7-3-I-Search-Andrea

= Steps to getting into Harvard = by Andrea

**Introduction**
For as long as I can remember, I wanted to go to Harvard. I have always asked, "Why do I have to go school?, what does it do?" Over the years that I have been in school, I've realized its importance in education. All the years of school that a child goes through builds up to getting into college. The college I choose to attend when I get older is Harvard. All about Harvard. College: usually a scary thought for committed students. All the people I talk to and I always say, we have plenty of time to prepare for something so major. But when I take a step back and thing about it, Harvard is just around the corner.

There are quite a lot of steps in getting prepared for college. During my I-search I plan to use many different sources to find out exactly what is needed for anyone to get ready for this big step in their life. One thing that I am worried about though is finding books on "how to get prepared for college" or "steps in getting ready for college". I've started to research websites for admissions in Harvard and or in college. The only things that I have found so far are parent guides of 10 steps to helping your child prepare for all the major things like college tuition and things of that sort. What really interests me is what the student has to do in order to prepare. I can already see that I have to do plenty more research.

**Body**
The first college that came to my mind was Harvard. For my research, i decided to study two fields, "college" and "Harvard". Harvard interested me the most so i typed in "Harvard +preparing +college +university." The things that came up on Google were very general but I found one that said "Ten Steps to Preparing for Harvard," so I clicked on it. This page was specified to parents and what I'm interested in is the students Point-Of-view. With further more searching i found a page about different different workshops that showed up, so I explored different sections of its web page.

This page was directed to Harvard's website. Perfect. I explored different fields that they offered there and what I found out was very interesting. There was Harvard Law, Harvard school of design, Harvard Business and many more. I figured that each each field had basically the same steps to preparing, and I was right. I didn't think it was quite necessary to go into specifics. In my investigation I also found general steps in how to attend Harvard university. ( "ACE| Ten Steps to Prepare Your Child for College." __CIP| Preparing for College__. 2008.)

Now that was just the first part. The second part of my research was fairly easy because college and Harvard have some-what a connection in education. Now I needed to compare the steps I found to the specific stages in preparing for //college.// This time, i tried a different website. "AskforKids.com". The question in the search box I entered was, "What steps must be full filled in order to prepare for college?" I discovered that you need to gain credits from the start of 9th grade through high school, you have to be prepared to choose a major, and start an account for your college tuition fund. After this information found, I still needed more. (__How to get into Harvard law school__. Epps, Jr. Wille. 2001)

The next step in my I-Search was to interview a professional in the field of College or Harvard. From previous experiences, I know that many of my older cousins attend colleges and universities, including Harvard. My choices for my interviews were my cousins Adrianna and Tonii who attend Harvard currently. The following is the Interview I had with Adrianna Alleyne, my cousin, in person. I finally got in contact with her busy schedule. After that one is the interview with Tonii. They surprised me to a certain extent to.

Me: "What first got you interested in attending Harvard University?" Adrianna: "Well, I knew that I wanted the best possible education that i could get in my field of studying that was also fairly close to home." Me: "So what was the level of education that they offered?" Adrianna: "To start off, Harvard is one of the most challenging schools to even get applied to. It required a lot of studying and a lot of preparing" Me: This was just what I needed. "Okay. I've heard that a lot but never really understood the intensity of it all. What are the exact steps to preparing for Harvard?." Adrianna: "Wow. The exact steps, huh? Well, it all starts from about the end of junior high to the entirety of high school. You have to take AP (advanced placement) classes if you want to get ahead in the studies for Harvard and you have to, without question, gain credits. Credits, Credits, Credits. When in college, you have to gain a certain amount of credits to graduate. You also have to do this when in High school, I believe." Me: "That's one of the major steps right?" Adrianna: "Yes. Another thing that needs to be done is a lot of research and studying on this test that is required to take when the stage of entering and applying comes around. I can't identify the exact test for you because it all depends on the section in Harvard that interests you in studying." Me: "Was the test you took really hard?" Adrianna: "Fairly, but since I was well prepared, most went well." Me: "Of course! so, What are the steps after that?" Adrianna: "Okay. Oh yeah, you have to start learning about financial aid and tuitions as soon as possible. You have to save quite a bit of money to pay for and pay off college tuitions on supplies and room & board, and other expenses such as transportation and..your financial aid." Me: "What is financial aid?" Adrianna: "There are a lot of types of financial aid out there. But basically, financial aid is money given to you, loaned or paid to help you with your journey in college." Me: "Oh, so they do help you." Adrianna: "Yea. And some of the final steps to preparing into college are many hours of community service and extra curricular activities." Me: "That's it?" Adrianna: "Those are the basics!" Me: "Thank You so much. You really helped to further my I-Search." Adrianna: "No problem. Anytime." ( Alleyne, Adrianna. Via e-mail)

Now, For the interview with Tonii:

Me: "So, tell me Tonii. Was it extremely hard to get into college?" Tonii: "In a way, yes and no. I knew the basic steps to approaching college but some of the work was really hard." Me: "What was hard? What wasn't as challenging?" Tonii: "Well, the easy stuff was more like the studies. I was really prepared for what would happen in the academics. The difficult stuff was paying for tuition and really understanding the financial aid." Me: "Oh right. I heard that from Adrianna a couple days ago." Tonii: "What did she tell you so far so I don't repeat myself." Me: "She told me about financial aid and tuitions. She told me about the tests and how to get ready from middle school. She also told me that I needed to CAS hours and more activities." Tonii: "Wow, she told you an awful lot. Now the only things I can tell you is to visit college campuses so you can find what interests you the most as far as location, education, and majors. And, check frequently in your school's admissions office to find out whether you're on the right track to doing exactly what you want to do. Me: "Oh, I didn't know that. Thanks for the heads up!" Tonii: "You're welcome. See you soon." (Tonii Benjamin. Via Instant Messenger)

These were the interviews done in the process of my I-Search. They were pretty hard to get a hold of but, in the end I made it happen.

**Conclusion**
In my short journey to finding out the steps to college from researching topics to interviewing, I have learned quite a lot. I learned steps that you can take from middle school all the way through high school and entering Harvard and college in general. Now I can finally understand how major the entire process is. Through this, I learned that you have to start from middle school by taking advanced classes and challenging yourself to different activities. I also learned that you have to learn about what financial aid is and try to start a fund for your college tuition. I'm so glad I learned so much. Harvard might be close but, for now, I think I'll just go with the flow.

**Works Cited**
"ACE| Ten Steps to Prepare Your Child for College." __CIP| Preparing for College__. 2008. American Council on Education. 9 Apr. 2008 <[|http://www.acenet.edu/Content/NavigationMenu/ProgramsServices/CIP/Preparing/Guide1.htm>.]

The President And Fellows. "Harvard University: Admissions Office." __Harvard University__. 2008. 9 Apr. 2008 <[|http://www.harvard.edu/admissions/>.]

Alleyne, Adrianna. Harvard University. 2008. 9 Apr. 2008. Via e-mail.

Benjamin, Tonii. NYU. 2008. 9 Apr. 2008. Via instant messenger.

__How to get into Harvard law school__. Jr. Wille J. Epps. 2001