<p>Haha, I always say H and D, H for Harvard and D for Dartmouth. I type them so often that I really just don't give it anymore thought. It's a term of endearment, don't worry.</p>
<p>maybe the fact that you get a good job after you graduate</p>
<p>i like the name and the fact that if i get in, i can print my resume on harvard letterhead.</p>
<p>While I can understand why some people like mr_sanguine might actually be turned off by the big-name, I think that the big-name is in many ways what you make of it. I know some people are naturally modest and would feel that applying to a school like Harvard could be considered a form of bragging (I'm like that), but hey, you don't have to go around telling everybody where you're going. Yet having that name in your back pocket just in case you need it (like in a job interview) is a fairly powerful weapon. We live in a highly competitive world, and the fact is, the Harvard name opens doors that might otherwise be closed.</p>
<p>Now to apppro, when you say that you would find it weird to not have profs in your section, or that rarely teach or whatnot, I think you're touching upon an issue, but there's something else that you haven't considered. The fact is, in many cases (not all, but many), Harvard students would rather be interacting with the TA rather than the prof, and that being taught by real profs actually subtracts value. </p>
<p>I think the REAL problem is that a lot of Harvard profs are great and famous researchers, but not necessarily good teachers. Harvard profs generally care about their research first, and their classroom teaching a distant second. Harvard profs know full well that professional accolades like Nobel Prizes and respect from their colleagues, as well as simple things like promotion to tenure, depend far more heavily on the quality of their research rather than good teaching. Couple that with the simple fact that a lot of Harvard profs are simply bored with teaching basic undergraduate subjects. Imagine a brilliant physicist doing Nobel-Prize winning research being forced to teach introductory physics to a class of freshman. Hence, the upshot is that if you want to engage in cutting-edge research, you want a lot of interaction with your Harvard prof. But if you want to actually learn a subject well, you are often times better off learning it from a TA.</p>
<p>Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that all Harvard profs are bad teachers. Indeed, some are very good. However, go to any Harvard student or alumni and ask them about the true teaching quality of the profs, and they will all have to admit that while some were good, others were quite bad. </p>
<p>Now, to be fair, this is not a Harvard-specific problem. This issue of profs caring more about their research than their teaching is something endemic in all research universities.</p>