what Harvard taught me, what it can teach you
A “typical” Harvard student is busy and bounces from one activity to another. Events are back-to-back, overlapping, with locations and times changing at will.
No one likes waiting on someone who’s late for a meeting. So, don’t be that girl or boy.
Here are some tips on how to keep organized.
Today’s intern training session touched on my company’s philosophy that it is “impossible to turn a weaknesses into a strength.” It seemed counter-intuitive. Why wouldn’t every company want to turn each employee’s weaknesses into strengths?
But, then, in that rare flash of insight I am rarely prone to, realized it was about ROI — Return on Investment.
Rather than having employees spend excessive amounts of time trying to turn a fear of public speaking into a Broadway actor’s stage presence, companies would rather have them reach an acceptable level of public speaking competency. The return on investment for reaching perfection for a weakness just isn’t worth it.
I would argue that the most successful (and happiest) Harvard students are those who leverage those strengths.
Harvard will keep you busy, but we all get too easily distracted by the likes of gmail, facebook, nytimes.com and youtube. Other times, your roommates will drag you out for an impromptu glow in the dark Frisbee session at night.
Here are some ways to minimize the impact of distractions if you really need to haul some ass.
Housing at Harvard is going to be awesome compared to pretty much any other college. Period.
However, because we’re Harvard students, we always find something to complain about. Here are a list of things about the housing situation that would knot your undies once you get on campus.
E-Recruiting is one of those phrases you hear tossed by upperclassmen as a freshmen. They bemoan it, love it, hate it, need it. And as a freshmen, you’re not quite sure what to make of it. But, once you hit sophomore year, that word “e-recruiting” is on everyone’s lips.
Some start early and fast — attending the recruiting sessions for SENIORS as sophomores during the first week or so of September. Others realize belatedly that deadlines start as early as mid-reading period for the first semester!
Here are a few tips for surviving e-recruiting (as it pertains for those searching for internships).
Harvard is an overwhelming experience. Every incoming first year will receive a packet of ALL the events occurring during the first two weeks of school. It will be packed with events — some mandatory, others highly recommended, and way too many of them will involve extracurriculars.
You’ll hopefully meet everyone in your entryway, and then everyone at every table you sit at in Annenberg. You will forget everyone’s name, maybe even your own. You’ll probably shop at The Coop and get ripped off, talk to advisers who tell you everything you already know, and receive more course syllabi than you’d actually like to sit and read through.
Here are a few tips that I found helped me out those first few months as a freshmen.
It is finally that time of the year when Harvard releases its students from the grip of its off-kilter academic calendar, and Harvard students scatter to many parts of the globe to have fun, help others, study abroad and earn marketable skills.
Freshmen are (generally) wonderfully oblivious to the Harvard obsession of “doing something worthwhile” during the summer. They prance through January worrying about books only to realize in February that a number of deadlines have already passed for e-recruiting and grants. (In my opinion, however, this oblivion is generally a good thing for freshmen.)
So, what exactly do Harvard students do during those beautiful summer months? (This is a completely descriptive, non-life-hackery post.)
Move Out is almost like a dirty word on campus. No one really likes to talk about moving/schlepping their queen-sized bed down 4 flights of stairs to storage. Few enjoy the awkward goodbye-acquaintance hugs? handshakes? (But thank god, no one asks, where are you going to be this summer? [That question was long hashed out two-three months ago, leading more people to know where you’re going to be rather than where you are from.])
So what is Move Out actually like?
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