How to Get Into Harvard with a Potato

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7KQJwd3bi4

Hey there, my dear virtual little siblings! Today, I've got a spud-tacular (wink) plan to get you into Harvard, or any Ivy League school for that matter. And our secret weapon? This humble potato!

The first thing you should know is that last year, Harvard changed up their essays big time. 

Yes really. It used to be a fatty 650-word essay – essentially a second common app. But in 2023, Harvard essentially ripped a page out of Stanford and MITs application, and asked students to write 5 x 200 word short responses. It's like they're challenging us to be concise geniuses! But there's one question that Harvard takes super seriously: "Briefly describe an intellectual experience that was important to you.": 

FYI Harvard, more so than other Ivy League schools, really prizes academic curiosity.Now think with me for a second: imagine that your intellectual awakening was all about these tater tots over here. You instantly become the potato prodigy, standing out from the crowd of applicants. Still not convinced? Well, check out this video from a Texas A&M Physics Professor. 

There are so many ways we can interpret, analyze and apply the lessons from this brilliant video. First of all, we could merely write about watching this video in response to the 200 word Harvard intellectual curiosity supplemental question. Solid approach. Not bad at all. 

But here’s what would be even better: my advice is to recreate this physics experiment and show it off to your little cousin and all his elementary school friends! I’m sure you can find a hammer, knife and potato somewhere lying around! Why not replicate this in real life, then write about what it was like to perform / teach / inspire younger students? Or best of all, what if you created a dozen of these science experiments related to potatoes. Like, did you know you could use potatoes to remove rust? Or power light bulbs? That video has 38 million views on YouTube by the way. Who knew potatoes could be so electrifying? 

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Next up, we have the second criteria, which is a bit more serious: vulnerability. To accomplish this, you’d probably center your main story, or your common app, around truly significant obstacles you’ve had to overcome. For example, maybe a natural disaster like a typhoon struck your region / maybe there was war and destruction in your region so you were forced to flee your home and to survive you ate potatoes straight for two weeks. I know it sounds a little crazy in this day and age, but I have actually read essays like these before. When done properly, they tend to be incredibly powerful.  

General writing tip for all students: to make sure your story doesn’t sound cliche or come across as sort of trauma-dumping, you’ll want to ensure that the story is ultimately about how you’ve overcome your circumstances, as opposed to merely writing about the unfortunate circumstances themselves. Then, and this is the most important part, you’ll want to end your story with a motif. As wild as it sounds, you could use this potato as a symbol of your fortitude. It is, after all, one of the hardiest types of food out there. Potatoes can grow pretty much anywhere. Potatoes are resilient. Humble. Reliable. Just like you. 

These days, it’s not enough to be kind, empathetic, run your own nonprofit, or end world hunger. It sounds harsh, but it’s true – Harvard doesn’t just admit everyone who volunteers.

 You gotta be creative with it. And above all, showcase impact. 

Let me pitch a new idea to you. Pretend just for a second that you volunteer at a homeless shelter or church once a month. You boil these potatoes, plop them onto a plate… but one day you decide- that’s it. I’m done. This is wrong. There MUST be a better way to cook and serve potatoes. 

So you experiment. You go home and you try cooking potatoes a few different ways. You start simple: baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, smashed potatoes. But you gradually get more and more complex: 15-Hour Potatoes, 1,000 Layer Potatoes, and then, while you’re at it, you start investigating how different cultures around the world cook potatoes. 

Ecuadorians make a dish called Llapingacho which are potato pancakes seasoned with cumin and other spices, then stuffed with queso fresco. In India, dum aloo means steam-cooked potatoes which feature an aromatic blend of ginger chili, coriander onions, tomatoes then blended with yogurt and left to simmer until they become nice and creamy. Sweden invented the hasselback potatoes, which I guess is the source of those viral accordion potato recipes. Crispy on the outside, smooth and creamy on the inside. 

The next step is to take all these different potato-cooking methods and present them to the people you aim to help. One fantastic option is to bring a dozen different potato dishes to your church and feed the folks there. I’m sure they’d be very, very appreciative. 

But an arguably even better method would be to invite these folks into the kitchen with you and cook the dishes together. Maybe you could invite a local chef or restaurant to partner with you – never a bad idea to get others involved in your creative, selfless endeavors. In fact, the more people you collaborate with, typically the easier the project becomes since you don’t have to do everything yourself. 

So just to recap, what is Harvard looking for? 

Humility, intellectual curiosity, vulnerability, selflessness - yes, that’s all true. But above all, they want creativity and ingenuity. And in order to formulate a memorable, impressive application, you’ll need to do memorable, impressive things. Luckily, the ideas I’ve outlined aren’t all that hard to implement. If you really set your mind to it, I can’t imagine it would take more than a weekend, or at the very most, a month! 

Something to chew on.

Best,

Kevin