If you come from a middle class family the student debt by going to Harvard should be 0. Harvard MIT etc have very generous financial aid.
Also worth noting The Firm debuted nearly 25 years ago. Things are not the same as they were 25 years ago. How much of a difference can 25 years make? When The Firm debuted, women were not allowed to enroll at Princeton roughly 25 years prior.
(IWBB, wow, time flies. Almost 50 years. )
I know grads from Harvard who went into consulting or published a book or write for a major magazine or compose for orchestras or who are doing well in med school or help run a small company. I also know grads from a few years back who still have no idea what to do with their lives. It varies and stereotyping is, well, silly, sorry.
There are many great reasons to go to Harvard, and fellow students may be at the top. Every class is assembled to be an interesting mix.
That said, the extraordinary financial aid for incomes up to $150k and in some cases even higher, is a wonderful reason to apply.
Oh please.
First…some folks don’t take on huge debt to attend Harvard.
Second…the school has fabulous and generous need based aid for even income earners over $150,000 a year. TBH, if your income is higher than that…you probably can afford to send your kid to Harvard…IF they get in.
Third…Harvard is an excellent college as are MANY MANY MANY other colleges in this country…some costing the same…some less. People attend college for the education they receive.
Fourth…if your kid is really a competitive applicant for Harvard, and YOU don’t want to pay the bills…have him apply to places where he will get merit aid.
The application/selection process is only nerve-wracking if the applicant allows it to be. If you’ve tied your entire self-worth and perceive your chance of future success to be completely dependent on a HYPMS acceptance (and/or if your parents have), then yes, the process could be extremely stressful. If however you recognize that the odds of being accepted are pretty slim, decide to go for it anyway, recognize that you probably won’t be accepted, and have backup plans that you’re happy with, then I don’t see how the selection process would be any more stressful than applying to any other university.
There is a reason Harvard is Harvard. Once you enter its gates as a student, the name is bound forever to you. You exit as Thor. You can be a duffer or a lazy imbecile, but once you get that degree, people will worship you and success will kiss your feet. If you are a man, you will be adored by women. If you are a woman, you will be respected by men as an intellectual giant and compel them to bend the knee. It you are a minority, just letting racists know you have the Harvard badge, will magically make their racism disappear completely and make them see you as a glorious human specimen.
In Business, just mentioning the Harvard name will intimidate competitors and compel them to accept whatever you are proposing.
You will die rich, with the whole world loving you and holding you up as the ideal
It is for that reason that every student must aspire to become a Harvard student. No other college matters. No other college matters. Believe me. BELIEVE ME!
But you must also remember that for this magic to work, you MUST proudly mention your Harvard affiliation quite often, so lesser humans who went to “no name mud blood” institutions never forget or even temporarily get deluded into thinking that they are equal to you.
Or, you might become a domestic terrorist, land in jail, and be cursed for the rest of your life: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/06/harvard-and-the-making-of-the-unabomber/378239/
Bottom Line: While a degree from Harvard certainly does open doors – it does not open MORE doors than a degree from Stanford, Yale, Princeton, MIT and dozens of other colleges. It is NOT the magic elixir as described in post #26 – just ask Warren Buffet, who was rejected from Harvard and attended the University of Omaha: http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3201481
Jack Ma (richest self made billionaire in Asia and one of the most admired) applied to Harvard fourteen times and was rejected every single time! Like lot of Asians he apparently worships Harvard too, but he is just crazier than most by applying there so many times. By this kind of tenacity he certainly opened many doors for himself.
.
IT is not just the Harvard student, but also the Harvard parent who benefits.
They are now looked at in awe by the other parents, some will whisper in sheer jealousy behind their backs about how their kid got into Harvard, Other parents will make numerous visits to their home to understand the secrets of elite college admissions. ANYTHING This parent says is like the “Ten commandments”. They instantly become the gold standard of parenting. In fact everybody openly acknowledges their superior parenting skills. All other parents must admit the Harvard parent’s superiority and embrace their own lack of parenting skills with humility and meditate on it unless the Harvard parent also has another kid at a lesser school. Then the meditation and reflection exercises are a little tricky
To have all that bestowed on you just because your kid goes to Harvard, that is priceless. That is why parents are willing to pay anything to send their kid to Harvard. No other school provides that benefit
Actually it’s embarrassing and people have to brace themselves for the inevitable comments and prejudice that they are the pushy type of parent (or wealthy, which is a misconception).
What I can say from personal experience is that Harvard on your resume often helps get you an interview - whether you get the job depends on you. Once you have the job, the fact that you graduated from Harvard makes little if any difference. There’s a modest networking benefit (i.e., you have something in common with others who graduated from there - but again, what you make of it depends on you).
The greatest benefits - apart from the more-readily-available interviews alluded to above - are what you get from the place when you’re there (the classes you take, activities you participate in, people you interact with, etc.), the classmates you stay in touch with and the psychological benefit that you have for the rest of your life patting yourself on the back that you spent some of your formative years in a place that most people never can enter.
That can help you feel good about yourself, which is no small thing. But it won’t get you a job, and a not-insignificant proportion of the population will automatically assume you’re a jerk (which is why many people try to avoid dropping the “H-bomb” - acknowledging they went to Harvard - when they meet someone, unless the person they’re meeting is the sort who will be excessively impressed).
@pupflier LOL, love your posts!
As a current student in recruiting season, here’s my take:
Harvard certainly more opportunities to be successful than most other places. Not everyone gets high paid jobs easily - there is still a LOT of competition, but Harvard certainly can be a leg up on others. It still requires hard work and diligence to get these jobs if you don’t have the connections. That being said, Harvard is also a great place to make such connections - you’d be surprised at how many powerful people currently attend the school and how many are graduates. If anyone has more questions about Harvard, I’d be happy to help out!
The 50 best colleges where students earn high starting salaries
http://www.businessinsider.com/colleges-with-the-highest-starting-salaries-2015-8