Heh. Get born into the right family and off to Harvard you go.
I suck at writing essays but it seems his reason for wanting to attend Harvard is incredibly trite and superfluous, especially coming from a man who would eventually be considered a great orator.
For example, he states that Harvard " is a university with something definite to offer." Yet gives no definitive examples. Why is "To be a 'harvard man' is an enviable distinction" in President Kennedy's mind? Essentially every sentence lacks justification and specificity.
Sigh. These sorts of materials at least provide fuel to refocus on work and studies. Being born outside a powerful family may lack certain advantageous but they can be overcome. Right?
- General reputation
- About famous people (or family members) that went there
- A brief visit to a few of them that you pick out of a hat
- How much it costs
What kind of non-superflous evidence do you expect him to be able to bring to bear?
Joe didn't care whether his kid was in Princeton or Harvard, as long as it was one of them. Once you've made more money than you can count, the next step is to focus on your legacy.
And oddly enough, JFK went to both Princeton and Harvard. He attended Princeton for six weeks before getting ill and withdrawing and then going to Harvard the next year.
The most popular colleges from 2008-2012: Georgetown University, 48; New York University, 40; Yale University, 38; Boston University, 32; Columbia University, The George Washington University, 31; Boston College, 30; Wesleyan University, 29; Cornell University, 24; Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, 21; Brown University, Trinity College, 20.
Now, the other question, how much did academics matter in 1935?