<p>You know the drill. Someone asks a Harvard student where he goes to school and the Harvard student responds "Boston". But why not admit that they go Harvard? If the person asking the question is going to feel offended by the answer, he deserves to feel offended for being so ******* jealous.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s a matter of the OTHER person being offended. Rather, I think it’s a matter of the Harvard person feeling awkward. </p>
<p>The general population likes to think of Ivy League students/grads as ultra geniuses who will rule the world. Either that, or they coin them as arrogant boobs who think they are at the centre of the universe. </p>
<p>Sometimes it’s easier to avoid the stereotypes, the prejudice, and the awkward silences by just saying you go to school in Boston.</p>
<p>Yeah it’s not just Harvardians, people I know who went to Yale do the same.</p>
<p>Yeah… it’s to avoid making the other person think “wow, I’d better say really smart things in front of this guy or else he’s gonna think I’m a ■■■■■■!”</p>
<p>…which leads to an awkwardness that hinders the conversation you were TRYING to have.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>This might be a pretty good illustration.</p>
<p>Over the past couple weeks, over on the Parents Forum, a mom has been seeking input on her son’s situation. He’d been accepted at Harvard, generating great celebration from mom who was thrilled about Harvard, but ultimately decided that he felt more comfortable accepting U.Va. The mom’s final post included:</p>
<p>“Funny thing happened, we only know a small handful of kids who attend H right now and we bumped into the mom of a kid he used to know who is a freshman at H, she told us without knowing anything about my son’s situation that her son is transferring out next year! She said he didn’t like the school at all, and found the freshman class to have egos better than he thought imaginable. It wasnt’ for him…hearing this, my son I think felt some validation for his own feelings . . .”</p>
<p>So now, all the frosh at Harvard get labeled egomaniacs to provide someone else a rationale for not being there. And the story is perpetuated by a person who two weeks ago thought Harvard was the greatest thing since sliced bread, but now needs justification for why her son’s not there. I perceive that it’s a pretty typical thing. When someone learns that my D is there, they usually either gush in a way that creates an awkward moment, or launch into a monologue about how Harvard’s not all that. For students with inside, first-hand experience of life there, getting lectured about their school’s alleged shortcomings from someone without a first-hand perspective can get pretty tiresome.</p>
<p>haha - since when do Harvard kids conceal the fact that they go there? It’s an accepted fact that if you’re within 100 yards of a Harvard kid, you’ll know it.</p>
<p>7 of my close friends got accepted this year to Harvard. 4 of them still refer to H as “a school in Boston”. </p>
<p>Most people figure out they are talking about Harvard within 30 seconds because of the type student they have been in HS. I see no point in concealing it.</p>
<p>A month ago, I would have never believed that I would avoid telling people where my daughter will be going to college. Both D and I duck the topic of where she is going to school next year but we will answer the question if directly asked. My feeling is that people will feel that you are showing off if you devulge the point to easily.</p>
<p>How many Harvard students does it take to screw in a light bulb?</p>
<p>Just one. He grabs the bulb and waits for the world to revolve around him.</p>
<p>I knew I saw a thread like this before: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/547099-dropping-h-bomb.html?highlight=bomb[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/547099-dropping-h-bomb.html?highlight=bomb</a></p>
<p>"haha - since when do Harvard kids conceal the fact that they go there? "</p>
<p>Unless they are in a group of people who are likely to have gone to schools similar to Harvard, most H alum I know do respond to questions about college by saying something like “I went to school in Boston” or “in New England” or “in the North.”</p>
<p>Just hearing the H bomb causes many people to think one is bragging, egocentric, or a genius or they think that the Harvard student/alum is looking down on them. Saying one went to H is typically a conversation killer.</p>
<p>It’s awkweird to tell people I got into Yale. It just kills the conversation, or turns it into insincere flattery. I prefer not to tell anyone now. The only people that seem to relish telling others are my own family… </p>
<p>Girl working at Teriyaki Bowl Place: HI Gryffon5147!!! Remember me from middle school? I’m ******. </p>
<p>Me: Hey ******, it’s been a while! I didn’t know you worked here? (and other conversations about middle school and her job)</p>
<p>Girl: Yeah… I’m saving up for a new car. Anyway, you used to be super smart! What college are you going to? </p>
<p>Me: Um… Yale? What about you? </p>
<p>Girl: Oh… I’m going to the local community college. </p>
<p>(awkward silence) </p>
<p>I wish this was a fictional story… :(</p>
<p>My Princeton alumni interview tells everyone, except possible employers, that he went to New Jersey State to spare him from the awkwardness.</p>
<p>^I find stories like these so funny and interesting. You say that you feel insecure to let people know where you are going and yet you broadcast on your CC “location” that you are going to “Yale!!!”. I know this is an online forum and whatnot and people will not know who you are, but still…I think there are some people (certainly not all) who like to think that there is some sort of taboo with “dropping the H-bomb.” Maybe, just maybe, the people who find these conversations awkward are the ones going to H or Y or where ever…please don’t start attacking me, I’m just providing a different view on this.</p>
<p>Considering people who go to Harvard and Yale don’t have a higher intelligence than any other college but usually a significantly larger ego, this could be the reason.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE=Northstarmom]
Unless they are in a group of people who are likely to have gone to schools similar to Harvard, most H alum I know do respond to questions about college by saying something like “I went to school in Boston” or “in New England” or “in the North.”</p>
<p>Just hearing the H bomb causes many people to think one is bragging, egocentric, or a genius or they think that the Harvard student/alum is looking down on them. Saying one went to H is typically a conversation killer.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Another thing could be that the Harvard student (or alum), having learned to expect a negative response from people after revealing the name of the school he goes to, unwittingly creates all the awkwardness you referred to. I can picture a scenario where a Harvard student carefully answers he goes to school in Boston, and then, after he is pressed to reveal the name of the school he goes to and finally confesses he goes to “Harvard”, the other person might feel offended at the fact that the Harvard student hesitated to reveal the name the school he goes to, as if having determined that the other person would feel uncomfortable by such revelation.</p>
<p>I have college professors who went to Harvard, and they are very approachable and down to earth people, but I admit that if I were to encounter a person in my age group who goes to Harvard (or some other Ivy), I would feel somewhat intimidated and a bit apprehensive that if I don’t say something intelligent they could think I am not in their league and end up rejecting me.</p>
<p>Actually, the reason I personally avoid saying I’m going to Yale (which basically elicits the same reaction as the H-bomb) is so that I don’t have to “act smart.” </p>
<p>For some reason, whenever someone knows you go to a top college like Harvard or Yale, they expect you to be some super mega-genius and that every single word that spews forth from your Ivy-tinged lips should be brilliant and awe inspiring. Well, yeah. That’s not me. And it’s the most annoying thing in the world when I say something silly and someone goes “and SHE’S going to Yale.” UGH. Spare me. </p>
<p>That’s why avoid telling people where I’m going. It’s not cause I’m afraid I’ll make them feel bad. It’s cause they always make ME feel bad.</p>
<p>^I can totally understand that! I have a Calc teacher who seriously thinks I should be going to community college just because I don’t suck up to him like this other girl in my class; he seriously called me a “deadbeat” last week! No lie! I missed one week of school (and a few days here and there) in April to visit colleges I was accepted to and when I came back, his junior students came up to me and said “are you the one that missed all of chapter ten because you were abscent from school…yea, [the teacher] couldn’t stop talking about how much work you are going to have to make up and how ridiculous it is.” So…I totally can see how people EXPECT you to be the best all the time and to know everything just because you go to [insert elite/top school name here].</p>
<p>
I know someone who went there. He had the best way of making fun of people who did that:
“I went to this school in Princeton.”</p>
<p>@AmbitiousMind:</p>
<p>Omg, same here! That’s kinda funny… My Calc teacher thinks I’m a ■■■■■■ too, and hates my guts, just because I’m not quiet and perfect like this girl in my class! haha (Calc teachers need lives.) Throughout HS, I wasn’t exactly the kid who was considered the smartest in the school (just because I actually had a social life and liked to joke around instead of making sure everyone knew how complex and intricate my thoughts were), so when I got into Yale everyone’s like “well how did she get in over [rank 1 and 2]?” They think that it’s based purely on test scores/GPA, when in reality that’s just the preliminary threshold.</p>
<p>People assume that everyone who gets into top schools are robot geeks who just churn out perfect standardized tests. Um, no.</p>