<p>Well, I guess depending on who you talk to, you'll get different results. </p>
<p>The bitter Tufts students (sorry Tufts!) will tell you how all these stereotypes are true (before changing their tune when they get into a Harvard grad school!) They conveniently avoid the exceptions</p>
<p>The Harvard kids will tell you how false these stereotypes are while not mentioning that there may be some truth to them.</p>
<p>The only person I've seen from Harvard is the ultra stereotypical Indian nerd. Still I know that the majority is not like that. There maybe a greater percentage of nerds than you'll find at CSU, but most people are most likely pretty cool.</p>
<p>(Of course I don't go there which can be both a good or a bad thing-I'm not biased but I don't have personal experience.)</p>
<p>Lots of great replies already. I'll add my brief two cents. I have no statistics, but a semester and a half worth of observations...</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Way more modest people than pretensious people. There is some pretensiousness as a result of the "Harvard bubble." People get so involved here that they can forget the rest of the world exists.</p></li>
<li><p>People are mostly driven internally, not externally. Getting a 3.8 does NOT require living in the library! Of course, it depends on what classes you take (load up on Math 55, an intensive language, and a couple reading-heavy classes, and you'll have no choice but to live in a library). A lot of this depends on you though, how quickly you learn material, your study efficiency.</p></li>
<li><p>I'm a freshman. I'm pretty sure my room has had alcohol in it consistently since move in. Some proctors are more strict than mine, but no proctor spends a lot of time in their proctees rooms. Keep your stuff in a closet, it's no problem. One group of freshman got caught with a huge beer bong (or "funnel") that went down and around a staircase outside their dorm room. The beer bong was taken, and I think they were given a warning.</p></li>
<li><p>I really think that students here spend very little time studying. Maybe I'm just saying this because I study less than I thought I would. Again, it depends on your courseload, but extracurriculars seem to be a bigger time stealer for many people than classwork.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>lol it's good to be back on collegeconfidential. thought i'd add some of my observations to the discussion:</p>
<p>1) I haven't actually met anyone yet who I would consider really pretentious. It's usually the other way around. I have a friend who I just discovered played in Wimbledon; another who won a gold medal in International math Olympiad. None of them broadcasted their achievements...I only found out recently and quite accidently too.</p>
<p>2) I agree - most people here are driven internally, not externally. They want to do well, not to beat others, but for themselves. Only exception, perhaps, is the pre-meds. They tend to be more competitve I find than most other students. But, definitely nowhere near bordering on cut-throat.</p>
<p>3) PARTIES!!! are not hard to find at Harvard. There are several each weekend in upperclass houses (freshman dorms are not allowed alcohol, and proctors are relatively more strict about it, so loud/big parties are hard to find in freshman dorms). Freshmans can swipe into upperclass houses with their ID, so it's no problem gaining access to the parties. The bigger dance parties are usually hosted by school/organization and those generally don't carry alcohol. My advice: pregame before you go, either at smaller parties or find a friend who has alcohol if you don't. I've personally never had trouble either finding a party or finding alcohol. </p>
<p>4) I perhaps visited the library twice before finals week last semester, and I managed to pull off straight-As. So the time spent in library does not necessarily correlate to a high GPA. Which brings me to my second point: Harvard really isn't as hard as most people think. It's hard to get in, sure, but it's really not that hard once you are in. There are hard classes, for sure, but there are also many easy classes. I made the decision to take challenging courses, but I also know many who take no-brainer classes like "Positive Psychology" (700+ people in that class...considered the easiest class at Harvard). So, I'll conclude by saying that Harvard is really what you make of it. You can spend your 4 years taking easy classes, partying, avoiding the library, or you can take challenging classes, study hard, etc. I think I've found a pretty good balance between work and play but I also know people who haven't. It's really up to you.</p>
<p>As you try to generalize Harvard, bear in mind that you're talking about a population that is anything but general. In fact, it is clearly one of the most atypical populations in the world. So 90% graduate with honors? Is that surprising, or should we be more surprised at the 10% who changed from being world-class to merely "above average?" A mean of 3.9 on a 5-point student-satisfaction scale ranks low among ratings from other highly-selective institutions? Well, if you handpick students based upon their ability to document that they set and achieve the highest possible personal goals, would you expect them to have higher standards and be more critical and demanding than other students? Not as much homework as one might think? They've selected a population that is the most internally-motivated of any you'll find, so external prompts shouldn't be necessary to create a climate of intellectualism. Comparisons to other colleges are always interesting, but in this case I'm not sure that they can be very relevant.</p>
<p>So what you're saying is that because Harvard is an exceptional universtiy it just can't be compared to anywhere else. Gotcha. It's just a shame there no other exceptional universities in the US, or you could compare it! I mean, there are so catchy names for universities in the US - Stanford, Princeton, MIT, Yale, CalTech, UPenn, UChicago...it's amazing that there aren't any exceptoinal universities in any of those places...</p>
<p>It would indeed be surprising for 90% to graduate with honors when the administration has capped the number of students who can get honors at 45%.</p>
<p>"Honors" means the fraction getting Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude and Summa Cum Laude.</p>
<p>Harvard never had any more "grade inflation" than any other elite college insofar as I can tell - not that there isn't grade inflation here as at most colleges and certainly most high schools in the United States.</p>
<p>What Harvard had was "honor's inflation" based in part on the quality of an honor's thesis. It is this percentage that has been scaled back in recent years.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>i mean 'who gets hurt' as in 'which group of people does it effect negatively<<</p>
</blockquote>
<br>
<p>Mostly the old alumni whose lower grades look lame by comparison and current grad school admissions committees and corporate recruiters who must somehow choose between applicants who are all from Lake Wobegon.</p>
<p>what's with this obsession with alcohol? I think the drinking age should be lowered like some of Europe so that kids can have their drinks, get the whole craze over with and move on to bigger and better things in life instead of worrying whether they'll have enough bebidas at their school. Honestly!</p>