Boston's Finest

Wow today was just great, yesterday was just strolling but today was focused on absorbing everything you see. We went to visit Harvard and MIT(Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Two really great colleges and very different colleges. We went to visit MIT first and to our convenience it was a five minute cab ride from the hotel. I couldn't believe I was actually going to go see the famous college that's so hard to get into with a great reputation on education. After the Harvard tour we got to go to dinner with some of the alumni and it will be exciting if you read on :)

So we arrived at MIT and sat through the admission's officer's spiel and learned all the great things. Then came the student led tour that came with a little bit of insight on what the college is about. The thing that stood out to me was a thing they call hacking, which is basically a prank. On of the pranks she told us was that they put a plastic cow on the rooftop of their tallest building during school as a sort of joke mocking the plastic cows at one of the good steakhouses nearby. She said as soon as the owner found out they called and told the MIT kids to remove it immediately. The following day he called back and said that he actually wanted the cow to stay because it brought him so much attention and thus more customers. So that was cool that the students can have a little fun as smart as they are.

On top of that dome was the cow.

Another thing that stood out was the homework. She told me about only having three problems per week but that were extremely challenging, she admitted that to actually solve the problem you would have to collaborate and go beyond what the professor teaches and to figure it out you had to be innovative with your problem solving skills. It sounds like a good challenge but I'm not that interested in working hard in math and science. In any case it's a great school, really the best at what they do, Nobel prize winning professors cool activities but not for me.

Some cool things done by engineers there

Now let me get to the good stuff, the school we've all been ready to hear, that school is Harvard. I have so much to say I'm not even sure if I'm allowed to blog that much. I will say the important things like what the school is about. So what happen was, that we arrived at Harvard and went and heard one of their presentation and then being as special as we are we got a PRIVATE tour from four Harvard current students. I'm thinking, "Okay now they're just showing off." But in reality, Harvard is very caring and really supportive toward their students. One of the alumni, Emily was telling us about all the enormous amount of help that Harvard offers, things like: peer advising fellows, guidance counselors for freshman year, and then carer counselors for sophomore year, and then basically an abundance of office hours. It was so awesome to know for one of the hardest universities in the country their was so much help.

Something else that is notable is the financial aid and wonderful people. They straight up told me that money is never a problem at Harvard, Harvard want's you to succeed no matter what. This other girl that I really admired is called Johanna. She told me about this internship that allowed her to learn Spanish and help the community by raising awareness of the present day politics affecting the country. She went to Columbia and was able to set up a meeting with one of the people that basically led the community over there and talk about the things going on and suggest good political advice, and let the people know their "constitutional rights". It was so amazing to hear that you can make a difference and pursue what you love as a student.

We then had dinner and I met this other cool guy named Shane. Now this guy is just so amazing, he was very easy to talk o he told me his whole story I asked him everything, we were practically family. What's very special about him was that he majored in chemistry and because he was so talented he was able to graduate in four years with his bachelors AND masters degree. Wow, kudos to him.