Broadening their horizons: a summer of learning beyond the books

Photo courtesy of Belle Bao

Senior Belle Bao takes a picture in front of Brown’s mascot during her summer program.

The pressure of temporary life in college weighs heavily on senior Belle Bao as she steps onto the campus, but quickly dissipates as the sole sound of her steps on the cobbled floors becomes surer.

Bao attended both Harvard and Brown Pre-College Programs over the summer in order to prepare for college life after high school. At Harvard, Bao took classes on digital media; at Brown, she took classes related to law.

For Bao, with the classes came development and growth. Though Bao gained a variety of freedoms through the pre-college programs, these freedoms came with an increased sense of responsibility.

“For both programs, the main thing I took out of it definitely was time management because there were no schedules. You had to ask yourself, ‘When am I going to wake up to get breakfast?,’ ‘What am I going to do after class?,’ ‘When am I going to study?’ and ‘What do I want to do outside of class?’  You had to plan everything out. And then you have to stay organized, or else everything just gets messy.”

Aside from taking these college level classes, Bao also experienced other aspects of college life at Harvard, such as living in dorm rooms with other students.

“I think my favorite part of the colleges was the dorm life,” Bao said. “Since there were 10 of us living in one suite, we all became really close. Life without parents and with kids your age is really nice.”

At Brown, Bao learned more about independence than the sense of community that was fostered at Harvard.

“I realized that you don’t have to always be with friends. In high school, you feel like you have to walk to classes and eat with friends, but at Brown I feel like they didn’t really do a good job of helping the students socialize, so I was alone the whole week,” Bao said. “When I was there I learned that it’s okay to eat by yourself. It’s okay to walk places by yourself. I think that really made me more independent in the sense that I wasn’t overly reliant on other people.”

Bao’s time at Brown and Harvard was not entirely positive, as both colleges had their individual downsides.

“I was kind of disappointed by the Harvard campus because honestly, it was so big that it just looked like a town. It didn’t look like a typical school campus, but the materials and resources they were able to provide were good,” Bao said. “At Brown, the classes were good, but it just felt too old because the buildings were so rundown.”

The different drawbacks of each school not only helped Bao narrow her choices for college, but they also made Bao reflect upon the prestige of such schools.

“Honestly, I feel that if I went to a less prestigious school, like a state school, in comparison to Harvard, I would still be able to get the same college life,” Bao said. “Harvard may have better resources, but at the end of the day, they’re all colleges.”

In total, Bao’s time at Harvard and Brown contributed to her appreciation of college life and added to the anticipation of moving on to college.

“I think I’m looking forward to college life because I’m in high school and I’m still not really free. [I] still have to live under [my] parents’ rules,” Bao said. “It’s just something new to look forward to, so I want to improve my application so I can get into a university.”