<p>Harvard student complains in US News:</p>
<p>A</a> Harvard Education Isn't As Advertised - US News and World Report</p>
<p>Nothing new in what this kid's complaints ...</p>
<p>Seriously, this is nothing new… if you are looking for something that Harvard doesn’t have then don’t apply. More places and chances for others</p>
<p>I don’t know how articles like this can be published. It not only doesn’t say anything new, but it doesn’t say anything substantial or empirical at all. It’s just a whinefest. </p>
<p>For student who says things like:</p>
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<p>There are ten students who would disagree, myself included. I don’t know what department he’s in but I’ve never had a problem arranging office hours with a professor.</p>
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<p>Hmm, an article about faculty accessibility that compares university professors to high school teachers. Phillips or not, high school teachers are always going to be more accessible. Give me a break.</p>
<p>And, Harry, Jimmy, Trent . . . wherever you are out there …</p>
<p>'Nuf said.</p>
<p>wait this article actually doesn’t say anything…</p>
<p>Hold on. You mean to say that Harvard isn’t a magical place where all my wildest dreams are guaranteed to come true?</p>
<p>^ It means it does not rank with their elite boarding schools. Sad.</p>
<p>Elite boarding schools are not so special anyway zzz. I know of many public high schools where quality of education is just as good as those schools. The only reason those private schools seem to be better is because they have an admission process that attracts already very accomplished students and weeds out bad students, whereas public schools actually have to endure bad students bringing down their averages and whatnot.</p>
<p>^ Sorry my point may have not been clear: “I do not understand the crying”.</p>
<p>Hoards of students would be more than glad to take his place. Stop crying, dude.</p>
<p>Students can’t complain about their school just because it’s Harvard ;)?</p>
<p>The article is playing upon the much bigger trend among the upper middle class who do not qualify for financial aid to turn away from elite privates to state public universities instead, one because it’s so hard these days to be admitted to places like Harvard that it’s a backlash against all the admission hype in certain areas of the country, and two because the families are facing their own financial problems as a result of the past economic recession. This is currently one of the most popular topics being talked about, and USNews no doubt knows perfectly what gathers readership.</p>
<p>There are all sorts of criticism for Harvard out there, as being well recognized it tends to draw the bulk of the attacks. Some of these can be somewhat valid, while others I see as old claims having absolutely no basis being brought up again and again. If any current high school students come to Harvard, you will no doubt hear these criticisms of Harvard thrown at you over and over again—it’s full of snobbery, its classes suck (or are so easy that everyone gets As), it’s good only for grad school and its professors can’t teach, it’s full of rich kids whose parents can afford the tuition, on and on and on.</p>
<p>If you frequent the Parents’ Forum, you may notice that at least four, five separate threads, each thousands of posts long, have sprang up over the period of past week alone basically on the one topic of how top private universities are not at all worth the money (who cares about their top financial aid, it only benefits the working and the lower middle class anyway), and how full merit aid at lower ranked schools are the bargain----which is true to some extent until it turns into simple elite school bashing. Most of these are written by parents who for so long have been criticized for not following the trend at their private high schools and couldn’t send their kids to a top college, now coming back to defend themselves with full vengeance. Books like the Crazy U gain readership and acclaim even though they are poor guides for college admissions, because these books are ridiculing the college admission process which many families find bewildering, an ultimate source of their long term bitterness.</p>
<p>It’s impossible and illogical for the few of us to discuss the irrelevance of all these complaints one by one, and I’m sure smart as everyone is, people can all make up their own mind, reason for themselves, and figure out how much of the stereotypes about Harvard is actually true.</p>
<p>No, my problem with this article is that a “child” complaining about a “college” that his parents are paying for, is not “glory days high school” — and that COLLEGE is HARVARD!!! What a brat!!!</p>
<p>A post as reasonable as xrCalico23’s has not been seen for long in these quarters.</p>
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Bingo. Decisions are fast approaching, and there are plenty of people who would love to rationalize a rejection.</p>
<p>I was on the other side of the fence in the Parents Forum threads, but this piece of so-called journalism is nothing more than some kid whining that he isn’t being served in the manner he is used to.</p>
<p>FYI, this guy seems to be advocating for an exclusive LAC. I’m sure he would never even consider attending a state school - his parents would probably be too ashamed to tell the rest of the family :rolleyes:</p>
<p>EDIT - For those who don’t want to read the whole thing, this snippet should tell you everything you need to know about the author:
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<p>There’s nothing wrong with financially-pressed families, high school students, Crazy U readers, and Parents’ Forum posters discussing whether or not Harvard is worth the money, hype, etc. When USNews gives a current Harvard student a monopoly on the issue, it’s disappointing to see that his article is full of weak points. That, from what I can gather, is the main objection of many of the posters in this topic, myself included.</p>
<p>Though I suppose I should have been more clear that my “how can this be published?” was rhetorical. It can be published for the same reason Crazy U sells copies:</p>
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<p>Love your sarcasm! What happened was, I was running late for a section and didn’t read the whole article (or Dwight’s post), so my post was pretty much off the mark. I’ve been bombarded by people trying to argue about the things I wrote before constantly, lately seeing them all the time even on CC! It just follows me around O.O And noimagination is just trying to be intentionally aggravating (Oh, I see how it is :p!). Good to be back to the more friendly land.</p>
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<p>If he wrote an article on how he loved his undergraduate experience, it wouldn’t have been published in the first place to suit the new trend in the market, but I guess he could’ve came up with new, stronger, better objections to the school instead… :)</p>
<p>And really, don’t we complain about the school all the time as well in real life, sounding just like the person in the USNews article? The labs are so useless, I rather go do this or that. This course sucks, why am I even here. Hate the food. Geez, this guys just can’t teach. I’ve heard from people outside of Harvard wondering why so few students show up for the well regarded guest lecturers arranged to come to campus. Perhaps CoolRunning’s comment applies to many of us other Harvard students too-----It’s so easy to take what the school offers for granted until you hear from the families who would be pushing for their kids to choose the more financially affordable option instead.</p>
<p>^True enough. I think I’m just jealous that I didn’t submit an article to USNews bashing Harvard ;)</p>
<p>Interesting how we never see an article revealing that Harvard’s a pretty good college, huh? But then, we don’t typically read that a dog bit a man, either.</p>
<p>Some of my friends who are potential majors in CS, chose Harvard over MIT, Stanford, and Carnegie Mellon. They accepted Harvard because well its called Harvard, I told them it is stupid to turn down CS dominant schools for Harvard.</p>
<p>Ironically USNews are the people who “cracked it up.”</p>