<p>A Flood of Crimson Ink
Sick of hearing about Harvard? So is everyone else--except Harvard-educated journalists.</p>
<p>BY MICHAEL STEINBERGER
Friday, April 29, 2005 12:01 a.m.</p>
<p>Another academic year is drawing to a close, another year in which Harvard has generated vastly more headlines than any other American university. Most of these, of late, have concerned Lawrence Summers, Harvard's president, who famously suggested that there may be a biological explanation for the paucity of female scholars in the hard sciences. (He hasn't stopped apologizing since.) But a single controversy doesn't account for all the interest. Two recent books are decidedly unflattering to the school:</p>
<p>Harvard will always be the most prestigious University in the world. If you get in, congratulations. If you don’t, you can still be successful. It is a “brand”, but Harvard clearly opens doors for many graduates. The Ivy League is a brand. There are many prestigious (non Ivy League) universities out there that deserve the praise Harvard receives. Schools like:</p>
<p>Stanford
Chicago
MIT
Caltech
JHU
WUSTL
Duke
Michigan
UCLA
UC-Berkeley</p>
<p>Then again USNWR always does a good job praising Harvard. High school students will always think Harvard is the best and so will many others. You can’t change that.</p>
Perhaps this comment was uncalled for, but it’s widely known that women tend to possess stronger literary skills whereas men tend to possess stronger quantitative skills. It’s not like he said anything blatantly false and misogynistic.</p>
<p>If it’s so obvious, then why did he need to say it? What he said would be relatively harmless to a woman with weak quantitative skills, who never has any aspirations to be a scientist or engineer. But it would be extremely harmful to the self-esteem and public perception of a woman (especially younger woman) with strong math and science skills. (Men are assumed to be good at math until proven otherwise, but it’s the opposite for women.) It’s one unnecessary stumbling block on her career path.</p>
I agree with you there; it was unnecessary and probably irresponsible. I’m just saying that just because it was dumb for him to say doesn’t mean it’s wrong (in the literal sense of the word wrong).</p>
<p>Guys, this article is over 4 years old. Summers has long since left Harvard. If you plan to trash Harvard you’ll need something rather more current than this ex-issue.</p>
<p>@Entertainer: Harvard hasn’t ALWAYS been the most prestigious university in the world, nor, most likely, WILL it always be. I’m pretty sure that until about the 1930s or later, Oxford would have been more prestigious. And if we look back hundreds of years, there are other colleges that would have been considered “most” prestigious. Admittedly, though, it would likely take a truly world-changing event. Like the end of the middle ages, the collapse of the British Empire, etc. were world-changing events (years-long events, but events nonetheless).</p>
<p>I though the very last paragraph was the most compelling:</p>
<p>
[quote]
And lest I, a journalist not educated at Harvard, be accused of sour grapes, rest assured: I developed my Harvard complex long before I took my vow of poverty and succumbed to the charms of journalism. I spent several years after college working on Wall Street, during which time I was interviewed for a job with a major hedge fund. The interview did not go especially well, and the tone was set pretty much from the start. As the gentleman meeting with me scanned my r</p>
<p>Actually the international dominance of US universities is a relatively recent thing. A hundred years ago American higher education, including even Harvard, was something of a backwater compared to Europe. It’s really in the post-WWII era that the US schools have moved to the head of the pack.</p>
<p>"Most of these, of late, have concerned Lawrence Summers, Harvard’s president, who famously suggested that there may be a biological explanation for the paucity of female scholars in the hard sciences. (He hasn’t stopped apologizing since.) "</p>
<p>this is a convaluted A twist of the truth to fit an aganda, no doubt:</p>
<p>“Summers said he was only putting forward hypotheses based on the scholarly work assembled for the conference, not expressing his own judgments – in fact, he said, more research needs to be done on these issues. The organizer of the conference at the National Bureau of Economic Research said Summers was asked to be provocative, and that he was invited as a top economist, not as a Harvard official.”</p>
<p>Harvard, in it’s liberal “openmindedness” (90+% of faculty self identify as liberal and or democrat) should embrace debate on any subject. If the topic fails under reason and merits, then sobeit.</p>
<p>Harvard is still the best and the most prestigious university. Harvard is the greatest, but it may not be as great as most people think. Who knows what is going to happen in 50 years. Oxbridge used to be “the” world’s most prestigious (still among the world’s most prestigious). But their status was not what they used to enjoy. Same could happen to Harvard.</p>
<p>Of course Harvard is overrated. As arguably the most prestigious university in the world, people have a perception of this utopian place where everyone is perfect. But Harvard, like every other institution on this planet, is made up of humans, and no human being is perfect. Like everything else, Harvard has its faults.</p>