By now some of you prefrosh will have already made your choice on what college you want to be at for the next four years. Some of you will be leaving your college plans until the last minute because senioritis hit you so hard. And some of you cannot go and that is fine.
I was unable to go to Visitas, not because of choice but because it was cancelled. I do wish I had the opportunity to go. But I decided on the school in Cambridge anyway which makes people ask, “why did you go to Harvard in the first place?” And I try to come up with smart responses like the academics, the city of Cambridge, the name (but never the food unsurprisingly). But after my third time procrastinating in Starbucks, I had come up with the reason.
For me, it was the fact that I cried so much when I received the acceptance email that I had to take a nap for the rest of the day.
It’s not the most fun tale, not the most exciting and I definitely did not have a Youtube video of my excitement that could be shared across the world (could have been famous, or at least featured on Jimmy Fallon). But with everything else sorted like financial aid and ability to go back home, I really had to think about where I wanted to be. So I remembered all my feelings for each acceptance and rejection I had received.
When I got Harvard email that said “Congratulations! On behalf of the Admissions Committee…”, nothing else mattered at that period of time, just me and that email, and of course the tears running down my face.
So it’s hard for me to tell someone what they should consider to choose any school, let alone the best school ever. You can give them so many reasons from the professors the culture and the rest of the student body. But what you value in a school is not the same for everyone. So I rather not give the concrete reasons of why I chose Harvard but I can give a summary of my feelings on that day.
But I would be lying if I didn’t get Facebook/Insta envy from all my friends who went to my other schools at times. A school may have different performers for their spring concerts. Different famous people visit different schools. There are courses offered elsewhere which I would love to take.
But at the end of the day, I absolutely believe that I would have the most regret in my life if I had not choose Harvard in the end. And for me, that was my guiding light.