Monday, January 17, 2011

I've Seen Better Intern Applications

The JFK Presidential Library released his Harvard application.  His essay on why he wants to come to Harvard is charming in its simplicity:
The reasons that I have for wishing to go to Harvard are several. I feel that Harvard can give me a better background and a better liberal education than any other university. I have always wanted to go there, as I have felt that it is not just another college, but is a university with something definite to offer. Then too, I would like to go to the same college as my father. To be a "harvard man" is an enviable distinction, and one that I sincerely hope I shall attain.

April 23, 1935
John F. Kennedy
He did, of course, graduate cum laud, and the rest, as they say is history.  It didn't hurt that his father was a rich powerful man, who provided him this classic recommendation:
Jack has a very brilliant mind for the things in which he is interested, but is careless and lacks application in those in which he is not interested. This is, of course, a bad fault.
Times were simpler then.

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