<p>Any ideas?</p>
<p>great libraries, museums, strong faculty, almost as many top-ranked programs as Berkeley</p>
<p>Most importantly: very, very talented student. Prententious and arrogant at times, perhaps, but they tend to damn exceptional. </p>
<p>Plus the alumni network is amazing.</p>
<p>The name, the brand.</p>
<p>The Harvard name has been regarded as an American higher education symbol (also symbolizing a sense of elitism America has always told itself it has) since many can remember. It's probably the most recognized "brand" in all of higher education.</p>
<p>Largest university library system. World class faculty. Significant research funding. Talented, diverse and driven students make for an interesting and intellectual atmosphere. House system and community. Cambridge and Boston are great locations. Nice campus.</p>
<p>Not to mention one of the highest graduation rates in the nation, a wealth of resources available to students, very high acceptance rates into the top professions schools and graduate programs in the nation.</p>
<p>You might get to meet the movie starlet du jour!!</p>
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very high acceptance rates into the top professions schools and graduate programs in the nation.
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</p>
<p>Yep, especially back into Harvard's own grad programs. Harvard clearly is one of the most incestuous universities in the world in terms of bringing in their own undergrads for grad school, such that one could say that the best way to get into Harvard for grad school is to go for undergrad at Harvard and just staying there.</p>
<p>^^^ this does two things</p>
<p>A: increases endowment</p>
<p>and</p>
<p>B: gives it the best student body it could have, as the harvard graduating class is the most highly screened in the nation</p>
<p>I went to college in the Boston area, and I have to admit that Cambridge is a wonderful place for a college to be. It's a bustling little city in its own right, with an endless supply of bars, restaurants, and entertainment. And a short distance away is Boston, the gold standard among large college towns. There are a slew of womens colleges in the Boston area (Wellesley, Simmons, Wheellock, Emanuel, etc.), and women don't go to those places in the hopes that they might meet a guy from Northeastern or Suffolk--if you know what I mean. And where else could you go where you get to look DOWN on MIT students?</p>
<p>Harvard has many things going for it, and prominent among them is the fact that it is the richest school in the known universe. This gives it the capacity to create and fund academic programs that other schools can only daydream about.</p>
<p>Harvard is certainly not perfect by any means, but it does many, many things very, very well. Some of its detractors like assert that it's just a famous brand name with no real substance behind the hype. But think about it: Harvard was widely regarded as the top college in America in the 17th century, the 18th century, the 19th century, the 20th century, and it's off to a pretty good start in the 21st century. You just can't keep up a charade for that long. If there weren't real quality there, the school's reputation would have sunk long ago.</p>
<p>"But think about it: Harvard was widely regarded as the top college in America in the 17th century, the 18th century, the 19th century, the 20th century, and it's off to a pretty good start in the 21st century. You just can't keep up a charade for that long. If there weren't real quality there, the school's reputation would have sunk long ago."
Isn't it that the exact type of thinking that would enable Harvard to remain regarded as the top college without actually maintaining the relative quality that first established that reputation as it avoids identifying the true substance of Harvard?</p>
<p>Not saying that Harvard really isn't the best university on the world, but that just seems like a poor argument to me.</p>
<p>Harvard accepted George W. Bush for his MBA after the UT-Austin Law School rejected him... clearly, connections matter at elite privates!</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>...but that just seems like a poor argument to me.<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>Fahood - You must have somehow not noticed my first paragraph in which I mentioned all the money that Harvard has and all the academic excellence that provides.</p>
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Harvard accepted George W. Bush for his MBA after the UT-Austin Law School rejected him... clearly, connections matter at elite privates!
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</p>
<p>In the past, definitely. Just like being white and male used to matter a lot back in the old days. For example, before the 1950's, blacks couldn't even go to most universities in the South, especially not the regular state universities. </p>
<p>In the past, one could say that Harvard was highly fairly meritocratic at least with respect to race. For example, in the 1800's, if you were black, and you could pass the entrance exam of Harvard (for that was all you needed to get in), then you could go to Harvard. And yes, if you were connected, you might be able to get in even if you couldn't pass the entrance exam. But the point is, Harvard had a method for anybody to get in, regardless of race. In fact, that's how W.E.B. Dubois got into Harvard. Think about that. A man as brilliant as Dubois could get into Harvard, but couldn't get into, say, the University of Mississippi. So, at least when it comes to race, Harvard has historically been one of the fairest and meritocratic schools in American history. </p>
<p>Look, the truth is, most of the elite schools that we know of today were basically just gentlemen's finishing schools as recently as a generation ago. We may laugh at Bush and his academic deficiencies, but we should also note that other well-bred politicians did no better. For example, Bush actually got HIGHER grades at Yale than John Kerry did. Both of them sucked as college students, but Kerry sucked slightly more. Al Gore and the Kennedy's were not exactly brilliant students at Harvard - with Ted Kennedy even having gotten caught cheating on an exam. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Look, the truth is, most of the elite schools that we know of today were basically just gentlemen's finishing schools as recently as a generation ago. We may laugh at Bush and his academic deficiencies, but we should also note that other well-bred politicians did no better. For example, Bush actually got HIGHER grades at Yale than John Kerry did. Both of them sucked as college students, but Kerry sucked slightly more. Al Gore and the Kennedy's were not exactly brilliant students at Harvard - with Ted Kennedy even having gotten caught cheating on an exam.
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<p>But the key takeaway from a big picture perspective is simply this: some people are born into greatness, born with a silver spoon, born into privilege. That's life.</p>
<p>Does anyone actually think that GWB's attendance at Andover, Yale and HBS had anything to do with his success as a former businessman or as a politician? Or was it the fact that he had the luxury of having been born a Bush period (i.e. from a rich blue blooded family line which included a father who is a former POTUS and a grandfather who was a US Senator)? </p>
<p>same thing can be said of Kerry, the Kennedys, etc. - in other words, doesn't matter if they have a seat reserved at Harvard - when they get out they will be privy to an exclusive world of privilege that only a tiny fraction of the population will ever know - Harvard? That's not only place they get a reserved seat - they've got reserved seats at pretty much any table they want for the rest of their lives.</p>
<p>if that "fair"? who said life was fair.</p>
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You might get to meet the movie starlet du jour!!
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</p>
<p>What are you talking about?</p>
<p>You do know that Natalie Portman graduated in 2003, right?</p>
<p>To TourGuide446's question about who else could look down at MIT: Caltech, of course.</p>
<p>And on the topic of elitism, Harrison Frist (Bill Frist, Senate Majority Leader and now-lame-duck's/Presidential hopeful's son) did dismally at Princeton.</p>
<p>Smart Chicks</p>
<p>"and women don't go to those places in the hopes that they might meet a guy from Northeastern or Suffolk"</p>
<p>LOL, do you honestly believe that?</p>