This was all over the news this week. Apparently this kid’s brother who was accepted to Stanford also made a similar video. It hardly got any coverage, some reports on the Harvard video mentioned it passing.
rather insecure and unnecessary. Why bother? It is not news that for the average, semi-educated person down the street the Harvard name resonates like no other. I don’t see this status obsession on the Stanford forum though…just saying.
Hot Colleges come and go.
Some for 20 years, some for 350+
^I dont see navel-gazing Stanford posts about how Stanford must be more desirable than Harvard because it has a lower acceptance rate and higher yield rate though…I d have thought similar navel-gazing would be beneath Harvard people, but I guess not.
Don’t need to look to hard.
Just an observation.
Harvard is the premier institution in the world. everyone knows the name.
*Note: I may be slightly biased 
Maybe this article will help explain why this is such a big deal. Kudos to these kids, and even bigger kudos for the person who founded this school. This is amazing.
"Breaux Bridge is a small Louisiana town about an hour outside Baton Rouge. The average income among its 8,300 residents is less than $30,000 a year. Most graduating high school seniors don’t go to college. Many don’t even graduate from high school.
But the graduation rate is 100 percent at TM Landry College Prep, an independent school in Breaux Bridge that began in 2005 with five students labeled as “black troublemakers,” the school says. All students have been accepted at four-year colleges, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Stanford universities…Just 12 years after its founding, TM Landry, named for the couple who started it, Tracey and Michael Landry, has managed to launch students from this relatively isolated low-income town into the ranks of the greatest universities in the world."
In the media and in the public imagination the name “Harvard” has long been short-hand for “prestigious, great school that really smart people go to.” To a lesser extent Stanford, Princeton, and Yale fulfill this role too, and so does MIT if we are talking about science and math smarts. But Harvard still gets the public attention in a way the others only partially do.
By analogy, the name “Ferrari” is short-hand for fast, sexy, glamorous, and expensive sports car even though some Maseratis, Lamborghinis, Aston Martins, and even Corvettes maybe just as sleek and fast, if not faster, than many Ferraris. But the Ferrari name is still golden. It’s the same with Harvard.
I think it’s the global reach that Harvard has. There can’t be many adults in this world who don’t know what Harvard is. Outside the US, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford isn’t as well known. I do think people abroad recognize MIT as being equal to Harvard in terms of brand name.
^MIT only as a STEM powerhouse while Harvard is overall. But I imagine if this video were shot on the west coast where Stanford may be equally popular if not more, the reaction could be the same for Stanford and Harvard.
I heard in China, Stanford is just as well known as Harvard, if not more. Can anyone who has lived in China confirm this? I can confirm that in Korea, Harvard name is more widely known. As a result, some joke in Korea that the second best university to attend to impress people is Hubbard University because it sounds almost the same when pronounced in Korean. Another best university to attend to impress might be Stamford University. Lol. I can also confirm in the west coast, Stanford admission is very much sought after. Know few people who were ready to attend Columbia University until they got into Stanford.
I am living in Kazakhstan, has lived in Russia, no one knows Princeton , Yale, Stanford, etc. everyone is just taking about Harvard.
@websensation I grew up in China. My dad told me about Harvard and MIT in the 70’s when I was in elementary school.
No question, Harvard is a much better known brand in China than any other US school. Xi Jinping sent his daughter (his only child) to Harvard. This year Stanford has 12 REA in China while Harvard has only one. The lone Harvard REA admit was from a prominent family in Beijing who donated more than $10m to Harvard.
I would think having 12 REAs shows that the demand for Stanford is very high vs one kid to Harvard REA who got in partly due to $10 M contribution. In West coast, many kids who get into Stanford don’t even apply to HYP like my kid. But around the world, I am sure Harvard has the most recognizable name, followed by MIT then Stanford and Yale.
Demand has to do with number of REA applications. I don’t know Harvard vs Stanford application numbers there. But I do know this----every time there was an unhooked Harvard admit in China there would be a newspaper article featuring the kid because it is perceived as rarer and more difficult (or “more newsworthy” I guess). I don’t recall seeing articles featuring kids admitted to other US schools including Stanford. Maybe a few years from now as more and more Chinese coming to study in US high schools and colleges the perception of Harvard vs Stanford will converge with that of US where H and S are neck and neck.
Another reason for this lopsided REA numbers could be that Harvard feels so confident about its brand appeal in China that it believes all 12 Stanford REAs will still apply to Harvard and Harvard can lure them away in RD.
I guess my source in China told me wrong info. Lol But I do know about Korea. It is my guess that Harvard wins around 60% of kids who are accepted by Harvard and Stanford. Stanford probably gets more than 50% against any other schools not Harvard. Source: Parchment. I do know that often Harvard offers slightly more in financial aid, something like $1,000 or $2,000 more. Two schools that have many alumni in Korea are: Cornell and George Washington.
“…my guess that Harvard wins around 60% of kids who are accepted by Harvard and Stanford.”
That data is a bit old. In the last few years, with tech/startup scene so hot and Silicon Valley being so prominent, the number may be even now, perhaps its in Stanford’s favor among the most ambitious US cross admits.
In 2014, according to Stanford’s admissions office, Harvard won 58% of the 214 kids cross-admitted with Stanford: https://stanford.app.box.com/s/y4abufqg66nte7uax6eq . It’s possible that’s changed in the past three years; I guess we’ll find out when Stanford publishes updated information.
Either way, though, the number of cross-admitted kids is only a little over 10% of all admits at both places, so the two schools are admitting overlapping but very different groups, and the difference between winning 58%-42% and splitting 50%-50% is 17 kids, or 3-4 freshman suites in Harvard Yard. If you interviewed literally hundreds of kids at both schools, you wouldn’t be able to tell which won more cross-admits.
I saw some statistics that Stanford won that battle last year. However, it probably depends on the intended majors of the cross-admits. If more of them are STEM majors, Stanford may win that battle. If not, Harvard might.