Luv her reaction to the comments on her tumblr...

Judging from the comments, no one agrees, but like my article says, tradition dies hard at Harvard.

UPDATE: … and the comments to this story have only reaffirmed my desire to stay far, far away from campus. Look, I tried House life, kids. I also tried to like Harvard. Really, I did. Then I realized it sucked (at least for me), and now that I don’t live in a House, I can finally see that it took me so long to leave, because I believed that however miserable I was in Mather/Currier/wherever, I could absolutely not give up this part of my Harvard experience. Now, I’m pretty sure that my decision to live elsewhere is actually the only thing that has salvaged my affection for this place.

(Yeah, you could call me bitter, but half of my blocking group, which was fairly scandal-less other than me, also transferred or moved off-campus, sans crazy blog controversies. So, chew on that.)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1241880&forum_id=2#14305055)

"I prefer to living on the internet where a ton of horny nerds stroke my ego because in real life everyone views me as weird and damaged."

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1241880&forum_id=2#14305061)

http://thechicktionary. com/post/2519826988/a-fat-envelope-is-not-what-its-cracked-up-to-be

It was in part Harvard’s doing that I ultimately recognized meritocracy for what it was: complete bunk. It was at Harvard, after all, that I learned about inequality, through textbooks and observation and personal experience. College acceptance, like all other achievements in a class-stratified society, have nothing to do with just dessert. In retrospect, my acceptance fit in quite neatly with elite rhetoric on hard work and perseverance. I was the perfect beneficiary of a University diversity initiative, a one-woman All-American success story, an idealistic aspiring writer whose shoddy science grades were forgiven, because after all, her parents were immigrants and she went to an under-funded public school anyway. A fat envelope from Harvard was not proof positive that meritocracy works, but Harvard was responsible for rendering my particular story powerful to those who wanted to believe that they could earn entrance through Ivy gates. I cringed whenever The Crimson profiled someone like me, someone who didn’t come from the “right” background, but managed to make it nonetheless. The message was, of course, that you, too, could make it here. If only you worked hard enough, if only you yearned hard enough, if only you you you you you …

Is it any wonder that when someone doesn’t get in, they wonder if they themselves are the only ones to blame?

Maybe there are those who really believe that a Harvard acceptance has validated their intelligence, but even those classmates I’d always presumed to be arrogant, those who weren’t at all critical of the institution that “made” them, even they were not exempt from self-doubt when they were denied internships, fellowships, job offers, and honors conferred upon others. The problem with prestige (and the problem with money) is that even when obtained, it is never quite enough. One feels the continual need to maintain it, to prove it to ourselves long after we’ve proved it to others. And rather than questioning the standard by which we demonstrate our worthiness, we enslave ourselves to it. While I maintain that I am stronger and wiser for the experience, I’m not sure I would wish my undergraduate years on my worst enemy.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1241880&forum_id=2#16930845)

"...if I’m to be honest with myself, I hesitate to better my non-professional writing, because I’ve come to think of it as a vain, self-indulgent craft, one that is judged and appreciated solely by the standards of the educated and privileged, standards which I once accepted unquestioningly, even though I never actually enjoyed the works that comprise Western literary canon but was too ashamed to admit as much when I was in college. Because when you say something like that, aren’t you just confessing that you don’t think your work will ever be up to snuff? And maybe, I am, in the end, just BITTER. BITTER for never having attended journalism school after all, for being too intimidated or lazy or depressed (depending on the semester) to ever get seriously involved in a campus publication at Harvard, for not giving MFA programs much of a thought because I wanted to stay in Boston sucking Patrick Hamm's cock for money (but really, I never thought I would get into Iowa anyway so was it because I didn’t have the heart to try?) Now that I’ve written the above paragraph, I guess I’d be a hypocrite if I ever do apply."

http://thechicktionary. com/post/2746584849/freelance-friday-revisiting-personal-essay-writing-pt

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1241880&forum_id=2#17060943)

http://www.xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=1542528&mc=1&forum_id=2

http://lenachenskankwatch.blogspot.com/2011/01/lena-chen-hypocrite-drops-h-bomb-in.html

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1241880&forum_id=2#17114245)

http://encyclopediadramatica.com/File:LenaChenPatrickHammFakeIDHighonPot.jpg

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1241880&forum_id=2#17114391)

Lena Chen

Yup, Harvard is every bit as insular as this article makes it out to be. Also, no one does talk about class differences. Until after they graduate bitter and resentful.

link to

http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2011/07/11/harvard-and-class/

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Ryan Mendías Class division = invisible in the Ivy League.

17 July at 12:53 · LikeUnlike

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Ryan Mendías ‎(Well, not so much invisible, as not talked about...)

17 July at 12:53 · LikeUnlike

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Kameron Austin Collins Only as invisible as you let it be. I hung out with the poor kids. Class was /always/ a part of the conversation.

17 July at 12:55 · LikeUnlike

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Ryan Mendías Yeah, I meant from a structural standpoint. I literally had no idea who to turn to when my freshman roommate from Greenwich, CT decided that he didn't want to clean our room at the end of the year and would just accept the fine, basically telling me, "Clean up a year's worth of mess by yourself or figure out how you're going to shell out a 100 bucks"

17 July at 13:00 · LikeUnlike

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Kameron Austin Collins I don't like that. He sounds really corny.

17 July at 13:03 · LikeUnlike

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Daniel Warren Reeves

Hey Lena, I hope I'm not intruding by commenting here.

It's obvious to me and most other people not in the Ivy Tower that Harvard is largely a closed-off institution. By virtue of being an elite institution, Harvard preemptively closes its d...oors to the unsuccessful, the mediocre, and the wildly unorthodox. That's not inherently bad; I understand the value of upholding academic standards.

But it's truly devastating to read this article and learn about the administrative barriers that promote the isolation of attending students. Harvard takes in a lot of students that come from a world of elites and churns them out into that same world of elites. Harvard grads can spend their entire lives— from birth to death— completely isolated from the majority of the world.

With great power comes great responsiiblity, so it seems to me that Harvard would have some sort of ethical responsibility to expose its elite students to the world around them. Classism is an institutional problem and the Harvard administration deserves quite a bit of blame for upholding the status quo. Harvard doesn't need to open its doors, but the world could benefit if Harvard at least opened its windows.See more

17 July at 14:33 · LikeUnlike

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Lena Chen

Whoops, that cut off. @Kam I never knew who was poor or who wasn't. I still don't! Sure, I eventually found that stuff out about my closer friends (blocking group & Canaday E people) but even now, I don't know much about everyone else. Face...book made some people's background a little more transparent. If you went to a fancy high school, that sort of stuff gave some indication of your background. @Daniel Totally not intruding! I think that the idea of spending the rest of one's life as a Harvardian is allll too true for some folks, particularly those who felt quite comfortable in the environment. There was some survey published about marriage between Harvard classmates. The inter-marriage rate was incredibly high, something ridiculous like 40 or 50 percent.See more

17 July at 14:53 · LikeUnlike

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Lena Chen ‎@Ryan I think yours is a common experience that takes many forms: choosing restaurants to go out to eat with your friends, an appropriate spring break vacation destination, even the kind of party to go to on the weekend. It brings up all kinds of awkward questions and there is little that the admin does to help kids negotiate these situations

17 July at 14:55 · LikeUnlike

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Kameron Austin Collins Hey lena,

I mostly knew because, well, my poor friends and I joked about it, lol. It becomes a way of relying on shared class experiences to help you deal with the privilege of a place like harvard.

That, + certain things (like being able to SEF events) were clear class markers and ways that people found each other.

17 July at 14:57 · LikeUnlike

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Marcus Stuhr Oh, it's hugely obvious.

17 July at 16:18 · Like

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(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1241880&forum_id=2#18630856)