Harvard University (2023-2024)

[rancid mural]

like ppl who got into harvard or ppl applying as well

[thick stag]

we can peer review

got in

1 grad

5 undergrad

[rancid mural]

wtf no way

ok yea lets peer review

[thick stag]

i made a gc lol im kinda depsesrate

[rancid mural]

i needa see dis shit

[thick stag]

let me

finsh

and u gotta promise me

[rancid mural]

but ionly have time for 1

[thick stag]

ur not on no

plagarism shit

this cant be the way

i get fucking rejected

[rancid mural]

bro i got my own stories to share

i dont want urs dw

[thick stag]

cool beans

let me finish

gimme like

4 hours

[rancid mural]

HUH?

dawg no

u got 4 seconds gangy

[thick stag]

tf

yo

how long do

essay reviewer services take

no way it takes longer than a hour to read fuckig words

right

i might run some back

at like 6 pm

[rancid mural]

usually u can pay extra to make em like 1 day

[thick stag]

or somthig

how does it take ONE day

[rancid mural]

um i mean usually prolly not but with the amount of fucking reuqests they get yea it prolly does

esp now during college app season

and last second too

they prolly flooded like fuck

[thick stag]

what if i pay

with crypto

so they dont gotta report it to IRS

ill try to find one

[rancid mural]

tf u askin me for 😭

[thick stag]

idk

i assumed

there would be

a few

tax evadors

applying to building donagtor school

guess im the only one

[rancid mural]

[thick stag]

@rancid mural

yo

do u know

if harvard AOs

know about cs

like AI and shit

and like fundemenally how it works

i dont want to appear like a geek or a sweat

talking bout some optimization algorithm

[rancid mural]

i dont know how u would even know that

[thick stag]

damn bruh

[rancid mural]

i mean im sure some do

but i wouldnt bank on all of em knowing the intricacies

[thick stag]

cuz if they know

then my shit

seems stupid

when simplified

if they are clueless

it sounds

hard as fuck

[ruby matrix]

Hello, the App review doesn't show my AP scores and SAT score. What should I do?

[thick stag]

u got into yale

why u worried about harvard

Yale is like the android of HYPSM lowkey

[ruby matrix]

LMAO which one is apple

[reef forge]

Id say Harvard bc of name brand

Stanford can be argued as well tho

[thick stag]

naw

mit is the apple

harvard is like

the window

s

stanford is linux

princeton is just princeton

[ruby gust]

I'll be honest

Harvard is harvard

It's second to none

[bronze gyro]

MIT - Supercomputer
Harvard - iPhone
Stanford - Samsung

[rancid mural]

yale - xbox
princeton - calculator (non-graphing)

[ruby matrix]

lmao the princeton slander

[rancid mural]

i eman since usnews wants to dickeat them so badly i gotta do the opposite

cant let sir isaac down

[bronze gyro]

too many sheldon fanboys here

[frank arch]

Submitted

[grizzled dragon]

Yes

[jaunty umbra]

Gl !!! I love ur name btw

[acoustic granite]

feels unreal rn

[rancid mural]

when harvard asks for places youve lived, do u put the location u currently live as well or no

[reef forge]

Yes

[rancid mural]

so u just say <date u moved there> - current right
or do u put the date today?

[jolly lichen]

congrats

[thick stag]

yooo i took a nap

about tostart

3rd essay

[thick stag]

its second to alot ngl

their president is an exposed fraud

they known for admitting building donators

MIT is prolly second to none

But thats at the expense

Of being geeks

[lofty depot]

Does css profile have a deadline or what?

I'm definitely not spending $200 more after the $600 I just spent on these apps

[plain marsh]

SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS?

oh my god

the system is broken

[thick stag]

damn tf

wait

do i do css for every single college

[thick stag]

yo this is crazy wtf

im spending a band on applying 2 colleges

mit was 75 + 10
harvard 85

[lofty depot]

i'm not done yet

by tom it's gonna amount to $900

and then idk what this css upto

[lofty depot]

thenks 🙂

[thick stag]

isnt it kinda crazy

how u need to pay

$200

for colleges to consider u

for financial aid

[lofty depot]

what if I just don't submit css? i mean they won't cancel my faid will they?

[thick stag]

like im doing finaid for a reason hello

[thick stag]

i think

u just

dont get an offer

[lofty depot]

oops

[lofty depot]

fr fr

[thick stag]

youre intl?

idk how intl finaid works

i just know its stupid

as fuck

[lofty depot]

yeah

[lofty depot]

it is the MOST stupid thing

[thick stag]

no caap

i think

you would get

the monwey faster

if u become a

dropshipper

or whatgever

twitter money is on about

nowadays

[lofty depot]

idk that stuff bro

only thing im doing is figuring out what im doing

in this world

[pulsar pond]

rahhhh

i feel like im fucked

[lofty depot]

I got two more apps and imma submit them tom

[pulsar pond]

i applied to northeastern and they're saying my transcripts missing

[lofty depot]

my dad's international transaction limit has crossed

[pulsar pond]

well how tf am i supposed to know that my transcripts are missing when i get to look at my portal 1 hour before 2nd of Jan

[lofty depot]

i'm not telling him to extend $200 more

[pulsar pond]

god bless you hun

[lofty depot]

oh no

[pulsar pond]

well i guess they'll flat out give me a rejection in my face cuz i didnt submit my shit in time

[lofty depot]

if I don't get in, the only thing im crying about is my parent's money

[pulsar pond]

but like isn't my transcript supposed to be in my school AND mid-year report already

[pulsar pond]

sameeeee

[lofty depot]

I'll feel so worthless fr

why did my parents even give me that education?!

for a rejection?

[grizzled dragon]

[lofty depot]

now that all my 20 apps are done and the remaining 2 will be submitted tom

it's time to get back to Harvard

the loci and new recs and new awards

oh now I gotta submit another $100 to that harvard essay reviewer

these ppl are brutal with their charges

[plain marsh]

this is not it

holy shit

[tiny tiger]

SUBMITTED MY HARVARD APPLICATION

FINALLY

[uncut canyon]

submitted!!!!

[pulsar pond]

i just realized i made some pretty damn big mistakes on my harvard app

maybe why deferred me oh well

[minor pecan]

might have been essays

[pulsar pond]

yes I know

but most likely because I put math aa sl as hl

and my class size as 27 when it's 100

🤡

I'll just send them another update besides my loci

[minor pecan]

whatever floats your boat

[pulsar pond]

my hope don't jiggle jiggle it's gone

[late zenith]

Finished

Ik I’m ngmi oh welll

[pulsar pond]

don't worry

u still have hope

have some hope but don't be delulu

[pulsar pond]

Also WHEN R U READING MY BROWN SUPPS

STOP GHOSTING ME

stop ghosting me when ur the one asking for it man

[late zenith]

Cant beat that 2% RD rate

[rancid mural]

hi

harvard rd is 2%?

wtf

[rancid mural]

yeah

harvard does it on purpose

why do u think they defer so many in rea

oh

so in reality it's probably closer to 3-4

[pulsar pond]

everybody we on a titanic

[late zenith]

No 2.6

[rancid mural]

removing the rea rejections yeah its probably around 3%

most of the deferred kids are probably rejections tho

yea

1 in 40 💀

idk if its just me but i liked my odds but u guys seem to find them small

like 1 in 40 seems super doable to me 💀

[fossil gale]

lowkey depends on the pool

[rancid mural]

i mean idk how strong the rd pool is

could just be lots of underqualified ppl applying bc it's harvard

[orchid glade]

could be just this honestly

[late zenith]

It’s harv cracked kids bound to be here

[fossil gale]

but after removing all the unqualified applicants its still around 20k qualified ones

[rancid mural]

just shoot ur shot knowing ur a good applicant

that's like 10% acceptance rate

[fossil gale]

from what ive seen its the ones that could write good stories with well reflections

[late zenith]

It’s either val with good essays or world class ppl

Anyone can write good essays too

[rancid mural]

if ur unhooked u better be world class for harvard lol

[pulsar pond]

my essays r bad

[orchid glade]

pretty sure every school would have a higher acceptance rate given that, but well never really know unlesss stats are given

[late zenith]

Harv prompt make it

So that’s it’s easy to write

[pulsar pond]

unhooked and bad essays I think I'm done lol

[orchid glade]

yeah harvard lets u show everything about yourself

[rancid mural]

same lmao

[fossil gale]

this year’s prompts were something 😀

[pulsar pond]

deferred probably they had some mercy on me

[rancid mural]

i loved the prompts

this year the prompts were good

better than last year

[rancid mural]

im pretty sure they defer more than they reject 😭

its just to lower their RD rate

[fossil gale]

i prefer a few ones with more word counts, 200 word limits were crazy 😭 i cant even reuse them now

[pulsar pond]

in rea yes

[rancid mural]

83% r deferred, 8% accepted

they still rejected 9% lol

so like 9% rejected or sum

yeah

why not just defer them too

[pulsar pond]

why not just reject me

[fossil gale]

maybe the gpa was too bad

[orchid glade]

honestly impressive if you get rejected atp

[rancid mural]

getting rejected in that 9% would be so sad lol

[rancid mural]

they were ppl who lied or were totally unqualified

[pulsar pond]

let me cry for a few days and fight harder for my rd

[rancid mural]

the 9% are prob like the sub 3.0s

[pulsar pond]

yea I feel it

[rancid mural]

ye

[fossil gale]

but i mean at the end of the day luck is a huge factor so

[pulsar pond]

yea

[orchid glade]

theyd probably bag in the its too obvious its chatgpt essays as well no since itd look bad if harvard was "considering" ppl with just weird essays no

[pulsar pond]

I read a article that says college admissions is a luckroacy

[rancid mural]

to a certain extent

once you get to a certain point it is luck

[fossil gale]

are colleges using ai detectors? or aos could tell?

[minor pecan]

when are they due again

[rancid mural]

probably a combination of both

[pulsar pond]

3rd

[orchid glade]

you could probably tell, but ai detectors are too unreliable

[pulsar pond]

in a day so pls read it asap pls

[orchid glade]

its either chatgpt bypasses or false positives from bland writing

[rancid mural]

i think they just use general plagiarism checkers

[pulsar pond]

there's shit I need to change but oh well

[minor pecan]

abcde can you rea them for me

[rancid mural]

but my mom is prof and she can always tell when someone uses AI

[minor pecan]

thanks

[fossil gale]

maybe the public ones, we dont know what theyre using

[rancid mural]

what 😭

oh you mean read

i dont think im very qualified

[pulsar pond]

do u want me to send it to u

[orchid glade]

yeah but as a whole theyre still unreliable since you could in theory copy someones writing style if you feed a sample essay and say just copy my general vocabulary

[rancid mural]

sure

[orchid glade]

and edit out the kinks

[rancid mural]

if you want lol

[pulsar pond]

k thanks

[rancid mural]

well

the essays are subjective

so using ai would make it obvious

AI just produces super bland stuff

probably better than the average american teenager though

[fossil gale]

due to the scandals i think this year the acceptance rate will increase slightly compared to last year’s

[rancid mural]

but still obvious when it's being used

what i was told by my essay coach was to write down everything i want the aos to know about me before writing my essays

that way you can cover everythibg

[pseudo hawk]

lied? 😭

[rancid mural]

yes?

harvard or nothing is crazy

ppl lie in their apps

and aos catch them

[rancid mural]

1 million hours / week

[pseudo hawk]

thats down bad shit

no way

[pseudo hawk]

true

harvard or no college...

[rancid mural]

harvard or walmart

[fossil gale]

i wish i applied rea 😭

[pseudo hawk]

nope

[rancid mural]

i think i had like 60 hr per week 💀

total?

ye

i have like 30 smt

[pseudo hawk]

harvard or 1 way ticket to myanmar

[pulsar pond]

dude calm tf down

[rancid mural]

cus some weeks i spend like 100 hours on ecs and other weeks i spend like 5

[pseudo hawk]

NO YOU CALM DOWN!

[rancid mural]

so my average is p high

why would u spend 100 a week

[pseudo hawk]

EVERYBODY CALM DOWN.

[orchid glade]

i lowkey underreported mine since i had it at around 25-40 since i had some 10 week ecs in there

[pseudo hawk]

so real

[pulsar pond]

I'm just saying 1 way ticket to Myanmar is crazy

pls don't

[bitter path]

U can always tell when someone uses ai

[pseudo hawk]

winter is like when EVERYTHING decides to overlap

all at once

[pulsar pond]

it's dangerous

[bitter path]

It lacks a voice

[pseudo hawk]

i cant even get a good break

[rancid mural]

at our town's festival i have gay club for about 50 hours per week

[pseudo hawk]

breaks are honestly worst than school

[rancid mural]

gay club? 😭

ye

[pseudo hawk]

i don't feel productive while im busting my ass

[rancid mural]

what is that

gay club

uh

[pseudo hawk]

is it just community enrichment or what

[rancid mural]

u just do stuff

like

[orchid glade]

spendtime with gay people??

[rancid mural]

helping kids

[orchid glade]

oh

[pseudo hawk]

a support group and fun activities?

[rancid mural]

idk how to explain

yes

[pseudo hawk]

w

[orchid glade]

happy club?

[bitter path]

[pseudo hawk]

🤫 🧏‍♂️

[orchid glade]

wait gay as in homosexual or gay as in happy

[rancid mural]

both

[pseudo hawk]

who uses gay as in happy

[bitter path]

There’s a happy gay now too??

[pseudo hawk]

thats an outdated term

[pseudo hawk]

outdated

[bitter path]

How do u even use in a sentence 💀 “yo im feeling gay”?

[pseudo hawk]

yea

like "i'm so gay"

[rain frost]

im lowk feelin kinda gay rn

[rancid mural]

"dawn we now our gay apparel"

[pseudo hawk]

(happy)

"you look gay"

you look happy/cheerful

not quite but i like the spirit

[rain frost]

a most gay new years to you all

[rancid mural]

id quote the boondocks but i think the quote is inappropriate 💀

[pseudo hawk]

w

[bitter path]

☠️

[pseudo hawk]

i think i know the quote you're referring to

[rain frost]

ok im so sorry for this and theres something wrong with me but its "don"

im so sorry

[rancid mural]

wait isnt alabama hella homophobic

[pseudo hawk]

yea

[rancid mural]

that'd be a fire essay topic 🔥

and also a source of childhood trauma

but essay topic >>>

[pseudo hawk]

🫥

[rain frost]

i dont even use correct grammar all the time but im always calling people out for minor spelling mistakes

[orchid glade]

afghanistan would probably be more fire though for that topic ngl

[rain frost]

https://tenor.com/view/spelling-mistake-minor-spelling-mistake-meme-gif-23650588

[orchid glade]

even saudi arabia would be enough

[bitter path]

Isnt alabama also the land of incest?

[rancid mural]

it was what my CAPS waz about

[rancid mural]

almost got murdered but the supp was fire

[orchid glade]

had to escape to pakistan for this one fr

[rancid mural]

my caps was so fucking cringe

[orchid glade]

honesstly sad it exists but it is what it is

[pseudo hawk]

tbh loved my essays

we’re so gonna make it chat

[orchid glade]

do i need to login to my harvard portal right now

or can I not

[rancid mural]

why

did u just get ur confirmation or sum

[orchid glade]

i just submitted it

yeah just got it dk if I need to do something asap

[bitter path]

U got ur portal that quick?

[rancid mural]

u shouldnt get portal info that quick 😭

[bitter path]

I got mine the next day

[orchid glade]

i mean i submitted it yesterday

[rancid mural]

it usually takes a day or about 6 hours minimum

[orchid glade]

my bad

[rancid mural]

oh

[orchid glade]

i just got it was what I meant

[rancid mural]

then yeah go ahead and activate it

[orchid glade]

3am my bad dude

fuck it is 3amm

[rancid mural]

and then sleep

[orchid glade]

nah need to finish cornell and duke first

[bitter path]

Love seeing everyone do everything the night before

[orchid glade]

had to do alot more driving during the holidays than I expected

hey 1 day is alot

wait nvm its due today

[bitter path]

It’s 3 am for u

U better start cooking

[orchid glade]

yeah it just hit 💀

3am cooking goes hard

college apps ruined my sleep schedule more than finals

[rancid mural]

ugh i gotta take pic for news but i dont feel like getting out of the house

[buoyant carbon]

I wanna submit my AMC and AIME scores but the problem is if I get in, I don’t have access to the teacher who proctored those tests so I won’t have access to my “official scores”. Should I just email the admission office?

[rancid mural]

yeah ask them

[hollow stone]

is there a women initiative club at harvard that addresses women inequalities

[pseudo hawk]

i wouldn't be surprised if there was

[thick stag]

what do u mean

do u nkow ur score

[buoyant carbon]

i do

[pearl field]

so basically since my teacher has not and will not upload my second letter of recommendation in time, i have some supplementals if anyone wants to read them for inspiration

[buoyant carbon]

but i cant get my teacher to "officially report it"

cuz she left the district

[surreal kelp]

No she was talking about Baltimore, not Cambridge the convo was about JHU

[hot urchin]

wdym by women inequalities?

we have girl up, wics, the feminist coalition, and some others

these deal with different areas of women inequalities and women's rights. so, you'd have to clarify if you want anything more specific

you could also check out the women's center. heard good stuff about it, but i don't remember anything specific

[jolly lichen]

yeah I know. my point was that all urban campuses have some level of crime and I think people think the scale is more drastic than it is

[hidden bloom]

Harvard isn’t all that fr

[pseudo hawk]

tbh i dont even follow acceptance rates

if they think ur a good fit thats all that matters

just put yourself in a light that makes you likeable, interesting, and multidimensional

but either way all undergrads are more or less the same education

grad is where it matters more

[late zenith]

facts

[sand iris]

It is for this reason that I am both somewhat glad and somewhat saddened that I was unschooled for 5 years

On the one hand it is certainly an interesting story for AOs

On the other hand, that is a huge gap

[pseudo hawk]

what do you mean unschooled? like a gap year but for 5?

[sand iris]

No

I basically dropped out of elementary school

[pseudo hawk]

oh gotcha

[sand iris]

Then just started dual enrollment a few years later at a local college

[pseudo hawk]

W

[buoyant carbon]

This isn’t really true

Some universities definitely have significantly harder curriculums and requirements

[sand iris]

I think he means that applicants for undergrad programs all have basically the same education

i.e. they all went to high schools with more or less the same curricula

[buoyant carbon]

No I think he means that you get the same education as an undergraduate

If he does mean that though I still disagree

[hot urchin]

i disagree with this take as well

ik people who have taken courses like real analysis and point set topology in their high schools and people whose high schools don't have ap calc. that's a significant difference imo if one's trying to do math.

[buoyant carbon]

Yep, and in addition some schools have insanely high grade inflation

[sand iris]

I think the people who take real analysis are dual enrolled

I highly doubt there are many high schools with real analysis classes

[hot urchin]

at last one of them wasn't

[sand iris]

Or at least real real analysis

[hot urchin]

but, yeah some were

[buoyant carbon]

Places like Exeter or any good high school in the bay area are way way way way harder than my public school which is like not that bad?

[sand iris]

They might just be evil people calling all calculus analysis

[thick stag]

@hot urchin R u hypixel

playr

[hot urchin]

i also doubt that there are many counterexamples. but there exists counterexamples

[buoyant carbon]

doubt this is the case, but even if they are dual enrolling it doesn’t really matter, you can’t dual enroll in classes like that at most places

Community colleges rarely offer such courses

they mainly have calc 3, lin alg, diff eq, and discrete math

[hot urchin]

vibes-wise tho, i think some high schools can prepare their students better than others? many folks (including me lol) never were forced to have good study habits/discipline.

[buoyant carbon]

yeah agreed

[sand iris]

I used to think there weren't people who called all of calculus analysis

I then learned that Germany exists

[buoyant carbon]

lmao i thoguht we were talking more abt the US

[hot urchin]

i joined the hypixel server like <10 times, but i suck at pvp too much so nope

[sand iris]

Does Hypixel even exist anymore

[hot urchin]

idk

[sand iris]

It does?

There is some similar server that got shut down

[thick stag]

mineplex

[sand iris]

Oh

[buoyant carbon]

i think they are trying to get mineplex up again

[sand iris]

I gotta tell a story about this

I occasionally look up German books about calculus

And there are just these high school level calculus books intermixed with grad school level analysis textbooks

Because the word for calculus in German is analysis

And the word for analysis in German is also analysis

[thick stag]

damn fett u typing up a new amendmnet for the constituion?

[buoyant carbon]

im sure they dont literally teach analysis in hs lol

[thick stag]

tf

[sand iris]

I know

I am just pointing out that German is a fake language

[buoyant carbon]

facts

i hated german class lmao

i heard at some places tho if u wanna get an honors degree in math you gotta be sortta fluent in german/french/russian

[sand iris]

I think that's a thing at some grad schools

[buoyant carbon]

i thought it was at undergrads

like i saw it on princetons website (i think?)

[sand iris]

For their grad school

[hot urchin]

i'd agree with this take if there wasn't the following (grad admissions focused) points:

• the prestige of the writers of your letters of recommendation matters a lot in fields like math
• research opportunities are not equal everywhere; for REUs, the first point applies
• the course offerings depend on the strengths of the dept - even among peer institutions. granted, one needs to develop a heavy spike for this to matter (when considering peer institutions).

but, yes, i agree that grad is where it matters more for major-fit. i try to encourage others to take their undergrad as a "period of exploration" - even if I dont take my advice that often; i plan to for my last two years... just not for last year or this year.

[sand iris]

Not undergrad

[hot urchin]

sorry, i was just trying to think about what i would say, and thinking is hard T^T

[jolly lichen]

also true at harvard

[thick stag]

did u guys

all finish harvard apps

[buoyant carbon]

yh i submitted yday

[sand iris]

I would like to learn German just because

[thick stag]

o damm

im about to start my common app essay

wish me luck

[sand iris]

Ironically math books are a good way to learn German because they have a lot of figures and such

So they're basically just comic books but more fun

[buoyant carbon]

well some schools just have more requirements too

like there are some places you don’t even have to take complex analysis. meanwhile caltech requires diff top lmao

[hot urchin]

istg i'm considering taking a french class for the math ab/sm. the lang req is the only obstacle

[jolly lichen]

research opportunities are not equal everywhere; for REUs, the first point applies
would just say that in math it's true that REUs are typically very top school heavy but outside of math there's generally a bias against top schools because a lot of REUs have the philosophy that you basically already have research available and therefore do not need the REU

[rancid mural]

abnon r u currently in grad school or did u finish it

[hot urchin]

oh, that makes a lot of sense. i think i even saw a math reu that essentially said "preference given to non-top schools"

[jolly lichen]

if you're thinking about grad school it doesn't matter, you should be taking like 50% more courses than your baseline requirements anyway

and if you're not thinking about grad school, who cares about complex analysis

[bitter path]

Abnon is making that big boy money

[jolly lichen]

I did ab/sm but I turned down my phd offers to work instead

[hot urchin]

for gen reqs or math?

[buoyant carbon]

true. but like at the claremont colleges for example its hard to even find those courses (let alone grad courses)

everyone

[buoyant carbon]

math

[buoyant carbon]

and these are supposedly elite colleges

[jolly lichen]

wait what not true

for claremont colleges in particular

because of xreg they have very good coverage

[buoyant carbon]

what is xreg

also im saying this bc i take classes there lol

[jolly lichen]

you can take classes at the other schools

[buoyant carbon]

yeah still

[jolly lichen]

you can get grad course exposure through CGU

[buoyant carbon]

they dont rlly have grad courses though

idk like

hold on i might be trippin

like a lot of their math grad courses are just

data science

or “quantitative research”

like you cant take a scheme theory class at the 5Cs

[jolly lichen]

the coverage is fine/standard? https://www.cgu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/CGU-IMS-GraduateMathCourses.pdf

[buoyant carbon]

or any real diff geo class

im p sure those are all offered at other colleges

like bro

at CMC

aglebraic topology olny has the prereq of lin alg

what kinda garbage is that

[jolly lichen]

I mean I agree it's not as good as like the harvard catalog

[buoyant carbon]

yeah but still

i was referring to this btw

https://my.cgu.edu/class-schedule/

[jolly lichen]

eh ok I think you like... just have particular needs which are not met by 99% of schools is the thing

at this point in your math career you need a grad department with full offerings

[sand iris]

I have needs which are not even met by Harvard lmao

[jolly lichen]

which is fine but it means you're gonna be limited school wise

[jolly lichen]

not that hard to construct, just choose to major in civil engineering

[sand iris]

The only school that has any output in regards to what I want to do is the University of Lausanne

This is not even an exaggeration

[buoyant carbon]

true ig

[buoyant carbon]

is that a french uni

[sand iris]

Swiss

[buoyant carbon]

whats so special, if ur comfortable saying

[sand iris]

A highly specific application of graph theory

Beyond that I will not say anything

[buoyant carbon]

alr

cool

[jolly lichen]

i would generally try to avoid overfitting to a specific subsubfield

for whatever my opinion is worth

[autumn dock]

Can the community essay for Harvard be about islamaphobia?

[sand iris]

It is specific in terms of its mathematical applications

But in terms of its non-mathematical applications it is quite broadly applicable

[jolly lichen]

undergrad is the time to get broad exposure to lots of fields and explore, you can acquire depth in grad school

[buoyant carbon]

wait abnon i heard someone say u majored in math + phys + cs

is this true

[jolly lichen]

I was physics + math (the order matters at harvard for joints) until senior spring when I dropped the math because I decided I'd rather take cosmology instead of algebra

and then cs is a masters (if you're familiar with harvard stuff I did it through ab/sm)

[buoyant carbon]

i c

cool

is the joint major thing like they do it at hmc?

[jolly lichen]

not really it's a lot more flexible

well that's kinda a low bar in that hmc majors are like.. not really

but joints at harvard basically means you fill honors requirements in the first field (the primary) and then reduced requirements in the second field (the allied)

and then I think for every joint except specifically physics + math, you have to write a thesis at the intersection of the two fields

[buoyant carbon]

did u only have to write a thesis in phys

[jolly lichen]

physics + math is special because physics doesn't require a thesis ever and math doesn't require a thesis if it's the allied field

[jolly lichen]

see above, no

[buoyant carbon]

i see

[jolly lichen]

the physics dept at harvard has the philosophy of basically like... undergrad theses are stupid, you should just publish a paper instead so more than the 3 people on your thesis committee will read it

[buoyant carbon]

lmao

seems based

but i also like the idea of doing a big project

[jolly lichen]

plus they don't want to read them, it's a lot of work to grade theses

[mint portal]

what's a thesis

specifically

ive always heard about it

[jolly lichen]

yeah so do a big project and publish it instead 😤

[mint portal]

i thought it was just a paper that you gave to a committee

[buoyant carbon]

true

[final yacht]

thanks

[jolly lichen]

that's essentially what it is but with a longer introduction

[mint portal]

what does that mean

[buoyant carbon]

but idk, are you supposed to have as substantial of an expository component to your paper as you are in senior theses?

[mint portal]

bruh

aren't theses for uh

grad students

[buoyant carbon]

theres also senior theses

[rancid mural]

is doing honors even worth it

[mint portal]

i remember one of my phd friends had to defend his thesis i think?

in order to get his degree

[jolly lichen]

in some fields, phd theses are very frequently "staple theses" which means you just take a bunch of papers you wrote during your phd and concatenate them together to make a thesis and you submit that

[mint portal]

i told him i would get him some ice cream if he failed

[jolly lichen]

it matters for basically no one but you

[jolly lichen]

yeah for phds theses are required

[mint portal]

what if you fail the defense?

[jolly lichen]

the defense is an oral presentation you give on it to your committee

[mint portal]

do you just revise it

and do it again

[rancid mural]

will honors in ugrad help for med school or grad school

[jolly lichen]

yes but a good committee won't let you defend unless you're going to pass

[mint portal]

i mean it's harvard

dawg

i dont think it really matters

it's really just how much you want to learn

[jolly lichen]

they should instead tell you earlier what is wrong and what you should work on before you apply to defend

[mint portal]

i think i heard a story once

of this grad student

who presented his thesis on some math thing

and then basically it was like

[jolly lichen]

no one cares about honors because they're gonna see your transcript anyway so they'll judge for themselves whether it's good

[mint portal]

"if these conditions hold, then these things are true"

and then someone else asked like

"do these conditions ever hold"

and apparently they didn't

[buoyant carbon]

LOL

[mint portal]

so they got fucked

[buoyant carbon]

☹️

[jolly lichen]

getting honors vs not getting honors doesn't matter but doing the things that lead to honors (taking more rigorous classes, having a good gpa, writing a thesis, etc) are helpful

[rancid mural]

wont submitting a thesis in ur application help tho

[jolly lichen]

just want to make the distinction there clear

[jolly lichen]

kinda sorta? like

[buoyant carbon]

abnon did u know anyone as an undergrad that solved an actual open problem

[jolly lichen]

the thesis itself isn't that important vs publishing the results in a journal

it's the underlying work that matters

[mint portal]

he solved yo mamma

[jolly lichen]

oh sure plenty

[buoyant carbon]

wow

[jolly lichen]

i know kids that have published math papers in hs

[buoyant carbon]

PRIMES or independently

[jolly lichen]

both

well "independetly"

as in not through a program but they worked with people

[buoyant carbon]

mhm

[mint portal]

MIT PRIMES is really cool

[jolly lichen]

they're not like andrew wiles'ing it up in their attic

[mint portal]

a lot of my friends do it and it's like

they work with professors to do stuff

and then at the end of the day

*year

they go to a conference

[buoyant carbon]

yeah my roommate at this math camp did it

he got into MIT

lmao

[mint portal]

SBF's girlfriend did it

[jolly lichen]

to be clear the scale of the problems is usually set to be manageable for undergrads

[buoyant carbon]

LOL

[buoyant carbon]

like is it more often than not in combinatorics

or are there times where they do stuff in AG

[jolly lichen]

like you're probably not going to blow open langlands or whatever

[buoyant carbon]

yeah ofc

[jolly lichen]

it's a mix

sometimes it's like combo/graph theory

but yeah I have friends working in AG or ANT etc

[buoyant carbon]

cool

[surreal kelp]

Ah, I misunderstood what you were trying to say. While every urban area will have crime to a certain degree, it's that jhu is located in a not awesome area of the city that has a tendency towards more crime

[cunning turtle]

guys i might be starting my essays rn

u think itll go well 🔥

[rancid mural]

HUH

[cunning turtle]

PLEASE

ITS A LAST MINUTE DECISION

my cousin and i both decided to apply today

[rancid mural]

??

nah tbh depending on what colleges uve already done harvard might be very easy to slap some recycled essays into

[cunning turtle]

trutru

praying thatll work

[surreal kelp]

as long as everywhere else is done go for it

[hidden bloom]

W

[final yacht]

ughhhh stanford supps are sooo similar to harvards but i have to cut 50 words of each one to make it fit

😑

[frigid herald]

lol

[frigid herald]

why are you applying to harvard if you are already going to stanford

[final yacht]

literally every single time i speak even a single sentence on this thread i get bombarded with people asking me the same thing over and over

[rancid mural]

gangy let the man want to do better for himself

(if he considers harvard better)

(if hes doin it just to take up admission spots, castrate him)

[final yacht]

not committed yet to stanford. im applying harvard because i have family there. and no im not legacy 🙄

or hooked

in fact i dont think i will get in. i just started my supps last night

[final yacht]

lol most people ik that got in rea for other schools are unfortunately applying to hypsm to collect admission acceptances…very sad

i would choose harvard over stanford if i did get in

[rancid mural]

do everyone a favour, kill em 🙏

[bitter path]

Damnn

Why tho

[violet prawn]

submitted!!

[strange wedge]

Yayyy

[strange wedge]

Damn. I feel like if you got into the school you wanted to there’s no point of “collecting” acceptances cuz atp it turns into cocky statement…which is icky

[hidden bloom]

Elitist Fr

[strange wedge]

Blud moved the tiger from his name to his pfp and thought we wouldn’t notice 💀

[hidden bloom]

Facts

[left sky]

its not like its taking away from others decisions

it just gives admission coms more work

[strange wedge]

Weeeellll ig it depends on like region and major and stuff but yea

[final yacht]

cuz my cousin is doing his masters there next year and i wanna be on the same campus as him and ofc its harvard which is the epitome of prestigious school

[bitter path]

Ohh i remember u said this

Tbh harvard and stanny is the same in the sense of prestige

[opal night]

Why didn’t you do Harvard rea then

[split eagle]

does harvard have a minor in astronomy/astrophysics

[jaunty umbra]

is this line bad

But my goals aren’t as unattainable as my probability of trying to recover a balloon that foolishly was let go into the turquoise void. Harvard can help me with achieving my goals.

finalizing the education essa

y

[bronze gyro]

Seems really out of context

Wait isnt the deadline over

[jaunty umbra]

whoops context: harvard education essay (like how ur future plans will be strengthened by harvards)

nope 11:59 my local itme is a few hrs from now

[bronze gyro]

Yes i know what it is ive submitted mine -_-

[jaunty umbra]

ok

[bronze gyro]

Forget what i said im not qualified to give advice rn

[opal night]

Is the balloon mentioned somewhere else in the essay?

[jaunty umbra]

yeah

[bronze gyro]

As long as it isnt an isolated metaphor it should work

[opal night]

It should be good then!

[opal night]

^

[jaunty umbra]

but if it wasnt

then cant they tell what the comparison is?

[jaunty umbra]

thanks!!

[opal night]

Ofc!

[opal night]

If it wasn’t it would just seem really random

Like if I was reading the essay and all of a sudden I see something about a balloon and void I’d be like ???

[jaunty umbra]

ahhh

ok

[opal night]

Yeah just would be distracting but it should be fine if this isn’t the first time you’re introducing it

[orchid mason]

This is a certified

moment

[jolly lichen]

correct take

[jaunty umbra]

ok and this line in my essay bridging how harvard will help me succeed in my career pursuits and my career goals: Cue the montage where the main character skips into the future and is suddenly doing wonderful things. But skipping? We’ve never heard of her. Harvard has to help me lay the foundation to succeed in my life, first.

idk if its good

kinda cringe but

[hollow stone]

is there supposed to be 2 spaces

between a paragraph on commonapp

[rancid mural]

no u need to remove it

[hollow stone]

how much

all 2?

[rancid mural]

to make it look like however u want it to look

if u dont want a paragraph at all, remove everything

if u want just one space then make it that

[jaunty umbra]

do i remove this or notttttt

i need help cause editing

[final yacht]

cuz its basically a guaranteed defer lol. plus my humanities profile stands out to tech schools like stanford

[jolly lichen]

lol idk that stanford is really a tech school

tech vibes but only like 15% cs at the end of the day

I think the proportion of arts + humanities students is pretty similar at the end of the day

[final yacht]

over 50% of stanford students are cs majors….lol

💀

[jolly lichen]

wait wait absolutely no shot

[final yacht]

It is most certainly not. But here’s to a year of pulling things out of our asses ig…

[jolly lichen]

300/1650 = 18%

[final yacht]

ohhh i thought you meant total. but yeah per year its about that amount

mb lmao

[jolly lichen]

how can it be 18% per year but 50% total 😭

[final yacht]

oh idk i swear i read it somewhere

guess im wrong

☹️

[median lance]

R harvard apps due today?

[pseudo hawk]

yes

11:59pm your local time

[crude dew]

if I withdraw before deadline can I edit and resubmit?

[lofty depot]

i doubt

[crude dew]

I got my parents information wrong and I want to update it😩

[final yacht]

email your admissions officer. its better that way

[final yacht]

is it okay if i submit it an hour later

[orchid mason]

Typical Stanford student

[final yacht]

💀😳

[bitter path]

Say swear humanities stands out to Stanford

[final yacht]

i would swear on my soul it does.

but you still need to be a strong applicant

[bronze gyro]

How does a humanities profile stand out in tech

[final yacht]

and also it can’t be smth popular like poli sci

[bitter path]

Then stanford better be expecting me in Aug

[final yacht]

its gotta be like@spanish studies or smth

[pseudo hawk]

the deadline is 11:59 ur local time

so no

[final yacht]

oof

[bitter path]

If my essays worked out for harvard, do you think it will work out for stanny 😪

[orchid mason]

Because Stanford offers programs in things other than STEM? 😭

[final yacht]

cuz they need more people to fill up their humanity department and theres a shortage

[orchid mason]

And there's nothing preventing a kid who wants to go into STEM from having an interest in the humanities either

[final yacht]

not necessarily at all. but theres a good chance. you NEED quirk.

[orchid mason]

Having interests in things other than CS is interesting for AOs especially at a school like Stanford

[honest imp]

it's ok i submitted 🙏

[bronze gyro]

I meant if a person definitely inclined towards cs in the future and put the intended major a stem one

[final yacht]

just trust me. its the way it is and they def take major into account when admitting

[bronze gyro]

Oh. Saw this after writing the whole msg out lol

[orchid mason]

Stanford moment

[bitter path]

Nahhh i actually trust u cuz I was told the same thing from my friends who got in last yr

They did some with public policy or something

[final yacht]

thank you!! and yes stanford is overwhelmed from stem applicants. these AOs have ZEROOO background in stem and are tired of reading ghe same stuff. so almost EVERY stem applicant that got in had humanities stuff in their essays and ecs. they just want to see variety and quirk and PERSONALITY AND HUMANITY.

[jolly lichen]

congrats!

[final yacht]

i always say…be RELATABLE and PERSONABLE in your supps

professors arent reading these essays after all

[orchid mason]

Almost like you're supposed to be yourself in your essays rather than put on a superficial mask

Shocking

[final yacht]

but the problem is people’s version of “being themself” often comes across as boring and uninteresting and sounds the same as other applicants

[final yacht]

okay we got this nice gentleman serving up a nice slice of some ‘tude 🙄

[buoyant carbon]

almost sounds like they arent qualified to evaluate stem apps…

[orchid mason]

Not every AO has the same background and major and that's not really what colleges are looking for anyway

[frigid herald]

Lmao

[buoyant carbon]

whats not what colleges are looking for

[frigid herald]

I mean, first, if you have a degree in STEM you are probably working in a STEM field

Not an AO

Besides colleges want well-rounded people

[orchid mason]

Like, what's important in STEM projects is the reason that you do the projects and what you learn from it

[buoyant carbon]

i know AOs that have stem degrees

[orchid mason]

Not a bunch of random technical details that nobody will understand

Like, it's the impact and the personal lessons

[pseudo hawk]

thank god its over

[buoyant carbon]

so what, doesnt mean they cant have aos with stem backgrounds evaluate apps

[orchid mason]

Like, if you rattle off to someone about the wonders and glories of concrete specifications, they're gonna fall asleep

[frigid herald]

No college does that

They have STEM people evaluate STEM portfolios/research which then writes a report to AOs

[orchid mason]

But if you rattle off about why concrete is personally important to you and how you see it applied in the real world, it's getting somewhere

Dumb example ofc but that's what they wanna get at

[buoyant carbon]

why does it matter why its important to me lmao as long as im gonna do something good with it in the future

[frigid herald]

bruh

They want to know who YOU are and if YOU are going to be a good fit for the community at X university

They want to know why you built what you did

[buoyant carbon]

its obvious who i am based on what i do

[frigid herald]

They could careless the specifics behind how you did it because someone else has done exactly the same thing lol

[wild zinc]

uh oh

[orchid mason]

They want to see that you have a good sense of morality and purpose, that you're gonna be a good member in their community, as a fellow student and peer, and as a fellow team member in projects

[buoyant carbon]

well honestly idk abt the whole morality and purpose part, a bunch of people write a bunch of bs and just go into quant finance

[orchid mason]

Like, they want to educate kids that want to do things other than get a $300k salary SWE job at Google

[buoyant carbon]

so they need to find a better way of doing it or smth

[orchid mason]

Quant

[buoyant carbon]

i understand ur point, but also if you end up doing something useful in the future with it it’s all the same to them

i dont think it matters to other people if you’re doing good things with purely altruistic intuitions or not

and that doesn’t make it okay obviously if you’re doing good things for the wrong reasons, but i dont see why it matters to the AOs

[orchid mason]

I mean, schools value a basic sense of morality within their students 💀

[neon plinth]

Just want to say, I side with Oats here.

[orchid mason]

Plus those personal qualities inform how you'll behave on campus and interact with other students

[neon plinth]

💀

[orchid mason]

Like, that's something that 100% has a tangible impact on their community

[buoyant carbon]

yeah obviously if you’re a complete asshole nobody will accept you and that’ll probs be apparent in ur essays

• “why” i do something is not really gonna help you understand how moral i am

[buoyant carbon]

(in theory)

[buoyant carbon]

i dont think people do cs so that they can decrypt passwords and ruin the world

[frigid herald]

who are you going to accept

Student A: Who created software to be able to help his/her community overcome poverty and setup a foundation that will continue to help them

Student B: Developed software in JS, Python, and R to compute complex data analysis using machine learning models

They're the same, the software was used to overcome poverty, but student A explained why he did it

[buoyant carbon]

i get ur point. but the second person will already help their community + if someone is already immoral, they can lie about doing it to help their community

[orchid mason]

Yeah but how will AOs know in the second case 💀

[frigid herald]

My point is Student A = Student B, but Student A's response gives purpose behind their actions; student B just listed a resume item

[buoyant carbon]

know what, that they lied? thats the whole point they wont

my point here is that its not rlly useful to ask why i do smth

[frigid herald]

but if you don't tell them why you do smth you are unlikely to get accepted

you are trying to tell your story to a complete stranger

if they don't understand the story or know your purpose behind it, they don't know you

[buoyant carbon]

i mean, how deep do these reasons have to be

(forgive my own confusion with this)

like can i say i like physics “CUZ ITS FREAKIN AWESOME”

does that suffice

[orchid mason]

No 💀

[frigid herald]

It's important to build your narrative

[buoyant carbon]

what else are you gonna say if thats the reason u do it

[orchid mason]

I have no idea--maybe you were inspired by Einstein or whatever or an astrophysicist or whatever

[pseudo hawk]

be like "i like physics cuz it help me do x which augments y"

[frigid herald]

I like Physics because it is a challenging subject. I have always been good at school and completed it with ease, but Physics offers something challenging and engaging that has allowed me to suffice my eagerness to learn and help me develop problem solving skills.

[orchid mason]

Which motivates you to want to push boundaries in science

[buoyant carbon]

why would i be inspired by einstein

[pseudo hawk]

just show why

[buoyant carbon]

only could be because what he discovered is COOL, which goes back to my original point

[buoyant carbon]

yeah, just because “SCIENCE IS FREAKIN AWESOME” quite literally

i dont think the people that often contribute the most are necessarily the ones with the best intentions

like steve jobs didnt create apple because hes some benevolent guy, that guy just wants to make money

[buoyant carbon]

just because its hard you like it?

that doesnt seem like a valid reason to me

[frigid herald]

Maybe not the best example, but an example

[buoyant carbon]

\sorry if im being harsh, im just tryna get my point across

[frigid herald]

Steve Jobs created apple for more reasons than money

[buoyant carbon]

sure steve jobs or elon musk or bezos or whatever

[frigid herald]

If you've read his biography (which I have) lol

[buoyant carbon]

these people are not altruistic

[frigid herald]

Maybe not

[frigid herald]

Theres only one school that this is an appropriate answer for; Caltech

[buoyant carbon]

lmao maybe i shouldda said that in my essays

[orchid mason]

You gotta describe that stuff, quite frankly, because schools don't want to take shallow kids over kids that are genuinely likable and have a good reason for doing the things that they do

And basically all of those kids are academically qualified

[buoyant carbon]

you can be genuinely likeable without having a good reason for doing what you do besides “its freakin awesome”

[frigid herald]

I mean you gotta also understand, ^^^^ I was about to say ALL kids applying to these top schools are academically qualified

[orchid mason]

And at that point, how do you select for the kids that you'd want in a University setting?

[buoyant carbon]

they are qualified, but some are definitely a lot more qualified than others

[frigid herald]

Anyone who is reasonably applying to the same schools as you is on par with your academics if not better (there are some crazy ones)

[crude dew]

when is harvard art supplement due?

I cant find on their website

[buoyant carbon]

their character + what they’ve done in HS

but i just dont think “why major” essays are good for someone that just wants to pursue a subject for the sake of it

[orchid mason]

Showing your reasons for doing things is a part of showing your character 😭

[frigid herald]

Assume there are tiers to academic qualifications + personality/character
A-F for both

An AO is more likely to take someone with B+ Academic Qualifications but A personality/character then A+ Academic Qualifications and C+ Personality/character

[orchid mason]

Like, there are tons of ways to go about that

[buoyant carbon]

ok but like if my reason for pursuing a subject is for the sake of the subject itself

how am i supposed to explain myself

to an AO

[autumn dock]

ur name and desc dont rly match lmao but its due in 3 hrs according to timezone

[late zenith]

ye fr how tf is an AO supposed to know what cohomology is

[orchid mason]

Frankly, is that reaaalllly your reason? Or have you just not looked into it enough

[jolly lichen]

hey what's immoral about finance

[pseudo hawk]

^

😠

[crude dew]

thanks

[orchid mason]

Because there's usually a deeper reason for it

[buoyant carbon]

Lmao

[buoyant carbon]

yes

[autumn dock]

anytimee

[jolly lichen]

that's plenty of academics' reasons, they just find their field of study cool

[buoyant carbon]

of course i want to contribute to society, but (in my case, for example) im majoring in math because i like it cuz its cool, not any other reason

[late zenith]

for quant u have to be very good at cs+ math right? like top notch since they accept such little

[jolly lichen]

especially in math and now theoretical physics, it is very hard to find inner motivation from anything tangible in the real world so the only real motivation left now is intrinsic beauty in the pursuit itself

[buoyant carbon]

yeah and i mean anyone can say that

[jolly lichen]

that's generally the background they look for, yes

[orchid mason]

Finding the intrinsic beauty in something is not equal to just saying that something is cool

[pseudo hawk]

well what about it makes it cool

[orchid mason]

Like, you gotta explain why you find it cool

[jolly lichen]

it is essentially that right

[pseudo hawk]

do some reflection yo

[jolly lichen]

at some level I just like it

[buoyant carbon]

i can only. say cringe things

interconnectedness, precision, yada yada yada

[late zenith]

would u say a physics/math degree is valuable for finance, since i heard at schools like cmu they recruit into top firms

[buoyant carbon]

and these are the things every mathematicians say basically

[pseudo hawk]

then say cringe things ffs, as long as its authentic

[jolly lichen]

I mean you can go maybe a level or two deeper and talk about you like the structure math brings or the simplicity and elegance

[buoyant carbon]

i still dont think it gives any detail about me thats useful for understanding my character

[jolly lichen]

but why do you like those things? I think most mathematicians would say that those things are just intrinsically beautiful and therefore worth studying

[buoyant carbon]

like i think “how have u been nice to ur friends” or smth essays better help understand peoples characters

[orchid mason]

Technically you could boil every interest down to that, but there's just that level of nuance, no?

[buoyant carbon]

yeah, and this honestly sounds really cringe and cliche in writing (at least to me)

[jolly lichen]

I'm not disagreeing with the idea that AOs want to see motivation behind your activities and some kind of arc or story, I'm more saying that it's hard to really do that well (or at all) for fields of study like math or physics

[jolly lichen]

sure. at some level like... why do you like chocolate?

one just likes chocolate

[hollow torrent]

Guys I have a quick question

[orchid mason]

You could say that about everything

[pseudo hawk]

flawed example?

[orchid mason]

Are you a bundle of atoms or are you a human being?

[hollow torrent]

How bad is it if I submitted my application 10 seconds past the deadline?

[jolly lichen]

yeah blah blah we've evolved to enjoy sweet things yada yada

[pseudo hawk]

its so over

[hollow torrent]

Am I doomed?

Nooooooo

[pseudo hawk]

its so over

[jolly lichen]

or maybe you don't like chocolate

lol

[pseudo hawk]

ur ngmi

[jolly lichen]

you're so fine

[hollow torrent]

[minor pecan]

🤔🤨📸

[pseudo hawk]

i summoned him

[jolly lichen]

I'm just saying that like... even at this point in my career I cannot really give what I think would be good motivation for why I presently like physics and have chosen to study it for 4 years

[orchid mason]

Luck moment

[jolly lichen]

at some level I think it's not a reasonable expectation and that is at odds with what AOs are looking for across the board

[pseudo hawk]

🤫🧏‍♂️

[jolly lichen]

some things I think are easier to justify. biologists can always (and they do in grant applications lol) talk about translational impact and improving the human condition through downstream therapies

[minor pecan]

[buoyant carbon]

same with humanities majors

[pseudo hawk]

🤫 🧏‍♂️

bye bye

[buoyant carbon]

i dont think finance majors can either 🤔

[hollow torrent]

[minor pecan]

🤝

[jolly lichen]

what the fuck do I study in physics? black holes which are fucking 30 million light years away that no human in 100 generations will ever touch

why do I like them? because they're cool

[jolly lichen]

I enjoy providing liquidity to the markets

[buoyant carbon]

^ my sentiments exactly

i will never visualize higher dimensions but i learn abt them

[minor pecan]

black holes are cool asf

[buoyant carbon]

cuz they are cool

lmao