Hosting for Visitas is one of the best ways you can show others how great Harvard is all the while enjoying your free food and t-shirt. It’s also an experience that’ll immediately send you back in time to revisit your own Visitas.
When I arrived on campus just over a year ago, I was confused, intimidated, and overwhelmed. There was so much going on and large groups of prefrosh coming from the same areas were flocking together and traveling in packs that first morning. But by that afternoon I had already found giant groups to go to events with and was loving all the amazing speakers and places around campus.
Leaving after what seemed like the shortest weekend of my life, I thought I knew what Harvard would be like. I knew that this was where I felt like home and the community I wanted to belong to was here on campus. But at the same time, I was already an entirely new person by the end of my first month at Harvard and many of my expectations were wrong.
- All you ever have time to do is studyThe amount of study breaks you can find at Harvard is ridiculous. The professors understand you have a lot going on outside of their class and being able to drop a pset or two when you’re dealing with a lot makes you appreciate Harvard even more. Harvard is incredibly social and even studying usually ends up being social.
- You can only do one extracurricularYou can do as much or as little as you want! I’ve been so involved this year and have loved every moment of it. I love getting to write for the publications on campus and I’m excited for working with high school students for Harvard Model Congress (which I’m also being flown out to San Francisco for one of the conferences next school year!) and Boost In. Being able to travel for free and have your friends and classmates read your articles are great and doing only one club wasn’t for me.
- I’ll go into Boston all the timeNo, you won’t. There are so many incredible speakers coming to campus that going all the way into Boston (i.e. 15 minutes of travel when you’re used to only having to walk < 5 minutes to get anywhere) isn’t always more exciting.
- You never see your professorsNot only will you have access to see your professors through office hours, you might also just run into them strolling through the yard or hanging around campus. They’ll also love to meet with you to talk and you soon realize that their favorite thing is trying to get more students involved in whatever they’re interested in.
- Harvard faculty are too intimidatingThe faculty are all amazing and have done incredible work to become leaders in their fields, but at the same time have great personalities and genuinely want to help you. The faculty are down to earth and love meeting with students; all it takes is reaching out to let them know. “Swipe right” on your professor’s office hours as much as possible.
- Roommates are difficultHarvard works magic at pairing you up with your roommates and you’ll love them, or at least be able to live well with them. Roommates will be there to binge-watch Netflix with you and run to CVS at midnight to grab snacks, and those are some of the most important aspects of college.
- I won’t keep in touch with homeThere’s no way my mom would have let that happen but even besides that, I get to talk about how great it is here with my friends and family back home. My advisors all ask about my family. You might not be able to talk nearly as much at college, but that says nothing about how close you’ll remain.
- Everyone has it all figured out alreadyNo, they don’t. You just fake it until you make it. Don’t focus on everyone else. Concentrate on what interests you and what it is you want to see yourself doing. Make sure you’re making goals for yourself and not based off of others.
- “The Harvard Bubble” isn’t realIt is. And you need to get out of it every once in a while so you can reassure yourself that there is more going on outside of campus. It’s also refreshing to be reminded that you’re smart and incredible when you might not feel like it after a hard math midterm.