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</p>
<p>Come now...you can tell the article is hokum just from that bit!</p>
<p>More to the point, this is just another example of USA Today's wholly non-substantive "journalism" more of a summary of unsubstantiated opinion than any attempt to report fact.</p>
<p>The basic assertion of the article, that Harvard has a great 'brand name', is pretty much beyond dispute. Yet the question asked in the title is never really answered. Why does the Harvard name matter? Apparently not much at all when it comes to getting a job, unless you're being compared to an applicant from 'Podunk'. Other than that, the astounding bit of journalism in the article is the revelation that Harvard has a high selectivity and cross-admit percentage. Oh yeah, and there are a few successful graduates. And Princeton's admissions office has a deep inferiority complex. Gee.</p>
<p>Yeah, it's all true, except for the laughable bit about elitism somehow being un-American, but so what? Does it matter? The resounding answer I gather is NO.</p>
<p>"There isn't any doubt that brand matters and that Harvard is the prestige brand," says Stanley Katz, director of Princeton University's Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies. "It's the Gucci of higher education, the most selective place."</p>
<p>"It used to be the case that of students who were admitted to Harvard and Princeton or Harvard and Yale, seven of 10 would choose to go to Harvard," Katz says. "It may be more now. There is a tendency for the academically best to skew even more to Harvard. We just get our socks beat off in those cases."</p>
<p>
[quote]
And Princeton's admissions office has a deep inferiority complex.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>a. the person is not at the admission office but is in arts + cultural policy department at pton. </p>
<p>b. he is an harvard alumni</p>
<p>"Stanley N. Katz, Lecturer with the rank of Professor at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, is President Emeritus of the American Council of Learned Societies, the leading organization in humanistic scholarship and education in the United States.</p>
<p>Mr. Katz graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1955 with a major in English History and Literature. He received his M.A. from Harvard in American History in 1959 and his Ph.D. in the same field from Harvard in 1961."</p>
<p>The man is smart enough to recognize the truth, and honest enough to speak it - no matter who is paying his salary!</p>
<p>Lol all praise the mighty Byerly! And the Crimsoness!</p>
<p>Wow...
This article only succeeds in revealing to me how stupid people really can be...</p>
<p>Harvard has tremendous academic quality, but to hold it over others of comparable quality because of such an intangible thing as "prestige" is utter stupidity.</p>
<p>I don't see why the quote is newsworthy...surely they didn't justify the entire article on the basis of that. Princeton's admissions probably does still have that complex (after all, it's Princeton ;)), but finding a Harvard grad (as adides points out) to laud Harvard just isn't really that impressive or newsworthy.</p>
<p>I would also readily stake a small fortune on the premise that either the reporter or the editor of the article (or whoever at USA Today made the determination to have it written) is an unabashed Harvard partisan. Masquerading that sort of stuff as news is as bad as what the Bush administration has done with it's education propaganda, fake journalists, and the like.</p>
<p>"Harvard has tremendous academic quality, but to hold it over others of comparable quality because of such an intangible thing as "prestige" is utter stupidity."</p>
<p>Actually, Harvard is more "prestigious" than all the other universities because of a very simple reason...</p>
<p>The Student Body.</p>
<p>Harvard takes the best of the best, and the other colleges have to scramble for the ones that Harvard doesn't take. People view going to Harvard the way they do because they know how much is involved into getting there. </p>
<p>For employers, it's summed by the phrase "If he/she was good enough to attend Harvard, he/she is sure as hell good enough to work here".</p>
<p>You sum it up pretty well, eyezonharvard.</p>
<p>Of course, the superb faculty and the matchless physical resources - all made possible by the huge endowment - also play a part in the selection process, along with the undeniable charms of the Cambridge/Boston setting.</p>
<p>"For employers, it's summed by the phrase [sic] 'If he/she was good enough to attend Harvard, he/she is sure as hell good enough to work here'."</p>
<p>Oh my gosh, grow up. That post was either written by a high school student, or by somebody who doesn't attend Harvard. Of course Harvard is a world-class school ... but in the real world, there's no such thing as people being "accepted" simply because of where they got a diploma.</p>
<p>"but in the real world, there's no such thing as people being "accepted" simply because of where they got a diploma."</p>
<p>This is a joke right? If you're not evaluated for a job based on your education then what the hell are you evaluated on?</p>
<p><< If you're not evaluated for a job based on your education then what the hell are you evaluated on? >></p>
<p>You misinterpret, "eyez". Of course education plays into an evaluation, but attending Harvard by no means makes one an automatic hire, as in your statement "If he/she was good enough to attend Harvard, he/she is sure as hell good enough to work here". So yeah, in the real world, plenty of Harvard graduates get passed up for jobs all the time. Sorry.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Of course, the superb faculty and the matchless physical resources - all made possible by the huge endowment - also play a part in the selection process, along with the undeniable charms of the Cambridge/Boston setting.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Byerly, what, do you work for USA Today or something?</p>
<p>Oh give me a break. When I told people that I was attending SSP they praised me like hell. After goign to Harvard SSP, I can get any job I want and be hired. Any internship, part time job, anything ( Jobs for my age group of course).Employers have told me so, even regarding me higher that their own workers of experience. The truth of the matter is that Harvard is Harvard. Go anywhere in the world and people know what Harvard is. Yale? Princeton? Just other American colleges. Endowment and location just add a litte, because the brand is what counts.</p>
<p>"Other American Colleges"? Wow! Where are you from?</p>
<p>Now you know why USA Today isn't one of the best newspapers.</p>
<p>i dunno, i the TV producer part didnt seem to say alot for harvard, just that last little tidbit in the end. Since thats what i want to do i'm happy i'm doing what she wished she did.</p>
<p>and sheesh some of these people. I would love to have a harvard degree (of they offered a masters in something i was actually interested in) but that doesnt mean it makes you automatic anything, thats all part of the marketing, let's not forget there are unemployed/crappy jobbed ivy leaguers out there, and Harvard, although seeminlgy the most popular ivy, is not miles apart from the others (yale and princeton the "other american schools"?, interesting.......)</p>
<p>If according to Byerly we should accept the word of Princeton employee (and Harvard alum) Katz, then we must accept the words of former Harvard employee (and Princeton alum) Cornel West, who appears to be doing quite well at the school he chose over Harvard
See:</p>
<p>There are many who believe that USA Today IS one of the nation's best newspapers; there is no doubt that it is one of the most influential, and it certainly has the largest circulation by a wide margin.</p>
<p>USA Today both influences and reflects popular thinking to an extraordinary degree.</p>
<p>In acknowledging Harvard's preeminence, this article mirrors the view of the American public, and the nation's college graduates, polled seperately, in the biennial surveys taken by the Gallup organization, in which people are asked: "What, in your opinion, is America's best college or university?:</p>
<p>"Of course education plays into an evaluation, but attending Harvard by no means makes one an automatic hire, as in your statement "If he/she was good enough to attend Harvard, he/she is sure as hell good enough to work here". So yeah, in the real world, plenty of Harvard graduates get passed up for jobs all the time. Sorry."</p>
<p>I never used the word automatic. I never said that attending Harvard would guarantee you landing any job. I was just using that example as a way to illustrate a point (namely why Harvard is so presitigious). However, having a Harvard degree is the closest thing to automatic hiring that anyone can get. </p>
<p>"Yale? Princeton? Just other American colleges."</p>
<p>Yale and Princeton have good name recognition also. It's just not universal. Harvard on the other hand is known EVERYWHERE.</p>