With an acceptance rate below 5%, the 4.0/1600 applicant who cured cancer couldn’t make the claim that they had a realistic shot of getting admitted to Harvard
2 Likes
@Data10 this is not what I thought “Gentlemen’s C’s” referred to. Back when Harvard was just (mainly white) upper class males, graduates often worked in finance or banking etc. through family and social connections. They did not have to try that hard with school work. BUt they did do enough to get a C (or maybe a B)- just enough.
The other part of it was that it was not “gentlemanly.” and even unseemly or vulgar, to try too hard. Competition was for the lower classes who needed to try hard to get ahead, and modesty was valued, Doing “just enough” was a sign of social standing. It was actually considered almost laudable to be relaxed and even insouciant and just do what you needed to do for a C.
2 Likes
Searching online, the first link on Google is Wictionary, which defines Gentleman’s C. However, many of the other links list different definitions, some similar to the one you listed. There seems to be a variety of different options.
1 Like
That is pretty much what Vance Packard’s 1959 book The Status Seekers describes HYP as: colleges that were mainly for the upper class kids from prep schools (then more SES-elite rather than academically elite) with some actual academically elite kids from anywhere, with only the latter really striving to do better than C or passing work (and being looked down upon for trying harder).
Of course, things have changed since then, so even those who mostly inherited their status feel that they need at least a veneer of their own achievement, and HYPetc. have eventually gotten competitive enough that even the scions of wealth (e.g. legacies) face fierce competition on the academic front (though their prep schools now oblige to maximize the opportunities for such), even if it is a little less fierce than what the unhooked face.
Well pretty much everyone at Harvard back then came from a privileged background 
I think it was more about what happened AFTER Harvard. Those with high social standing did not have to worry about getting a job. Managing trusts required a certain accent and manner, not good grades. So a “gentleman” could be relaxed about grades (Not a “grade-grubber”) knowing they would still do well in life. Working harder was evidence of lower social standing, in other words. Not a meritiocracy, for sure.
I think the equivalent today might be students pretending not to work too hard because that might show superior intelligence. It is still not “cool” to be an eager beaver, socially, but for different reasons!
2 Likes