<p>SwatGrad, if you’re going to judge the quality of Harvard undergraduate education by one if it’s most infamous gut courses, why don’t we take a look at Swarthmore’s “Theory and Practice of Video Games?” I’m sure the quality of teaching and learning in that course is second to none.</p>
<p>^^^bazinga!</p>
<p>Hey. Swarthmore is a fine college. I don’t consider Swarthmore grads as Harvard wannabees - it’s an entirely different experience.
But every now and then you get someone like SwatGrad or Dad2 who stalks the Harvard boards, just oozing bitterness and resentment.
Relax, Swat, there are no perfect colleges as far as I know.</p>
<p>SwatGrad…and your first hand knowledge of Harvard is…what? I suppose they never got around to teaching you that one should temper one’s remarks to reflect data gleaned rather than stereotypes one wishes to promulgate in order to make one’s self feel better.</p>
<p>Oh, and even if you limit your analysis to LACs–you aren’t even number one…Williams is-- in almost every survey.</p>
<p>Many comments here defend the student cheating as the fault of a weak professor. I don’t see it. The professor’s lectures were rated excellent. What the student complained about were difficult and tricky questions. Why not difficult questions? When a professor gives out disproportion number of As’, it does raise eyebrows of colleagues and administrators. I routinely throw out questions that were correctly answered by majority of the students, and introduce new and more challenging questions every year. Without challenging questions, we can’t separate excellent and good students. The behavior of the students in this event is simply indefensible. I also like to point out, Harvard, like most of other research universities in the country, will not place a lot of weight on student comments in granting a tenure position. Dr. Platt will be fine as far as he does well on his scholarly work and funding.</p>
<p>Dr. Platt; how kind of you to join us!</p>
<p>“Oh, and even if you limit your analysis to LACs–you aren’t even number one…Williams is-- in almost every survey.”</p>
<p>So SwatGrad raises legitimate questions about the quality of certain Harvard courses and this is the sum and substance of your rebuttal, EtonDad? What a completely ridiculous response. I guess you missed the course on logical reasoning when you were an undergrad at Harvard. If this is what passes for thoughtful analysis at Harvard, I’m starting to wonder whether my D made a serious mistake by choosing Harvard over Swat.</p>
<p>^ Claude, I don’t mean to speak for etondad, but I believe he responded to SwatGrad’s statement: “Swarthmore is second to none in the quality of its undergraduate education.”</p>
<p>Really, NESCAC schools are great - you don’t need to rip Harvard to get respect.</p>
<p>And I stand by my point, danstearns. If you and EtonDad seriously believe that SwatGrad’s statement is rebutted by the results of surveys published in magazines like USNWR (surveys that are filled out by peers with a vested interest, that consider factors beyond classroom instruction, and that are tainted by the submission of fraudulent data), then you both need to take a course in remedial logic. I don’t think it’s “ripping Harvard” (unless you’re defensive about the school’s image to begin with) to point out that large classes, inaccessible professors, and a history of giving 120 As in a semester are incompatible with quality undergraduate education. Based on what I know about Swat (and it’s quite a bit, since my D applied there and many of her friends go there), I’d be extremely surprised if it has any classes with the same profile as Gov 1310. And, finally, if you think concerns about the quality of Harvard’s undergraduate education are limited to outsiders like SwatGrad, why do you think the college itself revamped the undergraduate curriculum several years ago? Come on people, you belittle yourselves and the Harvard community by responding to completely legitimate questions with inane citations to magazine rankings.</p>
<p>I’ve said it before - Swarthmore is a great school. Relax.</p>
<p>Sorry, hakuna matata it is.</p>
<p>Claude - First, Etondad has a child at Harvard. Why do you think he went there himself?
Second, Swatgrad’s post was intentionally incendiary.
Third, my son is at Harvard. He’s getting a great education and I have no concerns whatsoever. Small classes, close faculty interaction, tremendous opportunity to interact with speakers and visitors, and an interesting, thoughtful, and challenging peer group. No concerns whatsoever.</p>
<p>Actually, I went to Yale…Not Harvard…for college.</p>
<p>I was responding to the fact that LAC folks (and I have a D at Williams so I have no dog in this fight) think that class size, ipso facto, translates into a better learning experience.</p>
<p>No- it translates into a different, not better, experience. Not better, not worse, but different.</p>
<p>I have had amazing, incredible lecture courses of several hundreds – Harold Bloom and Edmund Morgan for example and I have had boring, horrible seminars. I have also had extraordinary seminars and horrid lecture classes. </p>
<p>Bad, uncaring teachers exist in, unfortunately, all schools (maybe not St John’s College…) and great teachers too. Each student needs to recognize that national research universities are different entities than LACs-- not better-- but different. If the student has a sense of her or himself, then she or he can decide which type of school works best for him or her. With my two I cannot image a better placement for my son than Harvard or my daughter at Williams-- but both would be miserable and rightly so if she went to Harvard and he went to Williams.</p>
<p>As for Swathmore-- I’m sure it is a fine school–I make no claims that it isn’t terrific-- but I don’t need to posit claims by putting other schools down – or to take personal swipes at another poster in order to justify my posts or choice of colleges.</p>
<p>Oh, btw, Yale would have been all wrong for my S. I loved my time there but I don’t think it is the be all of end all…no college is for all students.</p>
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<p>Who were these people exactly, and when were they are Harvard? This is completely different from my experience.</p>
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<p>Unfortunately for your deduction, that is not the norm. In fact something like ~80% of classes at Harvard have less than 20 students and something like 45% have less than 10 students. I would be careful about making faulty generalizing statements. Believe it or not, they immediately cause sizable dent to your credibility.</p>
<p>P.S. I don’t know if you realize this, but you and another poster share a lot in common. If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought you came back with a different username! ;)</p>
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<p>… while providing a lot of entertainment for you at the same time :)</p>
<p>Except for the crack about Goldman Sachs, I see nothing in SwatGrad’s comments that approach being “intentionally incendiary” (unless you’re allergic to criticism) and certainly nothing that justifies the dismissive tone that many posters, including EtonDad, have adopted towards his remarks. The reality is that concerns about the quality of Harvard’s undergraduate education have been around for a long time and that, while the administration has made a conscious effort to address those concerns, courses like Gov 1310 still exist. So, in that sense, Swatgrad’s comments are completely on the mark. As I said before, I suspect that the college takes those concerns a lot more seriously than the posters on this thread, whose primary concern appears to be defending Harvard’s image rather than addressing its now nationally-publicized problems. And, by the way xrCalico23, it may shock you to know that a Harvard parent agrees with many of Swatgrad’s concerns, but I assure you we’re not one and the same.</p>