should learn to look on the bright side and identify what we can improve and what makes life interesting. There is no one correct way to fix our problems, but complaining without acting is certainly not the first step toward change.

Claire Tseng ’22, a Crimson Editorial Editor, lives in Straus Hall.