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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