Rescinded from Harvard... Now What????
As many of you know, Harvard recently rescinded the acceptances of at least 10 students (I think the number is 12) for obscene memes in a Facebook group chat.
Unfortunately, I was one of was those students.
My initial response was to blame Harvard, the founders of the offensive group chat, and the original posters who prompted me to post for what happened. Now I realize that I must take full responsibility for my actions if I wish to turn my life around. Was Harvard in line for rescinding my acceptance? I don't know. I wish it didn't happen the way it did, but what's done is done.
I've wanted a career in investment banking for years now, but I'm afraid this bump in the road may hinder my future chances of landing an offer. Luckily, Harvard has kept the individual students anonymous, but I'm afraid I might have to disclose this on my future college applications.
Since I was accepted to Harvard early action (as an athlete), I didn't apply to any other schools, and have had no backup college to enroll in for the next year.
So my question is - should I enroll in a community college for a semester, then try to transfer to another target second semester, or I should take an internship to make this look like a positive gap year I took to "find my passion" that cold bolster my resume.
Any ideas?
Mod Note (Andy): One of the posts of 2017 that have the most views .
Work for a year, then go another good school. Oxford/Cambridge/LSE all expect gap years. Keep up with your sport if possible. You could even join the Reserves / Air National Guard (3 to 12 months training, depending on job) and then reapply to Harvard. Write about it the perspective you got on the essay, etc, etc. Don't tell other schools. To them, it's a gap year. This could easily be a blessing in disguise. Do something mildly selfless. Peace corps or inner city youth counseling.
If Harvard blackballed you with other Ivy institutions (you'll know if you get rejected from the 7 others). Then, you should just sue the fuck out of them. You have a case (especially with early action). I actually feel bad for you. Schools are too PC these days.
Strongly agree with this, would absolutely not explain my situation with the rescinded offer. Making the most out of this opportunity is key, and a selfless route shows extreme maturity for some one of your age. Best of luck, sorry about the unfortunate situation.
Yeah, good point. OP, do you know if you're blacklisted from schools?
I'm not sure yet, I guess I'll find out in a few months!
Deleted
lol, UCL/ICL most certainly do not have the same amount of prestige, at least globally. My friend always complains that he gets confused for a UCLA student when he tells people he goes to UCL. They're top schools in UK no doubt though.
If this is actually you then I can't believe you got your offer rescinded for that lol. Look at any high school/college group chat in the world and you'll see things ten times worse
this is what I was going to say.... OP how bad could the memes have been? it's not like you did anything illegal even, probably lots of harvard admits have, and it's not like you are hurting anyone...
i just don't see how this is real, unless it was some political meme shit they hated like the CNN thing.
Stannis_B OP i really wanna know now, how could it have been that bad lol
Just look up "Harvard memes" and you'll find it
Moral of the story: spending too much time on /b/ rots your brain and warps your sense of normalcy
This person posted memes making fun of children being raped and using slurs against minorities.
In real life an adult doing stuff like that would have been fired and probably not allow around children.
Harvard did the right thing. Sane people do not find the rape of chid or abusing people because of their race funny.
Wow...
started from the TOP now we're here
US colleges are turning into a joke
check out evergreen state college, the campus has descended into total anarchy because some white professor wouldn't leave the campus against his will because of some "day of absence" thing haha it is completely insane
there are a lot of other crazy examples too, look up campus reform they cover a lot of it
That school is what I expect the TV show Community to look like if it were on Showtime or HBO. It amazes me that it still receives funding and has not lost its accreditation.
.
lol your petty
shut up rich boy
You could probably get a free ride at the Kekistan Institute of Technology.
harvard business school vs kekistan business school. the ultimate battle for top BS, who wins?
By default I would say that KBS has danker memes, but the kids in Harvard meme thread showed some serious potential. If they represent an accurate cross-section of the Harvard student body then I'd give the edge to Harvard. Praise Kek!
yo the dmbass stories on this forum...
you're funny.... guys clearly this is a troll post don't waste time on it. so many trolls in WSO lately
.
Dude ofc ik it's a legit story - come on it's all over the news. I'm saying the OP is a troll
Take a post-graduate year at a New England prep school. It's another year of high school basically, but gives you another year to go through sports recruiting, and re-apply to schools again. People do this all the time for various reasons.
I'm not sure why you would have to disclose this, its not a felony or anything. If you're doing the sports thing again, you probably will have to tell coaches at the other schools, since they'll want to know whats up.
...impossible to get into a good BS for a PG year this late.
Teabag a blender and turn said blender on
I glanced at this story. Was the group private or not? Just wondering.
It was private.
Yeah this is legitimate, a lot of people at my school (a peer school) were talking about it whenever it happened. I know 1 of the kids who got rescinded, and he's just taking a gap year and then reapplying to colleges. It'd probably be best to do some kind of community service over the course of your gap year, but I would also consider travelling if you have the money. You can then talk about your newfound perspective and whatnot on college apps.
Lets see what the top minds on WSO have to say thebrofessor DickFuld FratLord @TNA" IlliniProgrammer
I think I am getting trolled here. How does a new user know any of these bozos gives good advice? WTF is someone who got kicked out of Harvard doing on social media for that matter? I thought you people were supposed to be smart.
This is obviously a very tricky question with advice best not requested in public nor posted in public.
In all seriousness to the kids who got kicked out, find something to do for the next year. Hang gliding, motorcycle racing, something FUN that you won't be able to do when you are working full time or retired. Come up with a cool and exciting story for how you spent a year. Make yourself a cooler and more interesting 19 year old than your 18 year old self.
As a gay guy who did highschool swimming, I'd like to think I could offer a lot of witty commentary here about what karma would look like for the different parties involved, but as I grow older and wiser I've learned it's best to STFU in public on a messy subject like this. I'm also not going to try not to render any opinions on this whole situation in public, as obnoxiously opinionated as I can be.
Bottom line: that Existential philosophy stuff you thought was useless BS in senior year humanities? You get to go from studying it to living it now. Find something fun and exciting to do for a year-- become the person you want to be, that makes you happy.
This isn't a punishment. It's an opportunity. Now find something fun to do.
IlliniProgrammer "How does a new user know any of these bozos gives good advice?" Because I've been on WSO since my sophomore year of high school, and know that you "bozos" give the best advice on this forum. Thanks for the advice.
Regards.
Do you like boats and seamen? I crack myself up.
OK so you were able to get Kaplan tutoring in high-school, a motorcycle and were able to hang-glide. Why don't rub it in more? I know all you Urban kiddies have a hard time understanding what it's like living under the line and getting your hands dirty but quit suggesting us to "live our lives" while we go out and work our 6 hours after school to put food on the table. Now I have a whopping 20k but cant spend it on any of the fucker activities you recommend. I have to pay for a shit school for a shit education for a shit life, see the perpetuity? Idk if they taught you that in UChicago.
@thebrofessor" "be sensible and start investing early and often and invest with a broker when you get more serious coin." (He actually gives good advice, so disregard him)
DickFuld. "I'm a pretend CEO. Drink Bombay Sapphire. Go fuck yourself."
FratLord. Generally talk shit to people: "join a rape club and get shitfaced. That Attack_Chihuahua guy is a GDI fairy."
@TNA" "Trump is a god. Build the wall. Get an MSF. 'Nova rocks"
IlliniProgrammer "go hang gliding and pretend you're poor. You're good at sales? Have you considered a computer science or engineering degree from some random state school? U of I is clearly superior to Harvard or especially Yale."
lmfao that was actually spot on, you might not be half bad after all my guy
lol, you pasted quotes from people and included yourself.... hahaha
pretty much every WSO thread of the past 3 years summarized here.
This is gold
I looked at the memes, and they are much worse than I thought they would be.
Even so, with that being said, does this violate free speech? Have you talked to a lawyer?
Or can Harvard just do what they want?
Yes. The argument I keep hearing is that "Harvard College reserves the right to withdraw an offer of admission under various conditions including if an admitted student engages in behavior that brings into question his or her honesty, maturity, or moral character."
But my problem with their decision was that it was just banter in a private peer group. Private.
Yeah, because it was a private group makes it a load of BS. Its not like you were writing on the Harvard Facebook wall.
Sounds like you have some snitches in your class.
Litigation is a non-starter. There are tons of large private FB groups, and it would be hard to argue that they are "private chats." That dank meme FB group had like 100 members, IIRC.
Just move on.
Unfortunately when private conversations are made public, they are deemed to be public statements. Just look at Donald Sterling.
A private group chat where there were minority students who could see your memes and feel really uncomfortable. Don't make it all about yourself.
My parents considered the legal route, but figured Harvard would outspend us. Oh well.
Go work somewhere for a year, do the peace corps, whatever, and reapply to other top schools. If you got into Harvard, you will get into the other Ivy's. I'd scrub your name from the internet as well.
Sucks. A pain in the ass. But not life destroying.
Those memes were out of control....I thought I was crazy.....haha way to 'innovate' the meme space.
dude your name is way too fucking long, please make your name shorter!
He INNOVATED the meme space but Harvard DISRUPTED his LIFE TRAJECTORY. That's MESSED UP.
Fuck harvard.
Stannis_B go to Brown instead? Just joking...
In all seriousness what about applying to be a Thiel Fellow, go to Harvard anyway and attend classes as if you were a full-time student therefore you're still learning, or spend time volunteering.
Personally what happened to you is idiotic especially since Steve Bannon is an alum and I'm sure Harvard has a laundry list of people who call it their alma matar yet have done things far worse than what you did.
I would recommend state school and then transfer if possible. Or if you know influential Harvard donors or alums maybe see if they can vouch for you and get Harvard to reconsider since you fucked up but understand the severity of what you did.
Or sue them from a violation of your 1st Amendment rights. Its not like you used Harvard's computer and bandwidth to post on that group.
Sue the fuck out of Harvard
I'm sure Milo Yiannopoulos would be more than happy to take you on as an intern
Because this is a high profile incident and you had A LOT to lose by having your offer rescinded, I would seriously consult some reputable law firms to see if there is an off-chance that you might have an actual case. I'm SURE there are plenty of firms that would take up such a charged case, especially given that it is in the "gray area" of private speech. You don't have much to lose and lots to gain, but if your case gets media coverage you probably won't be able to apply to other ivys (potentially another legal case?).
I'm an intolerant, politically incorrect right-wing extremist and even I think you guys should have had your offers rescinded. Jesus Christ, what unbelievable garbage you guys spewed...
With that said, I don't judge you because when I was 18 I was a complete and utter moron. Actually, I was incomprehensibly stupid and mentally and emotionally immature. In retrospect, I SHOULD have taken a gap year. A gap year will be the best thing in the world for you. Take that year, learn your lessons, grow up a little bit, re-apply to another great school and then thank God that your IQ is off the charts. You'll get into another great school and probably get really high grades with little effort and you'll obtain a fantastic job after school.
I don't agree with suing Harvard. You'll definitely ensure your name gets into the public record at that point.
Don't sue, you will never be able to outspend HYPS on legal. Not sure what idiots are writing here.
Apply to U.K schools, because there are a lot of key benefits... 1. A gap year looks normal to them and can boost your application 2. They just look at APs and SAT2s and you need like 5 5s to get in to great schools 3. Oxford/Cambridge/UCL/LSE/ICL are all great schools and you will have relatively the same opps as an ivy 4. Tuition is much cheaper and college is only three years
Sidenote = I am as progressive as you can get, but I think Harvard was ridiculous to rescind your application for something that didn't rise to a criminal issue. I hope in the future legislators ensure that college offers are legitimate and can't be rescinded for vague reasons in bs contracts. I wish you all the best, and I'm sorry that this happened to you. Also if Trump can mock POWs and Gold star families and become POTUS, you should be fine.
Search "Harvard Memes" on Google and see the memes they posted. No one should feel bad for this guy, you completely deserved to get your offer rescinded. However, I will say that the people who snitched are a bunch of pussies
They're pretty harsh tbh.
As the majority of replies on your post confirms, there is a great amount of losers on WSO.
First, I'll be brief but not sympathetic: You know why others didn't get rescinded? Hope you keep that mouth shut at the right times in future. You'd also know the value of a backup.
Second, on remedy: community college will be a mess up for you, UNLESS the CCs are regular ivy league-level feeders (which is very unlikely to happen). Yes you're right you shouldn't look like you are enjoying life
Best courses of action: Find a minority/demographic group that you and your groupmates made stupid fun of, and do something big time for them. (1) You show that you bounced back from stupidity (2) It's bulletproof story of "Describe how you handled setbacks" interview question.
If you can't do that, at least keep working impactfully in any capacity, for $ or not, as close to the ideal scenario above. You don't want a blank-check note that says you're enjoying life - given your circumstances, you shouldn't look like such
that's all.
...you want him to write an essay on getting rescinded by Harvard for being a racist troll? lol, while bold... eh... good luck with that.
He should go help some inner-city kids M-F and go party on the weekends with the friends I assume he has at a few cool colleges.
What was your parents' reaction, if you don't mind me asking?
Btw, I recommend a post graduate year at a boarding school. https://www.boardingschoolreview.com/blog/understanding-the-post-gradua…
They were livid.
A few days after the group chat got really heated, I recieved an email from the admission committee asking me to submit every photo I posted in the FB group.
In my mind, I figured that if I didn't send the pictures I submitted and some snitch were to tell Harvard, I could get in trouble for dishonesty. I was like heck, if I discolse these photos, they'll atleast understand that I'm not trying to hide anything. So I emailed them back. All the while, my parents had no clue.
Four days later I recieved an email informing me that my admission status was under review, and that I couldn't attend Visitas. I already couldn't attend due to other circumstances, so my parents still didn't know, but I started to freak out.
About a week later I was informed by email that my offer of admision had been revoked. I felt like my whole world had been shattered.
I couldn't bring myself to tell my parents, but the next morning, it was all over the news, and as soon as my parents brought it up, I fell apart. At first they thought I was joking, but after about 10 seconds, they knew it was for real.
They had already purchased me some very nice gifts (I don't want to say to remain anonymous), and immediately returned all of them. Since most of my family were alumni, it was especially devastating. They said I was a disappointment (I somewhat agree).
Anyway, I'm just tying to move on now, and turn this failure into a positive. I appreciate all of the advice you have all given me.
Regards
Where else did you apply? Were you rejected by YPS...UChicago, Columbia, Penn?
I googled 'Harvard Memes', I found this:
Well look on the bright side, when you grow old, you will have a bad-ass story to share with your grand kids, plus you got this many silver bananas as well, what more can you ask from life? And in any case, if you can make it to Harvard, you can make it to any god damn university out there.
Thanks man. We'll see how it goes.
make sure you post lots of memes about how much you hate white people next year. That will show that you've reformed from your thoughtcrime and now love Big Brother and the party.
The thing is, if you were in a group titled "Fuck the US military", "All white men are rapists" or similar, you'd probably get a diversity scholarship. Organized academia nowadays is really just becoming a scam. Really hope one day CFA Institute comes out with a Level Zero phase for lack of better terms so you could bypass undergrad entirely but still get a financial education.
I agree, but the proper response to low standards of the academic left mafia isn't to lower yourself to their standards out of spite.
Here you all go:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1253567138064928/
OK, whatever people may say about whether Harvard was in the right, what you did was wrong. Everyone has different experiences, including trauma and poverty, and the kinds of memes posted would have deeply hurt some of your peers.
If you were an intern and you posted similar stuff in a "Morgan Stanley Edgy Memes Group", you would be fired immediately.
To echo what some other posters have said, the best thing you can do is to better understand the communities you had no trouble marginalizing. If you want to be pragmatic, workplaces are getting less tolerant of employees making others feel harassed. Don't do volunteering overseas (rich man coming over to save the poor third world people), stay local. Work with people who have nothing, helping them to get medical help, SSNs, language help, legal aid. Volunteer in prisons or shelters or psychiatric facilities. Do it for at least a few months to build relationships. It will be hard and confronting, but given that you thought it was OK to participate in that group, something like this will help you professionally and personally.
Apply to other universities next year (which you didn't apply to this year). Don't disclose what happened with Harvard. If they ask why you took time off, say that you realized you were very privileged and thought it was important to give back before starting college.
who the fuck would monkey shit on this quote.
Looked up the memes and those were pretty bad. You deserve what you got, no sympathy here. So much for being an investment banker.
I am more disappointed that you are dumb enough to send stuff like that strangers
There's an Anthony Weiner in every generation....
If you are smart enough, you know why Harvard HAD TO rescind OP:
Imagine being a Mexican American kid. You were very excited to be admitted to Harvard and you couldn't wait to meet with your peers. Then you joined this group chat and saw that people in the group would love to hear that you hang yourself one day (one of the memes). You sent the screenshots to Harvard, telling them you could not image how your time at Harvard would be like with these people around. Not to mention that if you happen to be the first one in your family to go to college, what would the admission officers feel when they see this? Guilty and possibly regretful.
What do you think was going to happen if Harvard didn't rescind people from this group chat?
The screenshots would show up in major news in THIS PARTICULAR YEAR like they did and people would relate Harvard to the current political climate.
Minority students could protest on campus.
Harvard rescinded OP not just to punish him. Harvard wouldn't admit people like him in the first place.
Also, just a friendly reminder: Most people under this post can imagine themselves in the position of OP. Very few put themselves in the shoes of a Mexican American kid who was unfortunate enough to see the group chat. To you this may be just about being politically correct, to minority students this is about justice.
Bhahahahahahahhaha -Me, a black guy
Nope. I am an Asian girl. Loser
High school kids- including ones with high prospects and great colleges in their futures- do stupid stuff with each other all the time. No of course it wasn't good that he/she (sounds more like a he) sent one or more of the memes in the first place, but what Harvard did was completely bogus. This wasn't a messed up group of kids who are messed up in the head, this was members of a teenage peer group trying to fit in by outweirding each other with memes. and guess what, it was in a PRIVATE setting. All these kids applied early and Harvard obviously knew that so they completely shafted these kids and put a huge damper on their trajectories. If anything, Harvard should've just left it with the "your admission is under review" email to scare the living daylights out of the kids and teach them a lesson, actually revoking admssion for something like this is not right. I understand they had to consider how it would look to the public if they DIDN'T rescind the kids who partook in this, but I'm sure Harvard of all places could've come up with something. Academic probation? Warning in which they also email the parents so the kids are in hot water at home? Forced year off?
I feel for you man.
Are you the poly kid?
Yeah the memes were really bad and I'm usually in the anti-PC boat.
The fact that Harvard rescinded you after seeing the pics that you personally uploaded makes me think that they made the right decision.
Learn from this. My favorite CS professor told me that anything you put online (even in private) is forever. Even if this isn't 100% true, live like it is and you'll be better for it.
Hanging yourself seems like a good option.
Wow thanks.
I just came here to say I am very happy Harvard rescinded their admission
You do not seem to grasp why what you do was wrong. It is all a pity party.
Hopefully someone will release your real name and prevent you from getting a job or be close to people you can abuse.
Well they won't be doing that - sorry to disappoint.
Hey Stannis where do you find such great memes those were funny as hell hahaha
A little bit of creativity and resourcefulness :)
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