Harvard College Panel

Webinar Transcription

2023-09-14 – Harvard: College Panel

Anesha: Hi everyone, and welcome to tonight’s webinar. My name is Anesha Grant. I am a senior advisor at CollegeAdvisor, and I will be your moderator and a panelist today. Today’s webinar is a Harvard College Panel. Before we get started, I just want to orient everyone with the webinar timing. Myself and my co-panelists will provide some, uh, we’ll share a little bit about our experiences at Harvard, and then we will open up the floor to respond to your questions in a live Q& A.

On the sidebar, you can download our slides under the handouts. Tab, and you can start submitting questions in the Q and a 1 quick regarding the Q and a, we cannot give you an admissions assessment. So please do not put your academic profile and grades and et cetera in your, in the questions because we cannot summarize your chance of getting into Harvard.

So please ask us any other questions in the Q and a. But we cannot give you an admissions assessment. I just want to be clear with folks about the goals for today. Um, so now let’s move forward and meet our presenters. Theodore, I know you just walked in, but you are first. Um, so would you be comfortable with, uh, kicking us off with a brief introduction about yourself and your background?

Theodore: Yes. I apologize for being late. I have COVID, so I was waiting for my voice to come back some more. And, um, We’re going to go with it. I’m so

Anesha: sorry.

Theodore: I

Anesha: hope you’re feeling okay.

Theodore: Thank you. I’m Theodore Longlois. I am currently a master of divinity student at Princeton Theological Seminary. I was Harvard College class of 2016, where I majored in folklore mythology and minored in Spanish and global health and health policy.

Anesha: Welcome Theodore and Maria.

Maria: Great. My name is Maria Acosta Robayo and I graduated class of 2020. Uh from Harvard where I studied sociology and global health policy and where I was also a pre med student

Anesha: Awesome. Welcome Maria. I’m Anesha Grant as I already shared. Uh, I am a Senior advisor here at CollegeAdvisor and I also graduated from Harvard in 2008 with my undergraduate degree in social anthropology And I went back to Harvard To the school of education and had got my master’s degree in education, policy and management.

We’ll all talk a little bit more about our journeys and our experiences, but we will start off with a quick poll, which will help us get some context on who all is in the room with us. So we are asking what grade level are you in right now for folks who have yet to start school, which might be some people please let us know what grade you will be going into.

for the upcoming fall semester. And I always talk about food. I hope you guys are prepared. Um, what was one of your favorite places to eat, um, in or around Harvard?

Theodore: Um, I, um, really, I forget the name of it. I think it was the Maharaja, the Thai place, uh, in next to JFK Square was really amazing.

Sorry, not Thai place, the Indian food place. I’m combining two different amazing places.

Maria: Yeah. The Maharaja is fantastic. It’s like on a, Second floor and all windows. It’s also great view of the park outside. I really liked some Tuka, which came, I think, a little bit later, maybe my sophomore year. So, in 2017, um, and it was a Japanese ramen place.

That was really good. And I. I still go to it all the time when I, when I go back to visit Cambridge.

Anesha: I am significantly older than everyone else in the room. So there are some restaurants that I like that were not there by the time everyone else got there. Um, one of them being Cambridge One, which is a great pizza place.

spot. I always talk about Pinocchios, but Cambridge one was a really good kind of like less traditional pizza spot. And then also Felipe’s, which is just a kind of a staple in Harvard Square, Mexican, um, burritos, quesadillas. Uh, there are plenty of other options there, but those were, if you’re visiting campus, I think we just gave you some good recommendations to pursue.

All right, we’ll go ahead and close our poll and I’ll share with you all, just so you know, um, that the majority of folks with us, Uh, today are seniors. So we have about 45 percent seniors in the room, 30%, 11th graders, 18 percent of 10th graders. And welcome to the two freshmen. We’re excited. We’re happy that you’re excited and want to learn more about Harvard so early on in your high school careers.

All right. So I will hand it over to Theodore. Marie and I will go on mute. Um, and Theodore will share more about their story and we will jump on a little bit later.

Theodore: Great. So, um, starting off a little bit about my college application process, even though I was lucky that it worked out for me, this is not what you should do.

I repeat, this is not what you should do. Um, I applied early action to Harvard, which is a great idea. Definitely apply early action to your top school. The year that I was accepted, um, Harvard had a 6 percent overall acceptance rate, but an 18 percent early action acceptance rate. I’d also already applied to UT Austin being from Texas.

That was, um, um, and I was in the valedictorian, so I was automatically admitted, um, but I did not submit any other applications before I found out early action and I was very behind on all my applications. So had I not gotten in. I would have either gone to UT Austin or had a very rough two weeks finishing my other applications.

I came from an under resourced high school where I didn’t have a lot of guidance and really picked up a lot from my friends. I joke that the only reason I got in is because I sat next to Maylynn in tech class and she and her parents were very on top of it so she would be complaining about what she had to do and I would make notes, take notes.

But take SAT twos, make resume, look up whatever else Maylynn is complaining about. Um, so that’s why I work with CollegeAdvisor, is to give students chances that don’t happen to sit next to Maylynn in tech class. Um, and I was lucky that I was a National Merit Scholar, so I spent a lot of time preparing for the PSAT and less time preparing for the SAT.

Um, the other thing that I do want to talk about in, um, the admissions decision was I made the choice to be out as LGBT in my applications. Um, that felt like a very risky choice in Texas in 2012, but I think ultimately Harvard was actually very accepting of that and You definitely took that in as part of my story.

Um, and I think that’s something that, you know, if you are deciding pro and cons with that, you know, depending on the political persuasion of your school, that can backfire. But for the IVs, it being out as part of your story, I encourage you to share that. And then, um. So I chose Harvard, um, over Yale, Princeton, and Columbia because I really liked how Harvard’s relationship with the community, the amount of public service that Harvard did for Cambridge and Boston.

Um, I liked that most students spent half their time on extracurriculars because that’s how I learned is by hands on learning outside of the classroom and the amount of leadership opportunities. I really liked how multicultural Harvard was. I also really, um, enjoy their approach to interdisciplinary curriculum that they, um, you know, some schools, you have to take a certain English class, some schools, you have no English requirement for Harvard.

Everybody has to take an English class, but you have dozens, if not hundreds of options and same for a math, a science, you get the idea. And for me, that personally worked really well as someone that. Really likes a broad range of subjects and really learns an interdisciplinary style. So I majored in folklore mythology at the time.

I was pre Med. Um, actually went to med school and had to leave due to a concussion. Um, so I wasn’t as worried about getting a job after, uh, with my major. Um, I really enjoyed studying other cultures, um, and understanding the world differently to the stories that people tell to make sense of the world. It was a really small program.

There are only five students my year, and I really enjoyed that individual tension working with high level faculty. I worked with the department head my freshman year. Um, I got to do original research starting in my sophomore year of college, not just, Oh, let me plug into this faculty’s research project, but let me design a research project from start to finish and execute it, which is something that you usually don’t get to do until you’re seeing your thesis or often grad school.

Um, I really enjoyed learning about how different cultures used, um, their religion and spiritual beliefs to supplement mental health care. Um, and so for me, all of that dovetailed neatly with a minor in global health and Spanish. That did mean I didn’t have any electives, being pre med, having a minor. And minor in a foreign language and a completely different major, but due to those distribution requirements, I was okay with that.

In terms of extracurriculars, I was very involved during the, um, uh, summer, um, I studied abroad one summer in Peru, doing bio archaeology. Harvard completely paid for that. I only had to buy my airfare and food on the weekends. Um, and I got to excavate skeletons in a very culturally respected way. Uh, respectful manner, um, and an internship, um, with a child welfare organization for medically fragile children in New York City.

And again, Harvard paid me and gave me housing, um, and I got, um, free housing, um, and, um, And found a summer job, um, to be a supervisor and case manager at a student online homeless shelter. Um, during the term time, um, I was vice president under the debate league. I directed a peer counseling hotline. So I got to set policies for the line.

I got to design training. I got to design outreach. Um, I advocate for patients at the Children’s Hospital, and I got to work on a national legislative campaign. Um, I also, um, really got a lot of funding to make these opportunities possible. Harvard had very generous student work, even if you weren’t work study, and Very generous financial aid.

Um, if I hadn’t gone to Harvard, I would have been having to work, um, and not been able to do these things.

Anesha: so much, Theodore. I really, really appreciate you taking the time to go through that, especially with, um, your voice not being well. So thank you so much. Um, we’re going to keep it moving with a quick poll, uh, in order before we have our next presenter, Maria. So please let us know where you are in the college process.

Have you started

I will say for myself at this point in my senior year, I was not doing much. I had not started, um, before even though I was, uh, planning to apply to Harvard, I had not been doing much of anything at this point in September 14th, 2013. I don’t remember. I can’t do the math. Um, 2004, 2003, uh, 20 years ago, I was not productive during this time.

So I appreciate all of you all for being in any place. You are in this process. Um, I’m going to stop rambling now, go ahead and close our polls and Maria can share her experiences. Thank you all for responding. I feel for again, the 20 percent of y’all who have not started. That’s totally okay. Welcome to the 41 percent who are researching schools.

We hope by sharing our experiences that you can learn a lot more and help inform whether or not you want to include Harvard on your list. Congrats to those who are working on essays. Good luck. Um, and also great for the people who are getting the application materials together. Congrats for that. So I’ll hand it over to Maria and I’ll be back a little bit later.

Looking forward to hearing about your experience, Maria. Thanks.

Maria: Thank you. So I’ll just kick off with sharing a little bit about how, uh, what my college application process was like. I, um, similar to Theodore came, uh, I’m a Like, I generally did not know much about the college application process in the U.S. I’m originally from Colombia, and my parents are from Colombia. Um, they had never gone to school here, or, um, I had, I didn’t really have a lot of network, uh, or a network of a lot of people who had gone to an Ivy League, and so, applying was, uh, really scary, and just kind of nerve wracking to know That some people had gone to prep schools and knew a lot about, um, how to apply.

And I was kind of just trying to figure out, uh, who the mail ins in my class were, um, and how I can learn from other people who are doing this. Um, and so from what I, uh, learned from, from friends and I did have a CollegeAdvisor in my school, so that was super helpful. She, uh, was the only person who is, uh, doing this work in the school.

And so there, she was barred by a lot of students who, uh, wanted help as well. And so in the brief moments that I got to meet with her, I knew I had to make a list of. Three types of schools. So there was the safety schools, the target schools, and those reach schools, which were the IVs for me. And so, um, once I made a list of those, or the way that I made a list for those was to look at the different professors that were there, some of the programs that they were teaching.

Um, I, I knew I wanted to be in a pre med program, and so I was mostly looking at some of the, Um, STEM concentrations or majors, um, at Harvard they’re called concentrations, so I’ll use them interchangeably, but, uh, what I mean is majors, um, and other key indicators like, uh, location, and I’ll, I’ll mention some of those indicators in a future slide, but just these other elements that I was thinking about of what I wanted out of the next four years of my life, um, and so, um, As part of that search, I also found, uh, different scholarship opportunities and I came across a program called QuestBridge that was specifically made for, um, students in low income households, uh, during the time that I applied, it was for Uh, students, uh, coming from families that made, I think it was like 65K or below, and it was an opportunity to apply early to a lot of schools.

It was like an expedited application, but it had a lot of additional essays in addition to your common app applications. So it was definitely a pretty rigorous process. Um, but you could apply to match to certain schools and while the majority were binding, uh, so usually falling into like that early decision.

Um, Um, application. I applied only to schools that I could, uh, were to get in, still be able to apply to other schools and not have that binding agreement. So I applied to, uh, most of the Ivy’s were non binding. Uh, one of the Ivy’s that I ended up matching with, uh, through QuestBridge was Princeton. And I knew about that, I, that I was a finalist in October and very soon after found out that I had, um, Like fully matched to it.

And so the question for me was going to be, would I just finish applying and just decide to go to Princeton? Or would I apply to other schools just in case, or other schools that I wanted to go to more? I guess, not just in case Princeton was already an amazing accomplishment that I was really excited to go.

And it was more so, okay, are there other schools that I would be even more excited to go? And I ended up applying to Harvard as one of the schools. Um, through regular, regular decision and I was able, I got in and I visited and decided that ultimately Harvard and Cambridge and Boston was the area that I wanted to be in for the next four years.

Um, and so I’ll talk a little bit more about why that was, um, in a future slide, but for now, I’ll just still kind of talk a little bit about my decision between Princeton and Harvard. Um, so. Uh, like I said, Princeton was the school that I matched with through the QuestBridge program, and I was really excited.

Um, I mean, I think this year it’s the number one school, um, in the U.S. Newsweek list. And so, uh, definitely was, uh, very highly considering because of the academics. Um, but I realized that I. really loved being in the city. I didn’t necessarily want to be so ingrained in the city like maybe Columbia or NYU is, but I did want a city nearby.

I wanted walkability, I wanted an urban setting in Princeton from what a lot of my friends said, and I was only able to choose whether to visit Uh, Harvard or to visit Princeton. It was a little bit hard logistically to try to go to both, but from friends who went to the Princeton, um, or who had visited Princeton before, he said it felt a little bit more secluded, which might be really good if you’re looking for a more I guess like peaceful and, and, and, um, separate campus experience, uh, where you could still go into small town.

And there is, uh, definitely like a quaint environment there where folks really felt like they were, uh, able to build a community, but I, I wanted a bigger city to be able to explore. I wanted, um, Uh, and I guess I’ll just kind of segue into the list that I have here that Harvard provided, which is, um, in terms of location, I again wanted a city, a place to explore.

I also wanted a place that was geographically close to a lot of hospitals and research institutions where I could do, uh, research, where I could do internships, where I could do, uh, shadowing. Uh, which were all prerequisites for, uh, things that I wanted to do for medical school. And so, I knew that that might be a little bit harder if I was at Princeton than if I was at Boston, which is a huge medical hub.

There’s so many hospitals there, and I was able to. intern and do research at a couple of them. Um, and so that was a huge part of my decision making was the actual location. Um, then in terms of the extracurriculars and the new opportunities, when I went to visiting weekend, there was just a lot of very specific opportunities that I was excited to do.

Um, there was, uh, from academic to extracurricular, they just seemed like a ton of travel opportunities that were here. uh, paid for by the school. Um, I did not, uh, participate in an a cappella group, but one of my friends did. And for spring break, they did an a cappella tour throughout the Caribbean. And that was just something that was Harvard was paying for.

Um, and so that was just kind of a glimpse of the type of opportunities that came about with being involved in Harvard extracurriculars. And so that was definitely something that caught my attention. The classes and the professors were another thing that I just immediately knew Harvard was the place that I wanted to be at.

Um, the, I initially started out as a molecular and cellular biology concentrator or that was my major. And I switched from that to neuroscience to then thinking about psychology and eventually ended up in sociology. And so that was a big shift, but in terms of just the STEM opportunities and the professors there, uh, they were just top, top of the line.

Um, at the time I had read, uh, a couple of books by Paul Farmer, who also taught at the medical school, taught a class at Harvard. And he’s just, um, or was a fantastic physician and also, um, really focused on equity and determinants of health and was just really pushing that field and and specifically in international relief work and that was something that I wanted to do.

Arthur Kleinman, which was like the father of medical anthropology, was teaching at Harvard and my freshman year I got to take one of his classes. And so that was, those were all people who I had read about in books and all of a sudden there was a chance to study with them and to meet them in person. Um, and so that was definitely a big draw.

And then lastly, the financial aid. And I think that this is less of something that separated Harvard from Princeton, because through QuestBridge, I was guaranteed four years of full financial aid and Harvard was just, uh, also giving me the same package. And so, um, considering all the, all the things I mentioned about location, the extracurriculars, the classes, the financial aid being the same, it just kind of made that decision a lot easier.

Um, and so I kind of alluded to this before, but I, why I ended up, the question here is like, why did I end up majoring in sociology and global health policy? Um, and my major was sociology. My minor was in global health policy. But, um, something that I really liked about Harvard was that when I came in, I was dead set on becoming a doctor.

Like there was nothing that, there was not an ounce of doubt that that’s what I would be doing. I’m actually not in medical school. I am a government consultant doing work with, uh, cities across the country and sometimes across the world, working, um, with people on the ground, very local level, I’m doing things that are not related at all to medicine, but do touch on health and it ended up aligning so much more with my sociology background.

Um, and that was something that I discovered not like as soon as I got to Harvard, but throughout my years at Harvard. I think a key part of. Me being able to recognize that that’s the type of work that I like doing was that Harvard doesn’t ask you to declare a major as soon as you come in like sometimes even Schools ask you to declare a major upon your application like in your common app But Harvard gave me the opportunity to decide on my software year So I took it very seriously when folks said that, um, I should just explore my first year.

I did take a lot of medical related classes, but I didn’t take a, I didn’t take any like STEM classes other than math. Um, usually a lot of pre meds end up taking like a, um, foundational like science and chemistry classes that you need for your pre medical background, um, prerequisites. But I did, I did take those later on, but my first year I really felt like this would be the only year where I could explore.

And so I took medical ethics in history. I took, um, classes in, uh, the medical anthropology class with Arthur Kleinman was another one I took my freshman year. I took, uh, freshman seminars on cancer and the biology of cancer. And those weren’t actually as, um, they weren’t STEM classes. Rather they were with, uh, um, a doctor who worked in, uh, pharma for cancer drugs and, um, It was a lot more interactive and less so more, less so about the science of things and more so about, um, like stories that, and his experience working in that field.

And so that was an opportunity to connect with like minded peers, was an opportunity to tour. Um, the different companies that he, he had worked with connect with, um, other physicians who were working in oncology or, uh, with cancer patients. And so those were opportunities that I got because I didn’t have to declare a major.

Um, and then I ended up changing my major three times. Like I said, I started out molecular and cellular biology. Then my sophomore year, when I was actually taking biology, chemistry, genetics, I realized that the classes that I really, um, looked forward to and like to have in the mix of the STEM because I did really like my STEM classes.

I didn’t just want to do STEM, I wanted to have classes that would give me perspective and context for why the science was important. And I ended up taking classes in sociology and, um, and in psychology. And I was like, okay, well, I’m not sure about sociology just yet. I was still coming with the mindset that pre meds were very STEM focused.

And so I kind of tried to move into neuroscience and then I realized like, okay, neuroscience is still similar with the amount of STEM classes that I would need to take. And so. I realized, okay, I’m going to have to take STEM classes anyways, as my pre med requirement. Let me major in something that’s completely different, so that I know I’m taking a lot of STEM classes, but I’m also able to balance it out with other things that can made me think more broadly about how science, um, or how medicine, um, Um, can be used in different contacts, how different people and groups of people, um, respond to medical interventions, um, just the humanitarian aspect of medicine, especially because I wanted to do international relief work.

Um, and all of those things are things I wanted to study that. I couldn’t necessarily do if I was also trying to take a lot of other STEM classes outside of my pre med rec that were necessary for neuroscience or for molecular and cellular biology. So I ended up fully moving to sociology and there I just found a ton of classes that really fit my interests.

And I think that’s a, that’s an important thing to keep in mind because you might have a preset idea of what you need to study in order to achieve a certain career. And what I would say is that, um, I would look very closely at what the requirements actually are. Like, for example, for medical school, like you should definitely be taking some STEM classes that are required to go into medical school.

But I was never told that I could study STEM. And that actually medical schools might see that as an advantage because so many other students were majored in like a STEM, uh, in a STEM field. And so it would really make me, um, stand out. So, um, I would say I had to be really honest with myself about what my passions were and not just what the norm was.

I asked, this process wasn’t something that I did, um, just on a whim. I did do a lot of research and ask for a lot of advice. From my pre med advisors at Harvard, from teachers, from, um, even mentors, doctors who I was working with because I did research with them or because I had done an internship, um, and then I again decided on sociology because I really loved the classes.

I wanted to be able to learn more about other cultures and systems of governance and, um, society wide issues that affected health and weren’t just based on the science of medicine. Um, and then I selected a minor that kind of tied the two together. I felt like global health and health policy was something that I could use to better understand.

Okay, I, I like sociology. I like, like the science pre med requirements. How did the two come together? And I felt like health and health policy was a place where those two, um, intertwined pretty well. Um, and lastly, uh, just a couple of extracurricular and summer activities that I did, uh, while I was in high school on some of these are very aligned to what I did in college and others were things that, uh, were a big part of my life before college and, and didn’t end up translating fully, but, uh, I played competitive tennis most of my life.

I did USTA, um, um, From Miami and Florida is a big tennis state. And so there was a lot of, uh, training. Most of my summers were, uh, every single day out on the courts in my academy. And then, uh, a lot of tournaments I did cross country and I loved doing like different types of racing events and triathlons.

Um, I had also starting in, uh, probably in eighth grade, but really kicking off in ninth grade. I started a nonprofit that I, uh, really aligned with, um, The things that I wanted to do in college, which is being able to find unlikely partnerships and, and trying to figure out, okay, what are some, what are places where there’s a lot of this like supply and things that are going to waste and how I connect, connect them with people who really need it.

And so this nonprofit was an opportunity for me to find that there was. A lot of different international relief organizations that, uh, were on the ground, had, uh, systems in place to bring donations to areas of need. Um, and oftentimes just needed those donations. And then back, uh, home in Miami, there was a lot of institutions that could donate a lot of things, like schools that could donate a lot of school supplies.

Um, folks, you can, uh, a lot of universities, especially for a big event, had a ton of clothing that was meant to be swag for opening days for students, and that ended up going to waste, and a lot of it was being thrown away, and so there was a lot of clothing that was available. Um, I also worked a lot at, um, Or volunteer a lot at a hospital and sometimes there was a lot of even like, um, like medical equipment and, um, emergency aid materials that, um, if they were, um, sometimes they were discarded, even though they weren’t open during anything.

And so I, I talked to them in, uh, material maintenance, uh, team at the hospital and they were able to donate a lot of things and then. Being able to, again, kind of find the partnership between folks who had too much supply and folks that needed a lot of, of those supplies and being able to be a bridge between the two.

And so. That took up a lot of my time in high school. Um, I did a lot of tutoring, um, especially in math and in Spanish. And then I, as I alluded to before, I did hospital volunteering, which tied, which tied in pretty well into, uh, my pre med background and my application. Uh, I did some surgical shadowing programs that were really cool to do.

And I know COVID, um, There was a, a period of time in which a lot of, uh, students weren’t able to volunteer at hospitals because they only needed, uh, licensed personnel and people that really needed to be there. Uh, but at that time, way before covid, um, there was a really good opportunity for me to shadow pediatric surgeons, which is what I thought I’d wanted, I wanted to do, um, and was able to be in the OR and see a lot of surgeries up close and talk to, um, two surgeons.

And I think in hindsight, as I remember those conversations, especially. Um, some that I had with some of the female physicians, I was starting to get an inkling that maybe that’s not the lifestyle that I wanted to have. And of course, that was a very specific, um, specialization in medicine, but I think it was something that was very formative for me to know ahead of time to see the really cool opportunities, while also some of the drawbacks of that lifestyle.

Um, and lastly, I try to travel as much as I could. Um, while I was in the summers before going to college, I knew that I. wasn’t guaranteed that I would go to a school that would be able to fund a lot of travel and so I tried to visit a lot of friends in the U. S. and try to, um, travel with, with some of my family from Colombia that had come and wanted to visit, uh, different states and so that was how I used my time before going off to college.

Anesha: Thanks so much Maria. Yeah, I share a little bit about my experience. I just wanted to point out, I think 2 things that Maria kind of came across when she was describing her experience at Harvard that I think is a good thing for folks to keep in mind as you’re preparing your applications. 1, Maria spoke with a lot of enthusiasm, especially when she started talking about specific classes.

And the things that she was passionate about studying and the diversity of those things. And so I really want to encourage folks, as you think about some of those supplemental questions, especially for seniors, um, to think about how are you conveying that passion? Are you conveying that deep seated interest?

Um, I think that would be really useful just for some looking at some of the supplemental essays for Harvard this year. Um, specifically, I think number one and like number four, um, like, especially for number four, which is how do you hope to use your Harvard education in the future? Being able to speak at that level.

specificity regarding research areas and professors that you’d like to work with and learn with would be a really good strategy to keep in mind. Sorry, the advisor meet came out, so I wanted to share that with folks just because Maria had provided a really strong example, um, during her talk. Um, all right, so for me and my process, my application process with Harvard, um, I decided to apply early action very last minute.

I decided October 14th. To submit my early action application on, on November 1st. So, um, it was a little fast paced, as I said, I wasn’t super productive during the month of September and I was planning to apply to Harvard, but I was planning to do a regular decision, so I thought I had a ton of time and then I was advised to apply early action, um, as my advisors at the time thought that it would be, um, helpful process for me, um, to go through earlier rather than waiting for regular, uh, it was emotional and a little bit difficult to like everybody else on the call.

I am a first gen. Uh, college students. So my parents did not finish college. Um, and so it was complicated to kind of go into a place like Harvard when there, I didn’t have these examples necessarily of people, you know, being successful in college and and being successful at a highly selective college. Um, so there’s a lot of self doubt, a lot of, um.

Kind of going back and forth, especially with my writing. Um, but I did have a pretty solid support group within my high school. I had, I went to a really great high school, had like a very small, um, caseload with my counselor. And so I got a lot of attention and support that I needed. I got as many revisions and edits, um, as I wanted on a lot of the components.

And so I’m really, really grateful for the teachers, advisors, and friends that I had, and I would say my process as a result was very, community focused because of that support. Um, what was I considering? I was not considering any other I V s. I was not one of those folks who felt like I needed to go to an I V.

My first choice is you Chicago, which I guess is technically I V plus, but I was really looking for schools that had the specific majors that I was interested in. Um, Harvard had that and Harvard Special major at the time, they might still do have called social studies, which was kind of this interdisciplinary study that I was really fascinated with.

But nevertheless, I decided to apply to Harvard early action. I was accepted, but then I still decided to apply to other schools, the schools that I applied to are there. So, VU, Carnegie Mellon, Spelman, Tufts, and Chicago, and I ultimately was decided between the University of Chicago and Harvard. And the reason I chose Harvard was one of the resources.

I think Theodore and Maria have spoken about. I’ve spoken to just the plethora of opportunities and resources, access that you get, um, through, you know, being a member of the Harvard community. Um, I would say the sense of community, and Maria mentioned the Visitas, which is the pre freshman visit weekend.

That kind of sealed the deal for me as well. I went and just had a really great time with other freshmen, with upperclassmen. I really loved the sensation of being on the campus, the closeness of. Cambridge and being able to feel like you were going out into the city without going too far away from campus.

And, and yeah, the, the physical and the, um, personal, I guess, community that I was able to build there in just the weekend for, for visit us. A pre fresh weekend was really, really impactful on my decision. Um, and then I kind of talked about the campus, but more so the location I had spent all of high school in a really small, um, kind of suburban slash rural high school.

school, uh, far away from a lot of people. It was a really small town. There were but so many, um, black and African American people. And so I really was excited to be in a more bustling, busy and diverse space, um, which Harvard provided. And it was still, it wasn’t like a big, crazy city. It wasn’t in LA. It wasn’t in New York, Boston and Cambridge are like, felt to me at the time, like a city that I could manage that without feeling too overwhelmed.

Um, okay. Why did I choose my major? I, um, have a passion for diverse cultures and languages. I was a social anthropology major. Um, I went into Harvard and, and all the programs I was looking for specifically with the goal of becoming, um, a museum curator and, uh, pursuing art history. I obviously didn’t do that, but then ended up exploring a lot of different things within Harvard.

Still ended up. researching museums, even though that wasn’t, um, ultimately what my career path ended up being. I found out that I minored in government. I didn’t, I wasn’t intentionally seeking out to get a minor in, uh, political science or government. I had just been taking a lot of different classes that I was interested in and they all ended up being in, in government, um, which I guess I should have taken as a signal.

Um, but actually my advisors ended up telling me that my minor was government based on the number of Government classes I had taken, and they said, if you take two more, you can put it as a minor. And I was like, okay, cool. Great. Um, so I think government just combined, um, another lens of how I wanted to think about culture, interaction with people of diverse backgrounds, um, and how that, Particularly, um, was developing how governments influence all that.

I won’t get into my thesis. Anyway, um, I also liked government because I think similar to that access and resources that it allowed a lot more access to professors who are currently working in public service, a lot more access to current politicians or folks who had just finished their careers as politicians.

I really enjoyed a lot of the talks that happened through the Institute of Politics at Harvard and over at the School of Government, which was very close to the undergraduates. I think that if you have a budding interest in something, um, Harvard is a great place to figure out how to explore that while still pursuing your, your primary passion.

So like I said, I fell into a minor in government just by taking things that I was interested in. Um, because there is that flexibility within the curriculum. I went back to Harvard for my graduate school degree to get education in education policy and management. I really loved education. I ended up working with students a lot.

Um, after my college career, I enjoyed. Working with nonprofit organizations. Oh, I have not moved my slides. I’m so sorry. Um, I’m here. Um, where was I? Oh, working for nonprofit organizations really working for college access to doing a lot of work that I currently do in supporting students with getting into, um, Colleges and thinking about their identity in the context of college, um, applications.

I also it was an opportunity for me to advance professionally in my career to go back and get a master’s degree because I’m not on the traditional going to be a doctor, go to medical school or do those types of research and things. So going back to get my master’s degree was kind of that next step for me career wise.

And then it was an opportunity for me to do research beyond where I was living at the time within New York. And I actually had the opportunity to do some research in Boston. And. and in California. So, and then I think we all interpreted this last question a little bit differently. Theodore talked about their, um, experiences, their extracurricular experiences at Harvard.

Uh, Maria and I focused a little bit more on high school, so this is my high school resume for those who, Care or wondering what a Harvard accepted resume might look like. Um, I didn’t do any social summer or international programs when I was in high school. A lot of my activities took place during the school year.

So, um, but similar to Maria, a lot of these things still carried over into college. So I was definitely still involved in the black student community at Harvard. I did not play sports. I was not that good, um, to play sports, even though I was really passionate about it. And I tried to do some intramural, um, at Harvard.

I did not continue to play instruments at Harvard, but I did continue to be in the choir throughout all four years of my undergraduate experience. So I’m still involved a little bit in theater, a little bit in music, and not at all in sports and athletics. But, um, yeah, that was kind of my background coming into Harvard.

And then what ended up happening as I. Move through so gonna stop talking there and open it up and shift over to your questions. You do have the slides if you want to reference them under the handouts tab, and y’all can continue to submit questions under the Q and a tab. As we move into this new section of our of our session.

So, as Maria and theater come back,

I’ll send the 1st question to theater just because it is related to pre medicine. Not that Maria can answer it, but, um. I’m just going in order. So what steps, the question is, what steps do I need to take now as a sophomore? Um, they’re talking about Harvard Medical School, but I’m just going to say to be focused on being pre medicine right now at Harvard, what would be the steps to set oneself up to be a successful pre medicine, medical applicant?

Theodore: Sure. Um, sorry. Um, so one of the most important things that you can do is take as many Rigorous science courses that your school offers. So you should be taking AP, IB, what have you. Um, and really, especially in biology, chemistry, and physics. And that will set you up both to get into a top school, but also to succeed when you’re there, and MCAT.

If you, and, if your school doesn’t have those, I really recommend looking at to see if you can do dual enrollment at a community college and take classes there. Um, the other thing is to shout out, you know, this just means asking a physician if you can observe them and and, you know, ask questions. If you don’t, it can be intimidating to ask somebody that, especially if you don’t have family, um, connections, so, you know, I recommend, you know, starting off by asking maybe your, uh, your pediatrician, if there’s anyone they recommend, or, um, looking up to see if your local hospital has a volunteer program.

And then while you’re volunteering, you can make connections with physicians that you can shadow later on. But I think you, as early as your sophomore year, those are the two big things will set you up for success.

Anesha: You’re

Theodore: muted.

Anesha: I am. I’m not together today. I’m sorry. Um, thank you, Theodore. My question, my next question was to Maria, um, regarding the application process. And I know, you know, the answer, but what is early action and how does the early action slash decision process work?

Maria: Sure thing. So usually applications are looked at in two different Uh, general time.

So the first is looking at them early and there’s subcategories of those early applications. And then there’s regular, so usually early action, early decision. In general, early applications happen in November. Most of those are due the 1st of November, early in November. Uh, the second round is re or the next like big bucket is the regular decision.

Those are usually due January 1st, first week of January. And so again, those are like general time frames and early is, um, there’s like pros and cons to applying early. And those are also based on, uh, whether you’re applying early action, early decision, restrictive early action. And so I’ll just give like a snippet into all of those to give a bit more of a comprehensive answer.

So early action is a, when you’re applying to schools and it’s non binding, you are, um, sending in like you’re sending in your applications early. So it means that you worked on them early. You’re usually sending them to schools that you’re really interested in, um, and you have the opportunity that if you get, um, like deferred and you can apply once again in a bigger pool of applicants in your regular decision.

And so again, those are like some pros and cons. With restrict, uh, restrictive early action or early decision, those are more binding, uh, restrictive early action is usually more like they, um, a lot of, I think Harvard has restrictive early action, some of the Ivy’s do as well, where you can apply early to other public schools, but you could only apply to One private school, so like Harvard or, um, uh, no, like whatever school you’re applying to and restrict restrictive early action.

Um, and then early decision, which still has like that binding, um, limitation is you are applying to just stop school. Usually again, it’s binding. So if you get in, you have to go, which again, is a big appeal for folks who want to say like, this is my number one school. I want to demonstrate that by saying like, Hey, if I don’t get in, I would much rather, like, I want to go to this school more than any other that I could apply to elsewhere.

Um, and there are scenarios where you can get out of that, but for the most part, like schools want you to honor that. Um, and so it is a bit of a strategy game where if you are applying to a place early decision, and it’s not a place that you actually want to go to, like that it’s not your top, top choice, then you might be running the risk that if you apply to another, it’s your top choice, regular, um, regular decision, then, um, and you get in, then it would be very hard, or I don’t even know if, again, it’s possible for you to get out of your binding, um, school if you get accepted.

So, obviously, if you don’t get accepted to this bind, um, to your early decision, then you could still apply and go somewhere else. But if you do get accepted, you do have to honor that. And so, those are kind of subcategories of those early applications. But again, they’re all similar in that you’re applying to schools early to express early interest.

You have to get your application sent earlier, usually happens around November, and you also get a chance to reapply through the regular decision. If you get deferred,

Anesha: you can get out of early decision if you financially cannot afford. Yes,

Maria: yes, that’s a great caveat.

Anesha: Limited if you are not able to pay for whatever the school is asking you to pay, they will release you from your early decision contract before I get into the next set of questions, going to do a quick PSA for any folks who are in the room who haven’t already been working with us.

There are a lot of questions. There’s a lot of pressure. You all are trying to figure out the best way to stand out at a place like Harvard, and we have a team of over 500. 400 former missions officers and experts who are ready to help you and your families navigate the process through 1 on 1 advising session.

So you can use the QR code. That is on the screen to schedule a 1 on 1 free 45 to 60 minute strategy session with an admission specialist on our team during that conversation. They will review your expert. Talk about application strategies. Talk about your college list and outline some tools that you’ll need to stand out in a competitive admissions world for Harvard or for any of the schools that you are considering.

All right, back to our questions. One question I wanted to ask, and this is to whoever feels like they can take it. I think I have feelings about it, but it said, I heard about social clubs and exclusivity at Harvard. Is it true? And how easy is it to be social and have friends? in a circle if you’re not a part of these clubs.

So I think they’re referring to finals clubs. Um, and so I don’t know if folks can talk about experiences with finals club versus your social experience without being in the finals club. I can

Theodore: touch on it a little bit. I know that finals clubs change dramatically during my senior year. So I do want to, you know, defer to Maria because she may have more recent knowledge.

Um, for me, I had no interaction with them. I never went in one. I honestly knew maybe one or two people who were in one. I had a really good friend group. Harvard is really intentional about the roommate match process. Honestly, the application is longer than the essay to get an application to get in. And I was really good friends with my roommate.

Um, most of my extracurriculars made it really easy to make friends. Um, and, um, I didn’t find it a problem.

Anesha: Thoughts, Maria? Final thoughts?

Maria: Yeah, I’d echo what Theodore said. I think that it’s definitely Um, I was not in one. I considered potentially being in like the equivalent of like a female’s, uh, final club, but I think that there was, at least during my time there, a bit of controversy over the type of culture that was being fostered there.

And so I think that’s definitely something that to consider. Um, but I, have a really close friend group that even after, um, COVID and graduation, we’re still very close. I’m visiting some of them this weekend. And those were people I met similar to Theodore through, um, my freshman year housing process. I ended up, uh, marrying a really close, well, my really close friend in college, uh, who lived in, The dorm, the floor right above me.

And, uh, again, neither of us were in final club or met through finals clubs, but rather through a lot of different clubs and extracurriculars that we both shared passion for. And so, um, again, very close friends with a lot of people very much outside of finals clubs. But I would say that if you’re interested in one, um, Um, there’s definitely like folks who will talk to you about them.

I had a lot, several friends who were in finals clubs. And, um, like I said, there’s a lot of pros and cons to them. Um, I found most of them to have cons and didn’t want to be a part of that community, but. There’s a lot of folks who did enjoy them. And so, um, definitely, uh, something, a unique decision for everyone who’s at Harvard.

Anesha: Uh, yeah, I mean, finals clubs existed when I was there. I think their current iteration is that they have to be co ed or their events have to be co ed. Um, just for clarity to back up, finals clubs are Harvard’s version of fraternities and sororities. Um, so right now they are mixed gender, um, but they used to be, um, male or female oriented, uh, clubs that you were invited into.

You had to kind of do very similar, kind of, I don’t know if people are familiar with, like rushing. I forget what it was called at Harvard. It had its own special word, uh, you got punched or something like that. Um, but anyway, um, yeah, the punch, okay. Um, I just wanted to give, like, that’s what we were talking about.

Um, these are kind of very. Big clubs. There is a social scene around finalist clubs, for sure, in the same way that there is Greek life on any other campus. And so this is just Harvard’s version of that. All that to say, my experience was very similar. I had actually a lot of friends who were involved in finalist clubs, but I did not feel like I had outside friends who weren’t, um, and I didn’t feel like my finest club’s friends defined my social circle.

Um, and the folks that I’m friends with now, I were people that I met freshman year in our dorms. Um, those have been some of the friends that have lasted the longest. For me, I’m gonna throw a question and Peter, I’m not sure you didn’t mention this, so I’m not sure if you can’t speak to it. But there was a question about neuroscience.

I didn’t know Maria. You had pursued neuro or thought about pursuing neuro and wanted to someone just ask. What was the program like? Or if you have any thoughts on what the program might be like at Harvard?

Theodore: I have no knowledge Maria.

Maria: Yeah, I pursued neuroscience for a semester just thinking about like the different classes and I would say it became a very popular concentration or major at Harvard because a lot of folks who were testing the waters of not wanting to be STEM but being pre med while also not fully just going something that wasn’t as related to science.

We’re all kind of like channeling into neuroscience. And so I would say it was a very popular, um, major while I was there. It was really fun. There’s a lot of really cool classes and really interesting research opportunities. Um, there was even some like flipped classroom, uh, classes that, what that meant was that you were learning a lot on your own and then coming to class together to discuss, to do really cool labs.

Um, and so. It was a structure where, um, it was really, to me, for me, someone who had never taken a neuroscience class before, it was super high paced, it was pretty difficult, but for folks who were, who had a little bit of a background in that before, they found it to be super exciting to be able to kind of like, refresh and study at your own pace, and then have the classroom be Like a very pure experience of just sharing knowledge, talking, having discussions, doing really cool labs.

Um, and so I think that that aspect of it was very attractive to folks. A lot of those classes were lotteries, uh, where you have to kind of put in your name and like whoever gets drawn from the hack gets the class. And so, uh, most of the classes are not like that. Most of the causes like are pretty, um, you’re able to get in, um, um, And so I think that’s, that’s my current perspective, or as much as I remember from it, it’s probably changed since I’ve, since I’ve graduated.

Anesha: Yeah, it’s it’s one of the newest programs at Harvard. Um, so if you think about how old Harvard is, uh, the neuroscience program is probably like one hundredth of established as other majors have been there. So I think it’s a growing and evolving program, but obviously a good one. at Harvard. Um, Theodore, I think you answered a question that I wanted to bring back regarding, um, financial aid.

So some student asked, what do you suggest for students who are looking for scholarships for Harvard? Um,

Theodore: yeah, go for it. So Harvard has need based financial aid. What that means is that they look at your family’s income, but also debt, other issues.

Harvard gives need based financial aid, meaning they look at things like your income. Also family debt, if there’s other students going to college. That sort of thing and they give a very generous financial aid package And that comes with a student work contribution and a family contribution if you get an outside scholarship Um, let’s say from the gates foundation or your local kiwanis club that can decrease the student work contribution But if it’s more than the student work then That uh that does not cover the family contribution because Harvard then says okay You Your family can afford more because you have the scholarship.

So really with Harvard, um, you’re going to get great need based financial aid. But if you’re not in the category that will receive need based financial aid, which look at the cost calculator, you might be, even if you think you’re not, that you are, is very hard to get an, a scholarship to cover Harvard that is merit based.

Anything to add,

Anesha: Maria? No,

Maria: no. I think Theodore said that really well.

Anesha: Uh, yeah, I think us all being first gen, we probably got a lot of need based aid, um, but whatever aid you need, you will get, um, if you, if you, you know, if you can’t afford it within Harvard. So, um, there are not going to be Harvard specific scholarships for you to pursue, though.

Um, all right, this is an interesting question. It says the profs at, the professors at Harvard are awe inspiring, but on the flip side, are they engaged with undergrad students and accessible for questions?

Maria: I can kick off with that one, just knowing that, um, I have met some of the most engaged and personable professors at Harvard.

Um, I still correspond with one of them and talk to them and like, I’ve asked them for letters of recommendation for jobs. Um, I’ve recently, as I was kind of going through another career identity crisis, trying to think about when. When and where and what type of grad school I wanted to go to. I ended up talking to a lot of my professors and chatting with some of the pros and cons about them.

They were transparent and honest enough and invested enough to have like hour long conversations with me, which is really hard to get from college professors, especially at Harvard. Um, and to be super honest, that may be for some of the things I was looking for, Harvard maybe wasn’t the best place. And that’s something that, you know, it’s, something that I really value that type of honesty and investment and telling me something that would be helpful for me instead of just enriching for the school.

And so, um, I think that’s really helpful on the flip side. Um, my, um, I’ve had a lot of friends who have tried to get letters of recommendation from, from teachers at Harvard. And, um, a lot of the really high profile teachers sometimes don’t have the time. And so It’s again, it’s really hit or miss and I think it depends a lot on the relationships that you feel you have while you’re in college.

I think it’s really hard to try to foster a teacher or a professor, uh, relationship after you graduate and you’re, you’re like, Hey, like I took your class and it’s, but maybe you don’t remember me from like different, um, like, uh, sections or like smaller groups of your class or from office hours. And so I would say, I do think a lot of professors take the time to meet with you for your classes.

A lot of professors take, uh, have office hours where you could come and you could have questions about the class content, or you could just come and say like, I want to learn more about your career, your experience. And obviously there’s other students there who have class specific questions. Those take priority, but.

There are opportunities for you to get to know teachers. And I think this is true of any, not most schools that aren’t like very small. You’ll just have a mixed bag of, of teachers and you’ll end up gravitating to the classes and the teachers that you think that you will connect with the most. And this professor that I’ve talked to.

Many years or several years after graduating, I took like three of his classes because I kind of followed him around. He was like a fantastic professor, was someone who had a very great perspective on things. He did humanitarian aid and I read a lot of his books and so this was something that, um, showed me that it was possible at an Ivy League school.

Yes.

Theodore: Um, I think a lot of it is what you get out what you put in like most things in life. I really recommend the best thing you can do is go to office hours, which are hours that your professor will say outside of the classroom between, you know, 12 to 2. you can stop by with a question. Come by with questions.

Reach out to your professors proactively. and you will have a much better experience in the classroom and they will be much more willing to help you. I was, because I was in a small department, I got a lot of individual attention. I even had professors proactively offer me extensions if they knew I’d been sick a few weeks earlier, which is unheard of.

Um, it’s really the kind of place that if you need help and you ask for it, you will get it, but you do have to ask for what you need.

Anesha: Yeah, I would just, uh, tack on, I think professors are absolutely available. They, I’m sure they were working on other things, but when they were with us, with undergraduates, they were very present, very supportive.

So I can absolutely echo that. I think the only downside for me, and Maria kind of shared this a little bit earlier, was that, or, Suggested at this, like at a certain point when I got really specified in my research and what I wanted to study, it turned out that like Harvard wasn’t actually the best place for me to be to do that, um, to study kind of Latin American cultures and integration with government.

So, like, as I would say to think about when look into professors, because it could turn out that, like, you end up. taking a pathway that makes it a little bit more difficult for you to find the type of faculty support that you’re looking for, especially given, depending on what your field ends up being.

Harvard is a great place, but it’s not necessarily the best place for everything. Um, okay, uh, we will have to leave it there. I’m so sorry I didn’t get to that last question, um, which was about like, what do you do in addition to academics and extracurriculars? Be well rounded, I think is the simplest question, simplest response that I can give.

Harvard’s not going to wait. Classes over extracurriculars. They are looking at total package. They are waiting and grading and assigning value to everything that you submit in your application. All right. to Maria. Theodore for all of your thoughtfulness and your answers and for your presentations. Again, those slides are available under the handouts tab and we You join us for future webinars.

Uh, Tom, I will be back on September 17th with another panel for Columbia and NYU, our former admissions officers are going to offer some advice on pre med applications on September 18th. So all of those folks asking biomed questions in the Q and a, please come back on the 18th and we’ll also have a few sessions focused on essay writing where we’ll talk about merit scholarship essays.

So for folks asking about scholarships, come back on the 20th and we’ll talk about supplemental essays. So for those seniors who are getting ready, come back and join us on the 25th. Until then, I hope everyone will have a great time. Take care and have a good evening. Bye everybody.