Scathing article from Harvard grad

Parents Forum
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<p>Scathing article from Harvard grad </p>

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<p>This month's Atlantic Monthly has an article written by a recent Harvard grad (graduated in 2002)- it's called "The Truth About Harvard." Here are a few select excerpts - note, this is not MY opinion, just quotes from the article, find the full article at <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200503/douthat:%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200503/douthat:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>"...The students ambitions [at Harvard] are those of well-trained meritocratic elite. In the semi-aristocracy that Harvard once once, students could accept Cs because they knew that their prospects in life had more to do with family fortunes and connections than with GPAs. In today's meritocracy this situation no longer obtains. Even if you could live off your parents' wealth, the ethos of the meritocracy holds that you shouldn't, because your worth as a person is determined not by clan or class but by what you do...What you do, in turn, hinges in no small part on what is on your resume, including your GPA...Thus the professor...as a dispenser of grades...is a gatekeeper to worldly success. And in that capacity [Harvard] professors face upward pressures from students...horizontal pressure from their colleagues, and downward pressure from the administration (If you want tof ail someone you have to be prepared for a very long painful battle with the higher echelons," one professor told the Crimson)...</p>

<p>It doesn't help that Harvard students are creatively lazy, gifted at working smarter rather than harder. Most of my classmates were studious primarily in our avoidance of academic work, and brilliant largely in our maneuverings to achieve a maximal GPA in return for minimal effort. It was easy to see the classroom as just another resume padding opportunity, a place to collect the grade necessary to get to the next station in life. If that grade could be obtained while reading a tenth of the books on the syllabus, so much the better...</p>

<p>In this environment, who can blame professors if, when it comes time to grade their students, they take the path of least resistance - the path of the gentleman's B-plus?</p>

<p>One might expect Harvad's Core Curriculum to step into the breech...It has long been an object of derision among students and a curriculm review committee recently joined the chorus, observing dryly that the Core "may serve to constrain intellectual development...My experience of th ecore was typical. I set out with the intention of picking a comprehensive roster of classes that would lead me in directions at once interesting and essential...What I found were unengaged professors and over burdened teaching assistants who seemed to be marking time until they could return to the parochial safety of their departmental classes...The few Core classes that are well taught are swamped each year, no matter how obscure the subject matter....</p>

<p>A Harvard graduate may have read no Shakespeare or Proust; he may be unable to distinguish Justinian the great from Juilan the Apostate, or to tell you the first ten elements in the periodic table...As in a great library ravaged by a hurricane, the essential elements of a liberal arts education lie scattered every where at Harvard, waiting to be picked up. But little guidance is given on how to proceed with that task...Mostly I logged the necessary hours in the library and exam rooms, earned my solid (if inflated) GPA and my diploma, and used the rest of the time to keep up with my classmates in our ongoing race to the top of America (and the world). It was only afterward, when the perpetual motion of undergraduate life was behind me, that I looked back and felt cheated..."</p>

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<p>I'm certainly not surprised that there is a disappointed Harvard grad out there. A quick look at any one of those colleges-rated-by-students sites will show you that there is NO college anywhere in the US that doesn't have it's share disgruntled students and recent grads. The difference is that some Harvard grads, their disappointment notwithstanding, came out Harvard articulate enough to write an article worthy of publication in the Atlantic Monthly. </p>

<p>And as I always say when considering the opinion of a single individual: there is no school so good that someone somewhere won't hate it; and there is no school so bad that someone somewhere won't love it. In judging any school, go with the consensus.</p>

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<p>When I read this article I felt an overwhelming sense of sadness for this young man...not from the parts of the article quoted by Carolyn, but those that talk about the devastating personal turns his life took- the profound issues related to substance use, his sense of himself, his reactions to and from his classmates, etc, etc. </p>

<p>I didn't see this article as a warning against Harvard, or any other school. I saw it as a call to responsible adults to ensure that our young people are whole. All college kids are in a developmental phase of self discovery. I had the feeling that this boy had very little bedrock for that process. The whole article just blew me away, and I barely thought about what he said about his academic life....</p>

<p>Sometimes after reading articles like this I put them aside to read again. I really feel it will be a long time before I read this one another time, however.</p>

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<p>How would another school make the case that its atmosphere is different?</p>

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<p>Better advising. Better one-on-one relationships with tenured faculty, who see it as their prime responsibility to teach undergraduates.</p>

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<p>Unfortunately, the article isn't posted any more, so I couldn't read the whole thing.</p>

<p>If, though, the students main complaint is about how the university isn't undergraduate-centered in terms of having a strong environment emphasizing teaching and mentoring, my thoughts are that the student selected the wrong college. </p>

<p>Harvard is not at all a warm fuzzy. Mr. Chipps is hard to find. To me, the best thing that Harvard offers is a chance to be around the most interesting, intense, involved, smart group of peers in the world. To me, the heart of the Harvard education is being able to run with one's ECs, and to do this very independently (i.e. without faculty advisors). One can do this while also having the chance of being taught by some professors who are world renowned in their fields. In addition, as long as one can get a prof to agree to teach you, one can take a class in absolutely any subject one wants to even if it's an independent study with an enrollment of one.</p>

<p>If what the writer wished was a very academics-centered environment -- small classes, professors very involved with students, students whose main joy is delving into academics, probably a top LAC would have been a better match.</p>

<p>Too many students apply to Harvard purely because of the name, and haven't thought about whether Harvard fits what they want out of their college experience.</p>

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<p>These students don't sound very intellectually curious to me....and they sound legacy-like, as well......I thought (from reading the CC boards) that the student population at Harvard had changed from the old days to the meritocracy....I thought it was now filled with Horatio Algers.....doesn't sound like it from this piece at all.....</p>

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<p>My sister's best friend is currently getting her doctorate at Harvard in English lit. She was assigned to teach a Harvard freshman English course with a title about which she knew virtually nothing. She called my sister saying that she feels overwhelming sadness for those students. She has never taught, was given NO guidance and feels totally inadequate. She says that grad students routinely shake their heads over the fact that they are "teaching" at Harvard. This woman and my sister were classmates at Dartmouth and says she now realizes the undergraduate Dartmouth education was fantastic.Every class is taught by a professor with a passion for the subject at hand. The take from this one women at least is that Harvard undergrads are getting an education that is inferior to a giant list of other schools.</p>

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<p>"Before I begin the lecture, I have a brief announcement concerning the class's grading policy," he said that day. "As many of you know, I have often been, ah, outspoken concerning the upward creep of Harvard grades over the last few decades. Some say that this climb—in which what were once Cs have become Bs, and those Bs are now fast becoming As—is a result of meritocracy, which has ensured that Harvard students today are, ah, smarter than their forebears. This may be true, but I must tell you that I see little evidence of it."</p>

<p>He paused, flashed his grin, and went on. "Nevertheless, I have recently decided that hewing to the older standard is fruitless when no one else does, because all I succeed in doing is punishing students for taking classes with me. Therefore I have decided that this semester I will issue two grades to each of you. The first will be the grade that you actually deserve—a C for mediocre work, a B for good work, and an A for excellence. This one will be issued to you alone, for every paper and exam that you complete. The second grade, computed only at semester's end, will be your, ah, ironic grade—'ironic' in this case being a word used to mean lying—and it will be computed on a scale that takes as its mean the average Harvard grade, the B-plus. This higher grade will be sent to the registrar's office, and will appear on your transcript. It will be your public grade, you might say, and it will ensure, as I have said, that you will not be penalized for taking a class with me." Another shark's grin. "And of course, only you will know whether you actually deserve it."</p>

<p>....What lay behind this trend? Writing in the college newspaper, the Crimson, Mansfield posited some historical factors. "Grade inflation got started … when professors raised the grades of students protesting the war in Vietnam," he argued. "At that time, too, white professors, imbibing the spirit of the new policies of affirmative action, stopped giving low grades to black students, and to justify or conceal this, also stopped giving low grades to white students." (As you might imagine, this theory was hotly contested.) But the main culprit now was simply this: "The prevalence in American education of the notion of self-esteem." Mansfield wrote, "According to that therapeutic notion, the purpose of education is to make students feel capable and 'empowered,' and professors should hesitate to pass judgment on what students have learned."</p>

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<p>there are multiple, totally different factors that contribute to the quality of an undergraduate education - there is quality of instruction, resources, quality of fellow students, and "door-opening" power later (name-recognition, contacts). I don't think there are any colleges that would get highest possible marks for all 4. As Northstarmom points out, it all comes back to fit, and Harvard is not necessarily the best match for everyone, even if they can get in. </p>

<p>The original article could have been written by someone at the college I graduated from (a top tier college, not Harvard). I enjoyed my college experience, fellow students, and opportunities the name created for me later. But I realize looking back that instruction was frequently poor. There were more resources available than I had the maturity to seek out. Overall, I think I'm glad I went there but it's a mixed bag.</p>

<p>(I think the professor with the 2 grade system is a great response to grade inflation.)</p>

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<h2>And I found it fascinating. Besides the section on grade inflation that voronwe posted, there is a large section on the Core curriculum, part of which I cut and pasted below.</h2>

<p>This is not to denigrate the more whimsical and esoteric choices that fill out a course catalogue. A computer-science major, his head spinning with lines of code, might be well served by dipping into "The Cuban Revolution: 1956—71: A Self-Debate." But under Harvard's system that might easily turn out to be the only history class he takes. It seems deeply disingenuous, at best, to suggest that in the development of a broadly educated student body the study of Castro's regime carries the same weight as, say, knowledge of the two world wars, or the French Revolution, or the founding of America. (During my four years at Harvard the history department didn't offer a single course focusing on the American Revolution.)</p>

<p>As if in reply to this complaint, the Core's mission statement asserts, with a touch of smugness, that "the Core differs from other programs of general education. It does not define intellectual breadth as the mastery of a set of Great Books, or the digestion of a specific quantum of information … rather, the Core seeks to introduce students to the major approaches to knowledge in areas that the faculty considers indispensable to undergraduate education."</p>

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<p>The students at Harvard, upon entry, (and to generalize - there are always exceptions) are well-educated, well-spoken, mostly highly verbal, excellent writers, intelligent or even gifted, and, often, superb at gamesmanship (or they wouldn't be there.). No one should take that away from them. There are very few poor ones, fewer that are from lower middle class circumstances (I'm using Harvard's own statistics), and not too many middle-income ones. These students then get to spend four years mixing with their own kind. They will exit well-educated, well-spoken, mostly highly verbal, excellent writers, intelligent or even gifted, and, often, superb at gamesmanship.</p>

<p>The question, not rhetorical (as it would be for ANY college) is to what degree Harvard is responsible for it?</p>

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<p>Texas137:
How do you define is a best fit? I see this sentence and still unable to understand it. I have done one undergrad overseas and a grad degree here. Joined the school where I got best fin aid, as my parents did not have much money. </p>

<p>I am curious about this term. My kid who is very bright in math and science and have received some award on state level basis or multiple state level. He did his summer internship in the elite college in Boston. However as he has gone to prep school, he found out that he would not seek a carrier in science. He finds that foreign policy, economics and politics are his cup of tea. Does it mean that he needs to apply only to school that offers these programs? Does it mean that the schools strong with these programs are best fit for him?</p>

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<p>
[quote]
He finds that foreign policy, economics and politics are his cup of tea. Does it mean that he needs to apply only to school that offers these programs? Does it mean that the schools strong with these programs are best fit for him?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>"Best fit" is not generally defined in terms of specific programs, since virtually any college can adequately prepare undergraduates for any but the most esoteric field. Any college will offer your kid a major in economics and politics, and at least some courses relevant to foreign policy, for instance. Kids frequently change their minds about what they want to do anyway, so it is not a good idea to choose a college you would otherwise not want to go to, merely based on some specific program. </p>

<p>Best fit is more about the general atmosphere at the school. If you want a personal, nurturing environment, don't choose a huge state school, for instance. If you are politically and socially conservative, don't choose a college whose students are known to be ultra-liberal. If you want a traditional college experience with all the rah-rah and campus activities, don't choose a commuter school. If you are a minority, or int'l, or handicapped, or a returning adult, and want to blend in, don't choose a school with few students like you. And if you want a lot of handholding, warm-fuzzy relationships with faculty, and emphasis on undergraduate education, don't choose Harvard.</p>

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<p>Parentny, fit can best be described by me as an onlooking parent, at least on the social side , as that school that upon visiting D felt at home. And excited. All at once. Comfortable. Enthused. Invigorated. Intrigued. Sometimes almost exactly opposite of what she may have thought. </p>

<p>For example at high % Greek "Centre", she saw the boys playing a made up goofy game with a giant ball while the sorority sisters made fun of their childish attempts to impress. D smiled the rest of the visit. Stereotype rebuffed. At Davidson the kids had a purpose about them she immediately felt akin to and the newspaper showed a frivolity and quirkiness to their humor that she wouldn't have expected. Workload too much? They seemed to handle it with panache', sense of humor intact. Guidebook wrong again. At Furman ,totally off her screen-she was ready to sign up. The kids just about ran off with her. She was and remains surprised at her reception by the students.</p>

<p>By the way ,all of these were unofficial stealth visits. The administration had no idea she was on campus as a prospect. Whether it is financially possible to attend, academic and program quality can all to a certain extent be measured. Fit as I define it includes matching those up with the individual student's personality and how it "fit's" into the stew. For that I think we have to trust the kid's gut. JMO.</p>

<p>I have just as many negative "fit" stories, but it wouldn't help to share.</p>

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<p>Robrym, You're thinking of a different article - the one written by the PRINCETON grad in a different issue. This is a totally different and new article and much less personal than that one - no talking about personal problems in this article.</p>

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<p>I guess my reaction to the article was to think about what the purpose of going to college is - this is a separate issue from fit. Is the purpose of spending thousands of dollars and four years of your life on college to meet and associate with others who are on your same intellectual level? Is it to be able to participate in extracurricular activities? Is it to gain entry to a career? Perhaps, it is all of these, but, to me, the underlying reason I want my children to go to college is to become educated, to be exposed to a wide range of ideas and knowledge that they have not yet been exposed to. Even the brightest students can not have been exposed to a full menu of knowledge. And, I don't want college to be "easy" for my children - I want them to have to work in order to learn, to see the value of their own efforts at struggling with subjects and ideas that may be difficult for them. So, the article made me think about what is the point of going to ANY college (not just Harvard mind you) if you walk away with only 4 more years of extracurriculars, a career track, and an inflated transcript that doesn't reflect real learning? </p>

<p>There is something very sad about the fact that even ONE student can walk away from the PREMIER institution of learning in our country feeling cheated. What does that say about how learning for learning's sake is valued in our country? What does that say about the purpose of going to college? What does that say about lesser ranked institutions (and I do believe these questions should be asked of ALL colleges, not just Harvard)? What does it say about us, as parents, pushing our children to work so hard to get into a "good" college if all that hard work just ends in four years of easy coasting and pursuits that do little to develop their bright intellects? Don't we want something more for our children?</p>

<p>Here's my favorite excerpt from the article:</p>

<p>"Afterward, too, I began chuckling inwardly when some older person, upon discovering my Harvard affiliation, would nod gravely and ask, But wasn't it such hard work?</p>

<p>It was - but not in the way the questioner meant. It was hard work to get into Harvard, and then it was hard work competing for offices and honors and extracurriculars with thousands of brilliant and driven young people; hard work keeping our heads in the swirling social world; hard work fighting for law school slots and investment-banking jobs as college wound to a close...yes, all of that was heavy sledding. But the academics - the academics were another story.</p>

<p>Whatever nostalgists think, there was never a golden age when students did all their work and attended every lecture...What makes our age different is the moment that happened over and over again at Harvard, when we said This is going to be hard and then realized, No, this is easy. Maybe it came when we boiled down a three-page syllabus to a hundred pages of exam-time reading, or so that a paper could be turned in late without the frazzled teaching fellow's docking us, or handed in C-quality work and got a gleaming B-plus. Whenever the moment came, we learned that it wasn't our sloth alone, or our constant pushing for higher grades, that made Harvard easy.</p>

<p>No, Harvard was easy because almost no one was pushing back."</p>

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<p>Apparently, it is a lot more than one SINGLE student:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.studentsreview.com/MA/HU_c.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.studentsreview.com/MA/HU_c.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Must admit, though, that I've heard this forever. In the dark ages, I used to compare my Williams ed. with my Harvard friends (I had quite a few). Virtually all of them were jealous (the exceptions were the two math majors.) They apparently believed that when they went to Harvard, they were going to get an education like my Williams one, only with more access to famous profs., etc. I had James MacGregor Burns for freshman poli. sci., in a class of 20. They had TAs (who also graded their papers.)</p>

<p>You have to kick the tires.</p>

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<p>Interesting to compare the comments of students at Yale, Stanford and Princeton with Harvard students. Obvously, there ARE unhappy students every where and Studentsreview is not a statistical sample, but still, the comments on the Harvard page do give one pause. This is the PREMIER university in the U.S.</p>

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<p>Carolyn:</p>

<p>"This is the PREMIER university in the U.S."
I think that's the reason why there are comments such as those to be found on Studentsreview, and articles like the one being discussed. Why aren't articles (positive or negative) written about Columbia or Yale or Princeton or... That's because they are not seen as the PREMIER university. Many of the laments written about Harvard could apply to a lot of other colleges and universities (but "it's Harvard!" as the students who post on the Harvard forum would say).
I had to laugh when reading comments on Studentsreview about MIT and Harvard. MIT students rated the city an A-; Harvard students gave it a B. For those of you who know Cambridge, 'nuf said.</p>