An article in the 19 February 2020 Harvard Gazette, contains one of a series of articles called ‘Focal Point’ in which Harvard faculty respond to a fundamental question: ‘If you were to write a letter to your students, what would you want them to know?” In this edition, the faculty member is a lecturer in the physics department and a co-director of Graduate Studies for Physics, Jacob Barandes, and his remarks warrant reading and can be found at Harvard Gazette.
While schools want to know one’s efforts as a student, they also want to know how an applicant thinks, takes on challenges, and defines opportunities. Barandes’s pieces of advice are meant to encourage life altering decisions, something the admissions process tries to evoke. This article has taken the extra liberty of adding views from Thoreau and others to extend the fine points Barandes offers.
Barandes observes that, “It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that ability in a particular discipline lies along a single axis, and that any two people in that discipline can be lined up and compared. “ Barandes advocates dispelling this, ‘feeling that we have to demonstrate that we’re better or more capable than those around us, and a constant fear of not measuring up.’ Nothing kills the creative process deader. As Thoreau notes, “Be yourself—not your idea of what you think somebody else’s idea of yourself should be.”
In major breakthroughs in many fields, Barandes further notes, many ‘are just plain lucky’ finding themselves in the right place at the right time with the right set of skills. One never knows what’s ahead. Rather than take a
preconceived path to some sanctioned career, ‘embrace the risk of pursuing what interests you…,’ and set your sites by what’s before you.
One of the key principles of learning is asking questions one doesn’t feel comfortable asking,’ for fear of looking foolish. ‘Confronting our fears is how we build courage---it’s how we grow. Thoreau adds, “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
Barandes also exhorts his students to ‘explore other disciplines’. Be ambitious in trying things out.
When you hear of a great professor in Russian Literature, take the class and find out why she is enthused by the subject. Some of her enthusiasm might be infectious and propose a whole new vista into something one never considered. Don’t fear to stumble; as George Bernard Shaw proposed: “life is not about finding yourself but creating yourself.
Barandes suggests it’s important to, “think carefully about the foundations of your subject.’ Gain a roadmap of what it is you’re attempting to master with the understanding that that map is subject to changes and abridgements as time and empiricism demands. Thoreau, a substantial scholar in his on right, was known to constantly deprecate the rote memory and drills Harvard, in his time, demanded. He advocated for more ‘critical thought’ and ‘true scholarship’. Moreover, when Thoreau departed Harvard, he appealed to maintain borrowing privileges with the library. Books, provide roadmaps for subjects and Thoreau believed, ‘books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.’
Lastly, when it comes to research, exploring new ideas, discovering the mysteries of our universe, Barnandes tells us, ‘jump in and start trying things. Uncovering new ideas inevitably requires wandering around in the dark to some degree, and the earlier you get used to it, the less scary it will seem.” Thoreau takes this several degrees further: “Not till we are completely lost or turned around…do we find ourselves.” Getting lost is a key part of any meaningful journey through research or even the college admissions process.