According to the Boston Globe, Harvard received a record 29,112 applications for the Class of 2013.
2,900 of them scored a perfect 800 on the SAT critical reading section. 3,500 got a perfect SAT math score. Nearly 3,700 were ranked first in their senior class.
Still, 93% of those amazing, brilliant, accomplish students were rejected. Why? Because Harvard only has 1655 spaces in the freshman class. It's not a miscarriage of justice; it's just simple math (I was an English major, and let's just say that for me to call math simple is really saying something).
So, when those 1655 lucky students who are currently freshmen at Harvard go on to do great things in their lives, who deserves the credit? Does Harvard deserve it?
I don't think so. Those students' future success will come from of qualities they developed long before they ever took up residence at Harvard, like their work ethic, interest in learning, character, persistence, and maybe even their personality and charm. Schools like Harvard go out of their way to accept students with those qualities. So it really should come as no surprise if the graduates go on to do great things.
And what about the 27,000 amazingly brilliant and accomplished applicants who were rejected? Are they doomed to substandard lives now that they won't have Harvard degrees? I know–that sounds like a stupid question because it is. Of course they're not doomed. They're too amazingly brilliant and accomplished to be left behind.
I'm not arguing that the Harvard experience isn't a special one; I'm sure most of those 1655 freshmen will have an amazing four years. But so will the rest of those hard-workers who got rejected and ended up someplace else. Smart, hard-working, passionate kids will almost certainly make something of themselves wherever they go.
The notion that you have to go to a famous college to have a happy and successful life is a scam. If you had to go to one of those schools to have a good life, we'd never
have 2,000 colleges in this country that people would pay good money to
attend. So don't fall for name-brand-itis. It's not where you go to college; it's who you are and what you do while you're there that counts.
The right college–famous or not–can certainly help you. But you'll still deserve the credit for your own success.