<p>To ensure the Ivies' prestige:</p>
<p>Why not add MIT? It is in the same geographic area, has a sterling reputation and isn't known as a sports powerhouse. Wouldn't it be a perfect addition to the Ivies?</p>
<p>And why do the Ivies have some schools that are not competitive? For example, Harvard's Extension School and Education School aren't nearly as hard to get into as the university's other programs. Why dilute the Harvard brand with them?</p>
<p>My two cents!</p>
<p>The Ivy League is a grouping of 8 schools that formed an athletic league over a century ago. You are suggesting that Harvard jettison certain programs? Your two cents worth aren’t even worth that. </p>
<p>No, you’re wrong. </p>
<p>The Ivy League as an athletic association was formed in 1954.</p>
<p>Schools join and exit athletic associations pretty frequently. Adding or subtracting schools from them is common.</p>
<p>Similarly, colleges break off from others or transfer ownership every now and then. As an Ivy grad, I’d prefer that that happen with less-selective parts of my university, since their presence dilutes my degree.</p>
<p>City…you have got to be kidding…you think YOUR degree is diminished by the presence of other programs at your university? Guess you should have gotten accepted at one of the more “selective” Ivies.</p>
<p>And they say Ivy grads are snobs. Imagine that!</p>
<p>City didn’t go to an Ivy for undergrad…just for grad.</p>
<p>"thumper1Posts: 30,811Senior Member </p>
<p>3:45PM </p>
<p>City…you have got to be kidding…you think YOUR degree is diminished by the presence of other programs at your university? Guess you should have gotten accepted at one of the more “selective” Ivies."</p>
<p>I went to Harvard. Does that count as one of the more “selective” Ivies for you?</p>
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<p>City, sounds like you don’t think much of Harvard’s selectivity. So sorry your choice wasn’t as prestigious (in your mind) as you had hoped.</p>
<p>The grad program (HLS) that I went to is very selective, as are the Medical School, the Business School, Ph.D. programs, etc.- but Harvard has all sorts of programs that are not particularly selective. The Extension School isn’t, and the Ed School isn’t that hard to get into. Same for some other Ivy schools, such as Cornell’s hotel program. I’d prefer to separate out those programs and spin them off. The issue is that anyone who meets very basic criteria (even coming to Harvard for a non-degree program) can count as an alumnus, and so alumni networking events attract those people, which dilutes the value of them.</p>
<p>Would Neiman Marcus operate a dollar store or Walmart type store, branded “Neiman Marcus”? No, since it would dilute the value of the Neiman Marcus brand. Nor should Harvard.</p>
<p>And to add: why should people in non-selective programs be able to freeload off the hard work (and extensive giving) of people who went to the selective parts of the school? Why should someone who went to Harvard Extension School (which has open admissions and is basically a community college type-thing, mainly geared to helping staff members and locals) be able to be considered an equal alumnus as, say, someone who has an M.D. from Harvard Medical School? That’s not right.</p>
<p>Don’t feed the ■■■■■.</p>