Re: #98
But note that Harvard, Yale, and Stanford were all named for wealthy people (or heir), so the names got a head start on the “social prestige associated with wealthy person” competition.
There was once a proposal to change Stanford’s mascot to the Robber Barons.
A few reasons why it might be attractive other than generalized prestige:
Harvard is a node in the network of power in the world. Virtually everybody of import shows up there at some point. CEOs and country presidents will gladly accept an invitation to speak or meet with a group or attend a class if organized properly. Other universities have that to some extent – Stanford clearly has it with respect to the tech and VC world (though that is more self-interested as the companies want to hire from there and the VCs want to have an in on the good investments from there). But no other university I’ve been associated with has that kind of draw.
Cambridge is a very good college town (though it has gotten more generic over the years).
By virtue of the selectivity/yield, your classmates are likely to include a number of very interesting, very bright folks (and also a goodly number of self-impressed folks).
The faculty as a whole is superb. You can find great people in almost every department. While professors give more of their attention to grad students, an undergrad who is directed and perseverant is likely to be able to work with most faculty members.
In the old days at least, members of the opposite sex found it attractive. Years ago, I attended a wedding in Texas and a very attractive, extremely socially adept bridesmaid engineered to sleep with me and it was pretty clear that part (all?) of the reason was that I was from Harvard. Women from other local schools also found it attractive. I can’t say whether that is still the case.
@ucbalumnus Stanford has something of a dark history. My academic great-great-great-great-grandfather, David Starr Jordan, first president of Stanford, seemed to have been complicit in something of a cover up of the reasons of Jane Stanford’s death. It was first ruled murder by strychnine poisoning, but Starr Jordan claimed that Stanford’s wife had died of heart failure (he had both an MD and PhD).
Oh, other weird things about Starr-Jordan. While his undergrad and masters were from Cornell, Starr Jordan’s PhD was from Butler, and his MD was from Indiana Medical School. That’s were it gets weird. The time it took him to get his MD was suspiciously short - he arrived in Indiana in 1874, and his MD was from 1875. Since before that he was a principle in Appleton, WI, it is not as though he could have been studying medicine. The weirdness continues, since, although Butler records show that he got a PhD there in 1878 (while he was a Professor there), no record of either his dissertation, or of his PhD adviser, exist. Butler University (it changed its name later) seemed to just have handed him a PhD.
@VickiSoCal Need blind financial aid may not be a thing, but Harvard’s financial aid is particularly generous. They don’t consider home equity and their institutional formula is more generous than at many colleges, including other Ivies. My experience was that only Princeton was more generous.
@shawbridge states “Harvard is a node in the network of power in the world. Virtually everybody of import shows up there at some point. CEOs and country presidents will gladly accept an invitation to speak or meet with a group or attend a class if organized properly. Other universities have that to some extent – Stanford clearly has it with respect to the tech and VC world (though that is more self-interested as the companies want to hire from there and the VCs want to have an in on the good investments from there). But no other university I’ve been associated with has that kind of draw.”
That is a powerful paragraph. Are there plenty of other great schools? Sure. Are some even “better” (whatever that means) than H in certain subjects? Sure - although that may be somewhat negated by the message of the above paragraph.
Look people, please, leave your turf wars at the curb. Try to be objective. Harvard is the one school that is universally considered the top university in the world by people all over the world. Sure they’ll be rankings that have it at No. 7 and Aunt Sue’s daughter from UMichigan is in the same rookie camp as an H grad at Goldman or Exxon. No one is arguing that.
A friend of mine (H UG in the 80s) explains it pretty well, I think. H provides certain resources that make it an incredible experience IF you engage and a pretty awesome experience regardless. As an example he sites a mutual friend who studied history under a world renowned prof (perhaps the leading mind in his field). Did a ton of research with him, etc. Now he’s the head of the history department at another top academic university. Coming from H and studying with Prof X certainly helped this brilliant kid. However, like anywhere else, if you just go through the motions and graduate, you’ll miss out on much of what H provides. But at least you’ll have a degree from Harvard, which in and of itself, opens many doors.
It’s Ok to admit that Harvard is an incredible place and has earned its reputation. Hard to imagine not wanting to go there considering what it is and where it is. Just my opinion of course.
The financial aid is certainly one element that makes it attractive. Fifty percent of students are receiving financial aid. Twenty percent go for free. One hundred per cent graduate without debt. Aid is given to families with incomes up to $150k and sometimes more, and principal home equity is not counted.
People seem to want to diminish the other positives of the place, which are many.
@compmom no. Four percent do have debt. My kids cannot go to Harvard without debt, so they will not even be appyling.
“But note that Harvard, Yale, and Stanford were all named for wealthy people (or heir), so the names got a head start on the “social prestige associated with wealthy person” competition.”
I disagree — Virtually all universities named after people (as opposed to locations) are named for wealthy people. Those are the only people who can be benefactors. And as university benefactors go, John Harvard was a nobody without much of a fortune.
^^Plus, The Rev. John Harvard lived 400 years ago. The very minor degree of prominence the Harvard family may have enjoyed back then wore off long ago. Very few people on the street today could tell you the first name of the guy Harvard is named for.
^^^ Plus, in its early years Harvard was essentially a school for training Puritan clergy. Some power and prestige in that, I suppose, in the Puritan-dominated Massachusetts Bay Colony, but not much beyond that. It wasn’t until the mid-19th century that Harvard began to take on a more secular and scientific outlook, and not really until around the turn of the 20th century that it began to gain a wider reputation for its increasingly prominent faculty and its proliferating and influential graduate programs, made possible by a growing endowment.
Pardon me, I am still choking on the last paragraph of Shawbridge’s post #101. Aside from that, I think that Yale and Princeton can pretty much attract whatever speakers they want (in addition to Harvard and Stanford, as suggested in that post).
And fewer know that the statue of John Harvard in Harvard Yard is not of John Harvard, since Daniel Chester French (or anybody for that matter) knew what he looked like. And I won’t mention why I cringe when the tourists rub the statue for luck. 
VickiSoCal can you explain your comment about 4 percent having debt? Loans are not part of any financial aid packages, as far as I know. Perhaps some families take out loans to pay what Harvard does ask for-?
@compmom exactly. Harvard would tell my family we can pay 70K per year, and we cannot, so we would have to borrow.
https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=harvard&s=all&id=166027#finaid says that 9% of Harvard frosh took loans.
Add a few more percent to that total for 401k loans, home equity loans and parent plus loans. They are measuring student loans
But loans are not part of the financial aid package. I wonder if families taking out loans to help pay, have “special circumstances” that might be reported. The CSS Profile/IDOC give opportunities for that as do meetings in person.
I know a student whose middle class family refused to pay for Harvard, despite a great aid package. They wanted him to stay near home (or for Harvard to pay more). He went anyway and probably has loans.
The need aid Harvard provides is in the form of grants / work study, etc. (not loans), so that is why they claim students graduate debt free. That doesn’t account for how one chooses to pay for the amount required above need based aid. They’re assuming M&D pay from cash flow but that is not always the case. Some will tap home equity, take personal loans, etc.
Exactly. Many schools include loans in their financial aid package, Harvard does not. Meaning many schools look at the EFC and then include loans in bringing the cost down to that level, Harvard does not.