<p>Ball? How about some airsoft :P</p>
<p>Does ball imply only baseball? Is tennis or soccer okay, too?</p>
<p>
[quote]
I've never heard that before, but I'm not going to not believe you. </p>
<p>Let's put it this way. You're a major business/law firm and you have two applicants.</p>
<p>One went to Yale/Harvard for his undergrad/grad while the other went to Harvard/Harvard. Which "impresses" you more based purely off of this information? </p>
<p>My answer is as good as yours...who is to tell?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You've never heard that Inbreeding is bad?</p>
<p>The Harvard/Harvard combination or Any Inbred individual raises all sorts of negative implications.</p>
<p>I'm amazed I even had to say that.</p>
<p>At the graduate level many academic institutions (ie you are earning your PhD not a professional school degree) refuse to even consider applicants from the same University.</p>
<p>At least in some fields, the taboo on academic inbreeding is fading away. </p>
<p>When I interviewed for biology programs this winter, I met many people who were interviewing at their alma maters (I was one of them); older professors generally gave us stern talks about the dangers of inbreeding, but younger professors often encouraged us to stay. </p>
<p>In science, there are a lot of people who either bounce back and forth between Harvard and MIT, or who stay at Harvard their entire lives -- the postdoc for whom I've worked for the past several years did his undergrad at Harvard, MD/PhD at Harvard, and started his postdoc at Harvard (before my PI moved to MIT). His career is perfectly healthy, I assure you.</p>
<p>Academic inbreeding isn't necessarily the best course, but it's not a kiss of death either.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The Harvard/Harvard combination or Any Inbred individual raises all sorts of negative implications.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Not necessarily true.</p>
<p>John Roberts obtained both his bachelor's and law degree from Harvard. My mother was very impressed. lol :)</p>
<p>In terms of professional schools, no one minds. Pre-med, pre-law, pre-business kids here all have HLS, HMS, HBS, respectively in their minds when it comes to pursuing grad school. My friends who are pursuing PhDs are 100% leaving Harvard and going to another institution.</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>John Roberts obtained both his bachelor's and law degree from Harvard.<<</p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>Same with David Souter.</p>
<p>haha im sorry to break up this fascinating discussion but i might i just say that all the usage of the word inbreeding is kind of funny. it's so incesty...we're getting education here, not genetic disorders</p>
<p>because only Harvard is Harvard. And that seems to be a well established fact unlikely to change in the foreseable future (Stanford I'm sorry).</p>
<p>Now you can still question the significance of "Harvard is Harvard." Good point, though remember for most of the world there is no question at all. It's Harvard.</p>
<p>I'm trying to think of an equivalent. What company has ever had a position of supremacy (as a trade name) for generations?</p>
<p>Xerox. How many times have you ever heard someone say: "yeah, ill just go ahead and xerox that?"</p>
<p>xerox is def. not a verb</p>
<p>you bring up a nice point with xerox. It's alot like kleenex (please pass some). But xerox or kleenex don't even dominate their own markets. Harvard is not just a symbol for all colleges, but it is also the supreme status symbol.</p>
<p>Yeah guys, why would you go to Harvard for undergrad? Are you seriously asking this question?</p>
<p>Byerly, thanks so much for that post. I love the alumni's comments at the end of the article. The one who became a casting director particularly resonated with me; Harvard kids all have this intangible aspect to them that unites all of us, whether it is the kid from an inner-city high school which had no guidance counselor to the kid who went to Exeter - admissions does do an amazing job at choosing the correct class.</p>
<p>"choosing the correct class" - as opposed to what? the incorrect class?</p>
<p>you all try to make it sound like being offered admission into Harvard is being offered admission into a divine society. Granted its an awesome college- though, especially today, no better than another dozen. Attend if there's something you particularly like about it. I'd be the first to say that there are a lot of things to like at Harvard, but for god's sake don't go to Harvard "cause its Harvard." That makes absolutely no sense... Krueger, a Harvard economist, would agree.</p>
<p>"... I DOUBT that heaven will be as good as Harvard. Will there be free ice-skating lessons taught by philosophy students? A dedicated police force which conscientiously logs the occasional theft of a bicycle? Or squirrels so fearless that they can be seen darting into a professor's office to nibble his work-in-progress?</p>
<p>Having spent two years there, I guarantee that Harvard has all this. Heaven, by contrast, seems more likely to resemble some university campuses in (the UK): under-funded, overcrowded and a bit run down..." </p>
<p>The mystique of Harvard does "not make sense". People seem to forget this. Do you think of people's valuation of a BMW or a Harley Davidson as a rational matter? Sometimes certain companies become icons. Harvard is one of the ultimate icons. For many that's enough to decide on going there instead of anywhere else.</p>
<p>It doesn't just have to do with students. I've known professors who took positions at Harvard even though it involved a cut of salary and a heavier teaching load.</p>
<p>I imagine if there was no Harvard we would have to invent one, as they say.</p>
<p>... We put up Americas Intellectual Powerhouse on the screen, and everybody says Harvard. Everybody, says Hesel, a principal of the Art & Science Group, a consulting firm that specializes in marketing for higher education. We put up Free-Choice Curriculum, and most people guess Brown.</p>
<p>Prestige, celebrity, presidential pedigreeyou name it, Harvards got it, as Hesel says. And in a nation obsessed with image, the marketing power of a collegiate Cambridge settingred bricks, ivy leaves, and Veritasis second to none.</p>
<p>Last year, nearly 23,000 students applied for admission, and 80 percent of those admitted chose to attend, compared with 72 percent at Yale and 68 percent at Princeton. Given a choice between Bulldog and Crimson, most students put their chips on red: (most) students accepted to both Yale and Harvard find themselves in Cambridge come fall, says one veteran of the admissions game. ..."</p>
<p>RE: Xerox and Kleenex</p>
<p>-It's bad for these companies when their brand names start getting used as verbs like that, because they lose the mark on their name when it becomes common usage. In fact, many of these companies run ad campaigns targeted at discerning the difference between their product and generics, in order for them to reclaim the mark that their brand worked so hard to get in the first place. </p>
<p>Intellectual property law.</p>