Most of us dream of getting admission in Harvard University – one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the world. But for hundreds and thousands of us who try for Harvard, it remains just the same – a dream! I don’t want to sound cynical, because Harvard is really a good university, but there are many reasons why you shouldn’t go to Harvard. In fact, consider yourself lucky that you did not get admission in the “prestigious” university. Here are a few reasons why-

All of us know that Harvard has created many prominent people in the world including 8 U.S. Presidents, 75 Nobel laureates and more than 60 living billionaires! But what you may not know is that Harvard has also produced some not-so laudable alumni. The famous Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski, who carried out various bombings on universities and airlines due to his Neo-Luddism theories, was actually a Harvard undergraduate! Ernst Hanfstaengl, a confidant and close friend of Adolf Hitler was also educated at Harvard. The commander-in-chief of Imperial Japanese Navy at the time of World War II, Isoroku Yamamoto, was a Harvard alumnus. He played a vital role in planning and executing the Pearl Harbor attack. The scamster, Charles K. Lee, swindled more than a million dollars from a children’s charity when he was still a Harvard undergraduate. Even after the scam was exposed, Lee went on to graduate from Harvard, who never annulled his diploma. Some other infamous graduates include Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Paul Bremer, Jeff Skilling, etc.

The above reasons may not be enough to indict or reject Harvard. But on a more realistic note, getting admission in an Ivy League university like Harvard is not at all easy. The Ivy aspirants waste a good part of their life trying different methods to get into these colleges. They start preparing from tenth grade by signing for PSAT tuitions, even though PSAT score do not get counted! After that comes the SAT preparation courses and then the actual SAT exams. Many students appear for SAT twice or thrice in hopes of getting a better score than previous time. Past school, students also join community service or clubs just because it will look good in their college applications. To impress their colleges, in summer vacations they also attend expensive summer programs, which of course is not needed. Some students go as far as to the length of learning sports like rowing or fencing, even if they don’t care a bit about the sport! In spite of all these efforts majority of the students get rejected and end up taking admission in the not-so famous but equally good colleges; the very colleges, where they could have got admission without wasting time in such heroic efforts. If the students had not aimed for Harvard, they would have been able to enjoy their school life; enjoying doing things what they find interesting and not the things which the out-of-reach colleges find impressive.

Also, another reason why you shouldn’t go to Harvard University is the sky-high tuition fees. For the Harvard Business School, the tuition fee for the year 2011-12 is a whopping $ 112,400! Well we agree that you get a superior education, but that doesn’t mean you have to sell your kidneys to get in! It’s okay if you have loads of ancestor’s money or cash stashed away in Swiss banks but for the rest of us, the scenario becomes quite grim. Agreed that you get scholarships and also good job placements once you complete the diploma; but for that you need not put your financial securities at risk. If all you want is a good education, then you don’t need to go through the strenuous task of applying to Harvard. There are many colleges who offer good education with affordable tuition fees.
So if you are feeling discouraged that your Harvard application was rejected, you have got many reasons not to feel disappointed!