Slow down - Getting More... By doing Less

Dear Harvard student,
Students arriving at Harvard have gained admission by participating and excelling in a variety of academic and nonacademic activities in their secondary schools. We hope that you will continue to cultivate many of the qualities that distinguished you in your precollege years — your pursuit of excellence, your strength of character, and your ability to balance your academic drive with participation and success in extracurricular activities. And yet college is different from high school in important ways, and some habits acquired in anticipation of applying to college may not serve you as well while you are here. You may succeed more fully at the things that will be most important to you if you enter Harvard with an open mind about the possibilities available to you, but gradually spend more of your time on fewer things you discover you truly love. You may balance your life better if you participate in some activities purely for fun, rather than to achieve a leadership role that you hope might be a distinctive credential for postgraduate employment. The human relationships you form in unstructured time with your roommates and friends may have a stronger influence on your later life than the content of some of the courses you are taking.

Harry R. Lewis University Hall, Harvard College
Gordon McKay Professor Cambridge, MA 02138
of Computer Science E-mail: lewis@harvard.edu
Dean of Harvard College