<p>@littlepenguin it hasn’t been my experience. It is more that the teachers don’t care about grades thinking about them as I do as relatively crude and meaningless ways to assess performance or knowledge. No two teachers can agree what philosophically grading should be about (knowledge qua knowledge, effort, the delta in learning from the beginning to end of the semester, comparison between students within a class, etc…) anyway. We teach the material because we love it and want to impart what we know and what we have thought about it to students–some much better doing that than others to be sure. But I have never heard a far member say that bc of grade inflation they have watered down the curriculum. In fact with the tighter and tighter admissions stats, the average level of a class is increased and so the nee to be on one’s toes increases as well-- happily so.</p>
<p>
Late to this thread but the tour guide told us NOT to touch the shoe either. Geez, it’s NOT a secret.</p>
<p>Harvard’s engineering department is atrocious for a schools of its calibre.</p>
<p>Atrocious? Really? Do say more.</p>
<p>Weather is terrible (Stanford, anyone?) and the town of Cambridge and Harvard have a less than friendly relationship.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>actually, this is not true</p>
<p>The weather has been great in Cambridge this winter and spring; in the 50s and 60s this week with one day of 70. I doubt any palm-lined lane at Stanford can compare to the bursts of forsythia, azalea, flowering cherry trees and rhododendrons of a Cambridge spring.</p>
<p>Fauve</p>
<p>Perhaps you have not been to Stanford? The weather you describe is pretty much what they get every day of the year…(I have lived both places actually; there’s no contest on the weather)</p>
<p>The question on the table though is what would drive someone to describe the engineering “department” as “atrocious” as opposed to merely “not the focus of the institution,” say</p>
<p>Caesar</p>
<p>Yes, I have indeed spent time on the sprawling Stanford campus. While it certainly wins high marks for a planned campus, replete with wide avenues conducive to car traffic, spacious lawns and semi-tropical plantings; the lack of any truly historical buildings smacks of a resort or corporate campus.</p>
<p>Weather tastes differ, some of us prefer the vegetation and temperature variations of four distinct seasons rather than the monotony of one season.</p>
<p>As for the engineering question, Harvard is committing new resources to its growing engineering department. Having MIT a few blocks away, I doubt if Harvard historically saw a need to provide such a practical department too much attention.</p>
<p>I have lived in both towns for four years each, but I’m not sure you got out of the car! What do you base that on?</p>
<p>You can have a preference for four seasons and history over what Stanford offers - in fact, I share that preference - but you cannot claim a day in the 60s in March as a glory without acknowledging that Stanford has more of these than Cambridge will ever have.</p>
<p>If you find Stanford “corporate” (???), this is changing the subject; this observation has nothing to do with your original claim.</p>
<p>Obviously Stanford has many more warm days; that is the essence of a one-season climate. My claim is that the four season climate of Cambridge supports a more varied bounty of horticultural species, and the accompanying dramatic transitions of color, blossom, growth and fading provide a more interesting visual palette.</p>
<p>I used the term “corporate campus” as an adjective phrase to describe the spacious, spread-out land use of Stanford, which is similar to a corporate center of a large company like the old AT&T, Squibb, or Ford Motor Company. The scale is large and is more conducive to bicycling or driving, than walking.</p>
<p>You will find CC posts tend to expand and flow beyond an original claim rather frequently as this is a discussion forum, not a court of law.</p>
<p>I’m sure I will soon find another addition to “what is NOT so great about Harvard”.</p>
<p>In fact**, I do have a warning for all the pre-frosh and their parents: your students will be largely socially judged and categorized by the Hasty Pudding Club (not to be confused with the Hasty Pudding Theatricals which is a different organization.)</p>
<p>The Hasty Pudding is a private social club located near campus which invites freshman men and women to try to join (“be punched”), based on their prep school, money, or social connections. Membership in this club helps tremendously with entry into Final Clubs sophomore year.</p>
<p>Hasty Pudding now lets their invitees bring one other non-invited person to the pledge events, however it is still exclusive, and only a portion of invitees will be allowed in permanently.</p>
<p>For those not interested in the clubs, this will not be a problem. For the many who may be interested, but are excluded before even settling into freshman dorms, it can be painful.</p>
<p>@fauve: this is one aspect of Harvard that is distinctly less problematic at Princeton and Yale (relatively speaking. Then again, I can’t think of any place on earth without its share of in-group/out-grouping. It’s just human nature.). Princeton’s Eating Clubs are considerably more inclusive (including even the bickering clubs), while Yale still relies on a frat system. The senior society memberships are largely based on your extracurricular and campus accomplishments in your first three years; yes, it will still include a level of realpolitiking on your part, and you probably have to be quite socially engaging and connections don’t hurt, but it’s certainly less toxic than the way H does it. Someone without those prep school connections can at least work their way up to say EIC at the Yale Daily.</p>
<p>Secret societies take up much larger place in the mythos of Yale than finals clubs do at Harvard. Friendships are altered because of them–even though only 15% of the class get tapped for a society, they loom very large–there are significant numbers of kids who stake their identities on being tapped-- who at Harvard knows, let alone cares who gets punched to PC (other than Zuckerberg, I gather)? </p>
<p>Hollywood makes movies (The Skulls, for example) about the societies, novels are written about them etc. And in 2004 both presidential candidates were members of Bones–yeah, they play a HUGE role at Yale–much more disproportionate than the Clubs do at Harvard.</p>
<p>I wonder if anyone’s ever published a Quality of Life ranking for major universities, just like the Economist, Mercer, and others do for cities. I don’t think Harvard would rank very highly on that.</p>
<p>Why do you think so?</p>
<p>^He’s drawing on the wisdom that comes from 16 years on this planet.</p>
<p>Haha very funny. No…it’s just that Harvard doesn’t do so well in rankings for factors such as social life and climate, as has already been discussed on this thread.</p>
<p>Harvard should really try a bit harder to get the admissions emails out at 5pm EDT, as they (sort of) promise. Is it because of computer problems, or lack of technical expertise that prevents the transmissions in a timely fashion? </p>
<p>Other Ivies, this year, have at least told students what time to expect their emails, so they do not have to wait for two or more hours in agonizing anticipation.</p>
<p>Once in Harvard, you can believe a two hour delay in submission of a problem set would not be tolerated.</p>
<p>Economically, it is a poor investment unless you get a great scholarship. If you have to pay $15,000 or more a year, I would say look for a small school that will give you a full ride or close to it.</p>
<p>Why?</p>
<p>You can read the same books, and assuming you’re intellectually capable as you’re considering Harvard, learn the same material from another school’s library. Also, there is a wealth of opencourseware available (specifically from MIT - [Free</a> Online Course Materials | MIT OpenCourseWare](<a href=“http://ocw.mit.edu%5DFree”>http://ocw.mit.edu)) online now-a-days. </p>
<p>Harvard = good for connections and a degree that says “I’m Harvard smart”.</p>
<p>Reality = good education but WAY overpriced</p>
<p>BeproActive</p>
<p>You seem to be unfamiliar with Harvard’s financial aid program, which essentially offers a free ride for low income families and full- need grants (not loans) for most others</p>
<p>Honestly where did you get the idea that Harvard was extra pricy, particularly compared to other private institutions?</p>
<p>There is a lot of misinformation and rumor on this thread; I’d hate to see someone rely pn it</p>