Summer Approaching and…the Admissions Mistake?

As the semester winds down, life is getting busier, the days are growing longer, and it’s starting to look like summer a little more each day. My motivation for doing schoolwork is decreasing and I can’t believe that it’s almost the end of my third year here. The end of the spring semester brings about a whole bunch of things, including summer plans and one of my favorites–Quincy Assassins. It’s a bit complicated to explain, but long story short, we sign up in teams of up to 6 people and are assigned targets that we have to shoot with Nerf guns. The rules are 13 pages long! Caroline wrote about the most epic battle yet in Quincy courtyard the other evening. My team is all just about terminated, but the few other teams that are left are extremely intense. They stake out our dining hall and hallways on a daily basis. The game makes you incredibly paranoid, but it’s probably the most involved and dramatic game of Assassins played on campus (many other Houses run their own versions).

Quincy Assassins

Me and a few members of my Quincy Assassins team being ridiculous!

As far as summer plans go, it looks like I’ll be doing two things–proctoring on campus for Harvard Summer School and traveling the world hosting a new documentary series. While I can’t mention too much, the television show is basically about how different cultures and backgrounds affect people’s learning styles. I’ll be lucky enough to travel to Korea, China, Israel, France, and India with two other Harvard students, as well as one of my Peer Advising Fellows (PAF) from my freshman year, who has since graduated. Peer Advising Fellows are basically upperclassman buddies who are assigned to an entryway of first year students to advise them on academic, social, and personal matters. I’m currently a PAF and I love it! For those of you who will be studying here in the fall as freshmen, you’ll all have a PAF, as well. But I digress. My PAF’s name is Lilli, and she is now working for Google. Jenny is another one of the students, whom I’ve actually been very close with since freshman year, as we met through playing volleyball (she played on the Varsity Women’s Volleyball team for two years). The other student is Bryan, whom I met a few months ago, but I’m excited to get to know him better. We were all filming this past weekend and had a lot of fun together!

This coming weekend is Visitas, or as Harvard called it when I was visiting as a high school senior back in 2009, “Pre-frosh Weekend.” I think Visitas has a better ring to it. Regardless, I hope those of you who are visiting will meet as many people as possible and take advantage of all the cool opportunities on campus. One of the people I met during my visiting weekend is now one of my closest friends and blockmates (blockmates are people you pick to live in the same House with after freshman year). It’s also extremely fun to meet people and keep in touch over the summer before you get to campus. There is an activities fair where you can get a whole bunch of free swag and sign up for mailing lists to show your interest in various extracurricular clubs even before you start studying here. Also, a great majority of the student groups put on performances and special events, so be sure to check those out as well. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’m the House Committee (HoCo) Co-Chair for Quincy House (each of the undergraduate upperclassmen houses have a House Committee that plans house events like formals, study breaks, and other events to foster community and make the house a fun place to live). Each HoCo has been working hard to plan your regional reception events, so be sure to check those out. Now that you got in, you may or may not be wondering one of the main questions I constantly thought about: Am I the Admissions Mistake? Absolutely not. And I hope you step on campus this weekend knowing that you deserve and have every right to be here.

 

 

Be Sociable, Share!

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

5 comments

  1. Mary Johansen’s avatar

    How hard is it to get into Harvard?
    I would love to study at Harvard when I’m done with High school.
    I get top grades in all of my subjects however.
    Do you have any advice?
    I am from Norway by the way.

  2. Delilah Garza’s avatar

    hi, my name is delilah garza. i’m 14 i been thinking about going 2 harvard for about 2years now. is there anything i can do to make sure i have a chance to get in harvard in the future? i also already know what i want to major in too. if you can please tell what i should do to make sure or at least have a chance to get in i would love it. thank you

    1. Scott Yim’s avatar

      Hi Delilah,

      There’s no formula for getting into Harvard. I would say study hard and do what you’re passionate about! Whether it’s a sport, musical instrument, volunteer activity or anything else, do it to the best of your ability and have a lot of fun with it. If you have more specific questions, the Admissions Office would be more than happy to answer them, but I would say to do what you love and everything else will fall into place.

      Best of luck with your studies…you can do it!
      Scott

    2. Claire’s avatar

      Looks like it’s fun doing nerf battle in Harvard! ^^
      Will you write and post photos about your trip?
      Since you’re going to France, check this man, i don’t know if he has any exibits when you’ll be there, but he’s such fun.
      He’s a caricature artist, in Paris, i met him once at one of his show.
      Well, here’s his blog, hope you like it, and will be able to meet him.
      http://khasislieb.blogspot.com

      And i don’t know if you’re going to India before or after France, but we have common friends in India, maybe he’ll give you some numbers..

      Enjoy

      1. Scott Yim’s avatar

        Hi Claire,

        The artist looks very talented–thanks for sharing that with me. And I’ll definitely write and post photos about my trip! 🙂

        Scott

Comments are now closed.