<p>This thread may have the biggest load of drivel that I have ever had the displeasure of seeing on the CC boards. </p>
<p>"So, Byerly and company, give it up. No one really cares how big Harvard's endowment. I'm a firm beleiver that you can get a similar education and opportunity from the University of Michigan for example(if not much, much better) than from HYPSM. There is no point in having a world-renowned faculty if they can't can't properly interact with their students and impart the will, the ambition, and the knowledge to succeed effectively, which is what happens in most cases."</p>
<p>Please excuse me while I go puke. man<em>on</em>fire, you go to U of M, come back in 10 years time, and compare the success of your fellow U of M alumns with the success of the Harvard alumns from the same year graduating class. I think you'd be surprised...just not pleasantly.</p>
<p>Of course Caltech is ranked lower than most other top schools (although they actually did make #1 a couple years ago when usnews put heavy weight on amount of money spent per student). It also loses many common admits to other schools such as Stanford and MIT. It has some "flaws" - too focused on science, unneccessary academic rigor, lack of student diversity, etc. - that make it less attractive to most students although I also think these are the reasons that Caltech students chose Caltech. Because of this, Caltech should definately be recognized as one of the most intelligent student bodies. One of the key points is that colleges like Harvard and Princeton will recruit athletes who sometimes are not as qualified as the accepted non-athletes. This creates a weaker bottom of the class which Caltech does not have. I would agree that the top students of all top universities are well-matched in ability. The point I'm trying to make is that if you randomly selected a student out of Caltech's student body, with its small nerd-dense population, they would probably be more intelligent than one randomly selected out of Harvard or one of the other top univerities' population.</p>
<p>Of course, I'm not here to argue over which university is the best. I think that's a moot point. Especially if you try to compare colleges like Harvard and Caltech which are worlds different and great in their own respects. I just wanted to maybe explain where the Caltech claim came from and also to try to show that Harvard is not the undisputed champion of the world.</p>
<p>"Please excuse me while I go puke. man<em>on</em>fire, you go to U of M, come back in 10 years time, and compare the success of your fellow U of M alumns with the success of the Harvard alumns from the same year graduating class. I think you'd be surprised...just not pleasantly."</p>
<p>"Incredible. How close minded are 50% of you...?"</p>
<p>It's amusing to see the work that 15 year-old wannabes can produce. News flash: yes, Harvard is a fine place and a fantastic university. But a diploma doesn't define a person ... any more than a stupid post does.</p>
<p>What a obscenely stupid debate-on all sides. Cal tech is full of geniuses. Harvard is full of geniuses. MIT is full of geniuses. Princeton is full of geniuses. Each school has a different personality and thus attracts different-and pretty much equally talented students. Is a 9 year old playing the tchaikovsky violin concerto any less of a genius than a 9 year old studying calculus? No-and we wouldnt spend countless hours debating it. </p>
<p>Oh, yes, and Eyzeonharvard-I would hold your tounge until you actually go through the process-you might have a different tone after you know what you are talking about. </p>
<p>Do you know what school has the most fortune 500 CEOs? It isnt Harvard. It isnt Yale. Its the University of Wisconsin. The University of Texas and U Chicago had the most CEO hirees last year. If you think success springs from a Harvard degree alone, you are severely deluded.</p>
<p>I am a martial artist, and I once asked my master the following question: "What's the best weapon out there?" to which he replied, "There is no best weapon. The weapon depends on you." And it's true. A fighter with a dagger can slit your throat within seconds if he / her gets close enough, but a fighter with a spear is the master of long distance fighting. A lot of people may THINK that the spear is a better weapon than the daggers, but for many others the dagger is so deadly that throughout history numerous masters have refused to teach the art of using it. </p>
<p>Every weapon has its own strengths and weaknesses that fits the martial artist's style and skill. The same goes for the topic of this thread. We, and all the institutions, have various strengths and weaknesses. That's why we research and choose the colleges of our choice, so that we may obtain an education that best suits our ambitions and unique personalities. Yes, there are many numbers and information out there that praise Harvard (and other big name schools), but that only shows a point of view from a certain percentage of population. Again, I think it's important to treat opinions (whenever you hear / see the word "better, best, most, etc.") with an open mind that can come up with its own conclusion free from the persuasive media. Therefore, it is quite pointless to argue which school has the brightest or ambitious student body; we'll sit here in front of our computers forever if we attempt to end this. </p>
<p>In my humble opinion, the bottom line is that your future all depends on your own work ethic and on the type / quality of the education that you chose to match yourself. Instead of whipping out arguments and comments, maybe we can spend more time portraying positive inputs about certain universities so that people would have a better idea of what other institutions are really like! :)</p>
<p>to all Harvard elitists: Harvard is inferior in several departments when compared to a good number of other "american universities" that your "educated" friends have never seemed to have heard of</p>
<p>to all Harvard bashers: Justly or unjustly, Harvard does have the number one prestige in our planet, so stop fighting this!</p>
<p>i read a few of your messages on this thread, and your arrogance is matched only by your stupidity.</p>
<p>1) "whose more socially, and politically educated? Some asian from Caltech or a student from Harvard University."</p>
<p>i certainly don't know, but i'm sure it's not you. you are not only dumb but also racist.</p>
<p>2) "Sry fixing spelling, so that some of you wont make an issue out of a simple mistake."</p>
<p>what about your grammar and lack of logic?</p>
<p>3) "The reason is that Harvard's investment is logarithmic, whereas MIT or Caltech's is geometric."</p>
<p>looks like you need some remedial elementary school math ... if you actually knew the definitions of the terms you just used, you'd realize what an idiot you sound like!</p>
<p>4) "Harvard is investing so much money in the engineering/ applied sciences departments its not even funny. In less than a decade this university will math [sic] and exceed..."</p>
<p>math isn't an engineering or applied science. and harvard's math department is already quite good.</p>
<p>5) "Caltech is ranked lower than the three [HYM] combined..."</p>
<p>ugh. i'd be curious to know how one "combines" rankings.</p>
<p>5) re your post about the prestige of Harvard Summer School: my goodness. this was so utterly stupid that i assumed you were a regular person being sarcastic. then i realized you were trying to be serious...</p>
<p>so ... will you be attending harvard college next year? i'm sure you'll be accepted early action!!!</p>
<p>I'd like to refer back to the post you made a while ago, in which you began by writing, "Incredible. How close minded are 50% of you? You keep refusing the fact that Harvard is the best university in the world. Period." Now, when somebody makes a post encouraging the open-mindedness that you seemed to have once supported, you take the opportunity to once again demonstrate your arrogant, racist, and hypocritical personality.</p>
<p>I find it equally disturbing that you, who in the same post also falsely accused another poster of being a racist, now write, "Whose more socially, and politically educated? Some asian from Caltech or a student from Harvard University?" What's that supposed to mean? Do Asians not also attend Harvard University? Can Caltech students not be socially and politically well-versed? Or do you just have something against Asian people? I suppose the answer to your question is that it depends, but they're both smarter than you, because we can all see what a social genius you are.</p>
<p>And finally, you wrote, "In less than a decade this university will math and exceed the maths departments in these technical schools. The reason is that Harvard's investment is logarithmic, whereas MIT or Caltech's is geometric." I'd like to recommend that you attach this section of your post to your Harvard application. And if you somehow manage to get in, tape it to your chest in big bold letters the first time you take a math class. I'm sure your math professor will be absolutely thrilled knowing that all the money spent on revamping the math department will have gone into educating mathematical geniuses such as yourself. I guess there is a reason that certain people go to Harvard, and others go to Caltech and MIT.</p>
<p>LOL, I liked the logarithmic vs. geometric funding line, gotta use that one some time. Hehehe...</p>
<p>I think paulhomework's post was quite possibly the best one I've seen on this site so far. Well said (and that implies Legend's post above was equally valuable).</p>
<p>"Well, well. A rookie poster making his first post (under this alias anyway)! And a tough-minded post it is!"</p>
<p>yeesh. why are you directing this sarcasm and bitterness toward me?</p>
<p>then again, some simple research shows that apparently dha thinks that you guys are two peas in a pod. for example, see one of his previous posts...</p>
<p>"I like Byerly. He is the mirror image of me and my relationship with Harvard...except the age diff and Harvard degree which I dont have....yet."</p>
<p>Well guys I hope the best for all of you. Its funny how you cant accept the fact. And by the way, I am not racist. You implied that Asians are smarter than White/Latino/Black individuals. I merely inferred and stated it. We will just see who will have the Crimson diploma, and who will gradute from the "other" colleges.</p>
<p>dha_06 don't you find it just a <em>bit</em> ironic that you don't know what the middle school words "logarithmic" and "geometric" mean and can't construct coherent sentences--yet you have such pretensions as to boast to the effect of "we will just see who will have the Crimson diploma."</p>