<p>The comment on Harvard being more selective came from a 50-something adult, not an accepted Harvard applicant. I don’t think she’s a Harvard alumna, either. She was just trying to remind ivymania that he’s not all that.</p>
<p>Of course, ivymania should be proud of going to Princeton, which is a great college and university. But I can’t say that I am impressed by his intelligence, research, or interpretive ability based on his post.</p>
<p>Well I didn’t get the impression at all from ivymania that he thinks he’s “all that.” He was commenting on the seemingly wide gap between harvard’s undergraduate teaching and graduate focus, a legitimate concern (one that I have seeing as I’ll be applying to schools in 9 very short months). Maybe he was so concerned about it, he decided a more undergraduate heavy focus is what he needs? How can you criticize him for doing what he deems necessary for himself?</p>
<p>And maybe he did want to knock you Harvard people down a couple pegs; but can you blame him? 95% of you think you’re the greatest thing since sliced bread.</p>
<p>@efeens44: I won’t speak for other people, but I’m hardly looking to pick a fight with a high school senior. I simply pointed out a factual misstatement. </p>
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<p>is simply a falsehood, and as such, I found it necessary to point that out. That’s it. I really don’t care what other people think about Harvard. If they think it’s the best thing since sliced bread, great. If they think it’s completely overrated and not worth a dime, fine by me. But I don’t like seeing falsehoods spread…esp on CC where there are lots of talented, but impressionable and vulnerable young minds. Anyone, Harvard affiliated or not, should feel free to criticize Harvard based on its imperfections, missteps, and flaws. And while you’re free to make up lies about the place, be sure that others will come to its defense. </p>
<p>P.S. Harvard doesn’t need outsiders to ‘knock it down a few pegs.’ Some of our…uhmm…‘illustrious’ alumni have done that without any outside help. Though I’m quite proud of many others.</p>
<p>@WindCloud, my comments are hardly aimed towards you. People on the first page ripped OP to shreds for nothing. Harvard seems to breed an overbearing messiah complex among its students and alumni. I would be privileged to be able to attend Harvard, as it is an outstanding university. But many of its problems lie in the mindsets of the students who go there, as, like I said before, most of them think they’re all that and a bag of potato chips.</p>
<p>Efeens44: How are you better than the people you’re so stunned by? You’re passing judgement on the entire Harvard undergraduate community based on what, one post on CollegeConfidential? You seem convinced that we’re all braggarts and “too big for our britches”, when really every current Harvard student and pre-frosh I’ve talked to is grateful and humbled by their acceptance. The egotistical students you want to paint us as is overwhelmingly untrue. </p>
<p>I don’t think you’re being fair, in this instance. Certainly don’t base your college decisions on the perceived ego of a few students.</p>
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<p>I can comment on Harvard’s undergraduate teaching focus from a parent’s point of view. I have two daughters. One went to Harvard and the other to Dartmouth. Now it’s worth noting that Dartmouth is ranked Number 1 by USNews in undergraduate teaching, even higher than Princeton. And from what I’ve seen and heard from my daughter’s experience at Dartmouth the professors there are very involved with their research interests, but at the same time they care very much about the undergrads they teach, they put a lot of effort into making the class worthwhile, they make themselves readily available to help undergrads who are struggling with the material, and it’s pretty easy for undergrads to get research positions helping the profs if they so desire. </p>
<p>Great, huh? Well, yes it is. BUT, I observed exactly the same thing about my other daughter’s school. At Harvard the professors there are very involved with their research interests, but at the same time they care very much about the undergrads they teach, they put a lot of effort into making the class worthwhile, they make themselves readily available to help undergrads who are struggling with the material, and it’s pretty easy for undergrads to get research positions helping the profs if they so desire. </p>
<p>When my younger daughter got into Dartmouth, I though “Okay, now we are going to see what everybody is talking about. Now I’m going to find out what really great teaching looks like.” But my Dartmouth daughter is a senior now, and I’m still waiting to see any appreciable difference in teaching quality between the two schools, USNews notwithstanding. Both are just fine, IMO.</p>
<p>Both schools are wonderful, but if I had to pick overall between the two schools, I’d pick Harvard. Not because of teaching, but because I think Harvard’s House system is a lot better set-up than Dartmouth’s frats + dorms for student housing.</p>
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<p>My experience at Harvard was quite the opposite. You don’t have to spend very long at a place like Harvard (or, for that matter, Princeton) to realize that there are lots and lots of smart people in the world. Odds are, if you can spend four years in Harvard College constantly thinking you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re almost surely wrong (and everybody else in the room has already figured that out). In my experience, places like Harvard and Princeton tend to stomp a lot of the arrogance out of a lot of people. </p>
<p>YMMV, of course.</p>
<p>efeens: Do all Harvard students/ alumni have a superiority complex?? You have got to be kidding me. </p>
<p>Most of the people I know will, when asked where they went to college, stare at their shoes and mumble “out of state” or “in Massachusetts.” Back in the dark ages, I was a kid living in a blue-collar family in a blue-collar town. I applied to Harvard – and Princeton, and some other very nice schools – at my guidance counselor’s insistence, despite my misgivings and preconceptions. I decided to go to Harvard because all of the alumni I met – really, all of them – were friendly, normal-seeming, unassuming people lacking in attitude.</p>
<p>And as Sikorsky notes, correctly, Harvard and its ilk are very good at stomping the arrogance out of all but the most thick-skinned and thick-skulled. Once upon a time, at least, every freshman had the panicky fear that they were the one mistake the admissions committee had made that year. Those students who ARE incorrigibly arrogant are not at all well-received by their peers. </p>
<p>Look: The schools in question provide educations of essentially identical quality. Would I argue that Harvard is “better” than Princeton? Absolutely not. Do I think Harvard is the greatest thing ever? Actually, no, I don’t. Were I able to do it all over again, I would not go to Harvard; I would not go to Princeton, either. These schools are not the be-all and end-all that so many young people on here seem to think they are.</p>
<p>The issue with our little thread initiator has nothing to do with a sense of loyalty or inter-school rivalry. I don’t care one bit what he or you or anyone else thinks of Harvard or Princeton. I only see an immature young person trolling for no valid reason.</p>
<p>Harvard and Yale will always be in a power struggle for the top spot, but the quality of education will always essentially be equal. No one will care if you went to Harvard vs. Yale unless they are alumni of one of them.</p>
<p>If I can tangibly feel the arrogance on this message board (and specifically the beginning of this thread), I don’t have much hope for the majority of the school. I don’t doubt that the arrogant ones are disliked, but that’s WITHIN THE SCHOOL. Harvard students, in my experience, seem to look at “outsiders” with a disdainful air of superiority. </p>
<p>After all, they are “the best.”</p>
<p>disdainful air of supiriority??? </p>
<p>since when was pointing out an obvious falsehood/exaggeration (from IvyMania in this case) ever considered pompous and pretentious attitude…</p>
<p>"While Harvard may have once been your dream, it seems to me they dodged a bullet on you. Well, I guess. I mean, it’s not like you would have automatically been admitted. Harvard is more selective. </p>
<p>Sheesh."</p>
<p>That’s pretty pompous/pretentious if you ask me.</p>
<p>So, you’re judging an entire school based on one poster on an anonymous message board who may or may not be a Harvard student? Really?</p>
<p>As I stated above, my opinion is pretty much 99% based on my encounters with “real” Harvard students. I’ve never had a meeting with one where I didn’t walk away feeling like they thought they were better than me.</p>
<p>Iluvbooks, while you may just want everyone to think that Harvard is somewhat of a decent school, we all know here that you’re just jealous because of the school’s true mediocrity under the surface. Well, I guess! I mean, it’s not like you can understand the superior undergrad focus at Princeton anyway. Harvard can have its superficial name and pretentiousness, but Princeton is where true undergrad education resides and where, of course, professors actually teach. ;)</p>
<p>Sheesh. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>This seems to have devolved into personal judgements rather than a discussion about strengths and weaknesses of HYP…</p>
<p>“Real”? :/</p>
<p>All I know is that the Harvard students and fellow pre-frosh I’ve met are all extremely grateful, humble, and interesting human beings. Sure a few people can be arrogant, but to pretty much lump all of us together like that, and claim we’re all pretentious creeps? That’s not cool.</p>
<p>Well I mean if you could show me where I called anyone a creep I’d agree. But the prententiousness exists.</p>
<p>I am reminded of that old joke, “You can always tell a Harvard man…but you can’t tell him much.”</p>
<p>It seems so ironic in the context of this thread.</p>
<p>Sent from my DROIDX using CC</p>
<p>Going to Harvard is usually very humbling. Nothing humbles you quite like going overnight from being one of the smartest and most accomplished kids in your entire high school to being just one of the many back in the pack or in the bottom half of your class - barely able to keep up with your classmates.</p>