<p>I just read different Yale and Princeton and Stanford threads enumerating in various reasons and reverent tones why their schools are "the shizz." (Quite frequently invoking how Harvard sucks as evidence) What is Harvard's rebuttal? Why is Harvard considered THE premier university in THE WORLD to laymen? Yes, we could cycle through the platitudes of "Nobel laureate professors," "Cambridge," and "Prestige," but what truly makes the theoretical applicant, accepted to Yale, Princeton, and Harvard, choose Harvard?</p>
<p>Here are some reasons to go to Harvard I would mention, based on my visits there on business trips. </p>
<p>1) An unmatched set of academic libraries, with just about the largest holdings in the whole wide world. </p>
<p>2) A phenomenal art museum, second only to Boston's premier art museum in Massachusetts, and in the top rank nationwide. </p>
<p>3) A collection of Shang era Chinese bronzes unmatched outside east Asia. </p>
<p>4) A really interesting campus daily newspaper. </p>
<p>5) A beguiling surrounding metropolitan area, full of the country's top college students, often called the best college town in the country. </p>
<p>6) Great public transportation to the fun things to do in the cities mentioned in point 5. </p>
<p>Well, there's more, but I'd like to hear from other readers here myself.</p>
<p>All good reasons, but perhaps I should clarify. What about the Harvard educational experience makes it the top school in the nation? (well, if you believe US News and World Bull****, No. 2 but please, I don't want this to become a flame thread. Debate of which is truly better--between Harvard, Princeton, and Yale--can transpire on a different thread)</p>
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What about the Harvard educational experience makes it the top school in the nation?
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<p>--Who says Harvard is the "top school in the nation"?</p>
<p>--Who says there is a "top school in the nation"?</p>
<p>--Assuming for the sake of argument that there is a "top school in the nation," who says that it would be the best school for you?</p>
<p>In any event, have you bothered to look through the other threads on this board? There are many in which all kinds of different folks - current students, alums, parents, et al. - have weighed in on some of the things that seem to make the "Harvard educational experience" distinctive.</p>
<p>And while I certainly wouldn't characterize it as a sign of institutional humility, one thing that you won't find on this board are many posts that (to quote your opening post) "invok[e] how [school X, Y, or Z] sucks as evidence" of Harvard's greatness.</p>
<p>Yes, I was using a bit of hyperbole about the "top school in the nation" nonsense. I agree with you that there can not be a "top school in the nation" objectively and it depends on the individual student. Nevertheless, the question still remains. Why is Harvard so good?</p>
<p>I have tried looking through the other threads on this board, and none of them has sufficiently defined what makes Harvard, well, Harvard.</p>
<p>What has the potential to make Harvard Harvard is any given student's willingness to take advantage of the remarkable resources that are available. That means things like office hours, talks by prominent visitors, your peers, leadership opportunties in extra-curricular activities, funding for travel or summer projects, and so on.</p>
<p>Are these better at Harvard than elsewhere? In some cases, yes; in other cases, no. It really depends on what you're interested in, the settings in which you're most comfortable, and so on.</p>
<p>Can you have a wonderful undergraduate experience at Harvard? Absolutely. Can you have a wonderful undergraduate experience elsewhere? Absoluetly.
Can you squander an amazing opportunity at Harvard? Absolutely.</p>
<p>Your experience anywhere is going to be determined by what you bring to the table in terms of attitude, energy, and willingness to try new things. All of the resources in the world don't amount to much otherwise.</p>
<p>Despite all the non-responses on this thread, I think this is a valid question. Now, I don't go to Harvard, but I've talked to a lot of people who do or have, and I've come up with some interesting answers that I feel might have some sliver of validity:</p>
<p>1- The extracurriculars are amazing: full of dedicated people and passion, and they really let you delve deeply into a real activity, be it debate, theater or newspaper. </p>
<p>2- Fabulous academic resources: teachers who've done or are doing amazing work, and unparalleled physical resources.</p>
<p>3- Some departments that are simply the best in the nation: Economics, East Asian Studies, Government, Political Science, African American Studies and Social Studies spring to mind immediately- they are all filled to the brim with top scholars and are amazing places to study.</p>
<p>4- The smartest, most-high powered student body in the country: Say what you will about other schools being just as good and the such, Harvard still has an unmatched place among selective colleges, as the school that is considered in the public imagination as the place for the smartest people on earth. The students live up to this, and the amount you learn from your peers should not be underestimated.</p>
<p>These are a few of the ways that Harvard excels academically and not just socially.</p>
<p>Harvard is amazing...don't let other people tell you otherwise...
Down-to-earth faculty who actually care and just great people (students) all around.</p>
<p>Harvard is a fascinating place. No one here or in any other school's forum can disagree with that - if they are, they have no clue what they are talking about. If you are looking for someone to tell you that, unequivocally, harvard offers a better education than any other school in the country, well... that person is prob. not very level-headed either. Harvard, along with another dozen colleges in the country, are excellet - the best in the world. Any negligible difference in academics (and mind you that those differences would only come accross when you consider departments, like: MIT/engineering, Princeton/Philosophy, Chicago/Econ, Penn(Wharton)/Biz) are completely overshadowed by the difference in the student body, campus setting, surrounding area, dorms, cafeteria's, weather, etc.. Although you said you did want to hear about the academic differences, I hope that, if you are considering whether or not to attend these highly competitive schools, that you look beyond the academic criteria in your college search, because it will be these other factors that will end up defining your college experience. </p>
<p>Having said that, Harvard is an astounding university with a phenomenal college. Whether it is THE place for you... well, you'll have to find that out.</p>
<p>hi, im a freshman here at harvard. this is a wonderful question because we have all, at one point, puzzled over why our parents or our peers are so focused on harvard and what it is that makes this institution so awe-inspiring. the truth is, wherever you go, whatever college you may attend, you will get the same level of education if you put in similar amounts of effort. no matter what, if you do not take the initiative to seek out your professors at harvard, you will have an incredibly lousy experience; conversely, if you form tight bonds with your professors at a different institution, you will come to love college and truly reap all the benefits that college offers. </p>
<p>you do not, however, just go to harvard for the prestige or the social benefits attached to the harvard name; you meet people from around the world that are as extraordinary and unique, if not more so in some aspects, than you. you become immersed in a community that accepts your motivations and dreams. i know this sounds really cheesy, but you really don't go to harvard if you are just planning on telling people who beat you up back in the seventh grade that you are going to harvard and basically make them work for you later on in life. self-confidence and the knowledge that achieving goals is possible and plausible has really already rubbed off on me, even though ive only been here for a week. harvard is harvard not for its faculty or its institutions, but for its undergraduate and graduate student body. </p>
<p>p.s. if you do decide to attend harvard, though, you will have to bear in mind that, at precisely 8:40 A.M every morning, the memorial church bells ring around 180 times, so for those of you who have to make a conscientious effort to even wake up after lunch...</p>
<p>First Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States</p>
<p>Second its location in Cambridge/Boston</p>
<p>Third, Harvard affiliated teaching hospitals are among the best in the world including Mass General, where a good portion of modern surgery was invented</p>
<p>Fourth, Harvard Law School, arguably matched by Yale but of course not matched by Princeton, which has no law school</p>
<p>Fifth, Harvard Business School, while matched by other schools such as Wharton (but certainly not Yale or Princeton) is still arguably the most influential business school in the United States for major Fortune 500 companies</p>
<p>No other university in the world currently can match this lineup</p>
<p>Replying to post #3, for math majors, the Math 55 course.</p>
<p>I have to second Skim1127's post. I just got back from moving in my daughter who like Skim is a new freshman. I found the students in the entering class absolutely extraordinary. They are a global all-star team of young people who combine top-level academic credentials with mind-boggling special achievements, and most add in a remarkable degree of poise and personality. This is probably the most diverse student body in the world. Students of all races and nationalities, with a wide variety of ethnic attire and accents mix and mingle with no apparent cultural barriers. Their wit and reservoirs of intellectual resources for conversation seems improbable for their ages. These are kids who are passionate about their concentrations (majors) but have hobbies on the side. When you inquire about their "hobby" (music, in the examples of these two students) you might find that were admitted to both Harvard and Juilliard and came to Harvard because they decided that they couldn't limit their scope of interests or that they're leaving the next day to do a concert at Carnegie Hall and will have to hurry back right after. They typically regard out-of-class events and activities as a hungry person would eye a buffet table. The campus surrounds the business district of Harvard Square - the most appealing college-town atmosphere I've ever seen - which means that from an outdoor cafe table in the Square, students constantly see friends and acquaintances who stop to engage in conversations, debates, and discussions. When my daughter visited for prefrosh weekend, she sat in on a literature class in which the students began debating what they thought the author meant in a particular book. The professor said that the author, who lives in Hong Kong, is a good friend of his and thought he had his number on his cell phone. He called the author and passed the phone around the class so that the students could all discuss the point with him. In my limited observations as a dad of a Harvard student, my impression is that one would have to really try hard to squander the wealth of intellectual and social opportunity there. Skim - if you can't tell, I'm really jealous!</p>
<p>Some highlights that defined Harvard for me: </p>
<p>George Will being a dinner guest at the Leverett House Wednesday night current events table (this was an event just for my dorm, and there were maybe 25 kids there)</p>
<p>Having pizza sitting on the floor of a dorm lounge with Robert Reich, Clinton's secretary of labor, and a total of 16 fellow students.</p>
<p>My a cappella group participating in a master class with Bobby McFerrin and then performing "circle songs" with him in front of a sellout crowd of 1000+.</p>
<p>In my Shakespeare course, we listened to recordings of John Lithgow and actors from the American Repertory Theatre reading scenes from each week's play that were specially recorded for the course at the professor's direction, highlighting themes that she wanted to stress (masculinity in Macbeth, etc.).</p>
<p>Finding out, after we'd been dear friends for more than a year, that my best friend had performed a solo piano recital at Carnegie Hall at age 11. (I only learned this when I was staying at his parents' house and asked about the pictures on the wall; he wanted to focus on singing in college and never talked about piano!)</p>
<p>I'm sorry to say that my two favorite undergrad professors have passed away, but I had one incredible day in law school when I spent the morning working on constitutional theory with Larry Tribe and four other students and I had to leave early because I was singing for Bill Clinton at noon. (Prof. Tribe is teaching an undergrad seminar next year. And on the topic of famous professors taking a personal interest in students, I saw him last week when I was in town at a recruiting event. It's been over four years since I graduated, but he asked me to have a drink with him and we spent an hour catching up, talking about Jon Stewart, etc.)</p>