How many Harvards?

[AbreuTime]

[ QUOTE ]
I think you can find really smart and engaging classmates at any decent school if you look for them. But the Harvard student body is pretty unique. Even at Yale or Princeton, you won't find so many people who have had such astounding backgrounds, skills, or experiences. Every class has at least on famous child actor and several children of world leaders. I feel other Ivys tend to attract mostly excellent, well-rounded, well-adjusted students who have been meticulously building their college resumes for years while Harvard gets a lot more "extreme" presonalities who are amazing at one thing.

[/ QUOTE ]

So "famous/extreme people go to Harvard" is evidence of what exactly? The discussion has evolved to talk about the concentration of intellectuals at different Universities, and you argue that "extreme personailities" are at Harvard. Thus, there is a lower concentration of intellectuals, since people often get accepted based on non-academic merits.

What you are unintentionally arguing is that going to Harvard is often about non-academic talents, and in many cases being a famous child actor helps. This sounds elitist, and I know that was not your intention. These people may contribute to the "undergrad experience," true, but it's not something that I tend to brag about when talking about the quality of education.

This is not to say that famous child actors don't add anything. I'm sure it's fun to say "hey, I saw Natalie Portman the other day and..." Also, this is not to say that famous people wouldn't get accepted into other top schools. They just may choose Harvard in greater numbers, because they believe in the name.

Oh, and an unrelated thought: where you go to school post-grad matters the most. I imagine that going to a top school as an undergrad would help you get into these schools...

[Aloysius]

[ QUOTE ]

Oh, and an unrelated thought: where you go to school post-grad matters the most. I imagine that going to a top school as an undergrad would help you get into these schools...

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not positive about this but I think for the professional grad schools (biz / med / law) this is very true when you look at the distribution of undergrads attended at top programs. This implies a selection bias simply for attending a top undergrad which seems unfair and in my mind without real merit.

Game is rigged, not saying it's fair, but to a large extent in many fields, it is.

-Al

[NickMPK]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I think you can find really smart and engaging classmates at any decent school if you look for them. But the Harvard student body is pretty unique. Even at Yale or Princeton, you won't find so many people who have had such astounding backgrounds, skills, or experiences. Every class has at least on famous child actor and several children of world leaders. I feel other Ivys tend to attract mostly excellent, well-rounded, well-adjusted students who have been meticulously building their college resumes for years while Harvard gets a lot more "extreme" presonalities who are amazing at one thing.

[/ QUOTE ]

So "famous/extreme people go to Harvard" is evidence of what exactly? The discussion has evolved to talk about the concentration of intellectuals at different Universities, and you argue that "extreme personailities" are at Harvard. Thus, there is a lower concentration of intellectuals, since people often get accepted based on non-academic merits.

What you are unintentionally arguing is that going to Harvard is often about non-academic talents, and in many cases being a famous child actor helps. This sounds elitist, and I know that was not your intention. These people may contribute to the "undergrad experience," true, but it's not something that I tend to brag about when talking about the quality of education.


[/ QUOTE ]

It's not really my intention to argue more than what I literally said. I'm not sure why it sounds elitist.

I do think Harvard considers non-academic merit more in their applications than other Ivy and top liberal arts schools. At least they seemed to care more about my non-academic experiences and qualifications when I was applying than other schools did. That said, I only got the chance to actually experience undergraduate education at one school, so I don't really have any firsthand knowledge of how my experience might have been different somewhere else.

[Big Poppa Smurf]

why does the south talk about harvard so much? INFERIORITY COMPLEX AHAHAHAHAHA THE SOUTH KNOWS THEY SUCK