How to say you went to Harvard (elite school, HYPS, etc)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If someone says I went to Harvard, I will ask them whether they went to "Lower Harvard" or "Higher Harvard". If they say Higher Harvard, I will say good for you. If they say Lower Harvard, I will say I am sorry you must have had to endury fouy years of misery. If they say I did Engineering at Harvard, I will pity them for going to a no name program at Harvard in the shadows of the greatest Engineering institution in the world, MIT.

In other words you hear the word Harvard and think it’s a license to be a jerk.

[Anonymous]

I went to a small town, and I still remember some how a cashier asked where I was going to college, and did this whole ‘you must be so smart’ schtick. That’s how it starts, one or two people make a big deal and you just want to side step the whole scene.

It doesn’t come up much, but as our kids go to college we talk about our college experience so my school still comes up in my 40s

If you are a Princeton grad, you have to watch recent good place episodes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If someone says I went to Harvard, I will ask them whether they went to "Lower Harvard" or "Higher Harvard". If they say Higher Harvard, I will say good for you. If they say Lower Harvard, I will say I am sorry you must have had to endury fouy years of misery. If they say I did Engineering at Harvard, I will pity them for going to a no name program at Harvard in the shadows of the greatest Engineering institution in the world, MIT.

In other words you hear the word Harvard and think it’s a license to be a jerk.

Well, many many people assume you are rich if you went to Ivy League (I was not then and definitely not now) but that assumption can put you at a disadvantage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If Harvard sucks so much then why are you all whining about its admissions policies?

I was at Harvard and overheard a Harvard undergrad telling another student how easy the school is compared to high school. Not the first time I heard that.

Is it true?

[Anonymous]

I didn’t go to Harvard but if I did I would wear a banner and carry balloons that said I went to Harvard. Or even any college, for that matter. Good for you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If someone says I went to Harvard, I will ask them whether they went to "Lower Harvard" or "Higher Harvard". If they say Higher Harvard, I will say good for you. If they say Lower Harvard, I will say I am sorry you must have had to endury fouy years of misery. If they say I did Engineering at Harvard, I will pity them for going to a no name program at Harvard in the shadows of the greatest Engineering institution in the world, MIT.

In other words you hear the word Harvard and think it’s a license to be a jerk.

If you went to Harvard you know all majors are not at the same level. God forbid, if you did Engineering at Harvard you know what I said is true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody asks after you're about 24 or 25.

True. But people who went to Harvard find a way to work it into the conversation anyway.

Nope, not all of us. Where I went to college is not where the majority of my self esteem comes from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If someone asks directly where you went to school you say "Harvard." If they don't, you don't.

+1.

[Anonymous]

I don't know why people are always reluctant to say the school is Harvard. One time a woman I just meant said her daughter went to school in Cambridge -- I had no idea where or what that was -- why not just say Harvard???

[Anonymous]

Don’t be a reverse snob. You went to Harvard. We can handle it. I know people who absolutely refuse to admit they went to Harvard. Get over yourself. It’s ok. You went to that school. Don’t pretend otherwise. It’s patronizing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If Harvard sucks so much then why are you all whining about its admissions policies?

I was at Harvard and overheard a Harvard undergrad telling another student how easy the school is compared to high school. Not the first time I heard that.

Is it true?

In my experience, this is true about HBS. We recruit at a lot of great schools (Kellogg, Duke, Michigan, even Wharton), but we had a bunch of duds from Harvard and stopped going there. They just were not up to par and other schools produce much smarter, well rounded, analytically-minded graduates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If someone says I went to Harvard, I will ask them whether they went to "Lower Harvard" or "Higher Harvard". If they say Higher Harvard, I will say good for you. If they say Lower Harvard, I will say I am sorry you must have had to endury fouy years of misery. If they say I did Engineering at Harvard, I will pity them for going to a no name program at Harvard in the shadows of the greatest Engineering institution in the world, MIT.

In other words you hear the word Harvard and think it’s a license to be a jerk.

If you went to Harvard you know all majors are not at the same level. God forbid, if you did Engineering at Harvard you know what I said is true.

When you meet people from UVA do you tell them they went to second tier school?

This is might be why people are reluctant to say where they went. Idiots like you act that complete pricks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If Harvard sucks so much then why are you all whining about its admissions policies?

I was at Harvard and overheard a Harvard undergrad telling another student how easy the school is compared to high school. Not the first time I heard that.

Is it true?

In my experience, this is true about HBS. We recruit at a lot of great schools (Kellogg, Duke, Michigan, even Wharton), but we had a bunch of duds from Harvard and stopped going there. They just were not up to par and other schools produce much smarter, well rounded, analytically-minded graduates.

I was going to say, this definitely applies to the business school, but I'm not sure that is unique to Harvard. For most top tier MBA programs, the hardest part is getting in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If someone says I went to Harvard, I will ask them whether they went to "Lower Harvard" or "Higher Harvard". If they say Higher Harvard, I will say good for you. If they say Lower Harvard, I will say I am sorry you must have had to endury fouy years of misery. If they say I did Engineering at Harvard, I will pity them for going to a no name program at Harvard in the shadows of the greatest Engineering institution in the world, MIT.

In other words you hear the word Harvard and think it’s a license to be a jerk.

If you went to Harvard you know all majors are not at the same level. God forbid, if you did Engineering at Harvard you know what I said is true.

When you meet people from UVA do you tell them they went to second tier school?

This is might be why people are reluctant to say where they went. Idiots like you act that complete pricks.

Is your d**k hurting so much by my comment? Are you so insecure about the school you went to and you have such a low self-esteem?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's the old saying about having gone to school "near Boston" which is often dismissed as a false arrogance but if you say the name, it sounds snobbish. If it comes up, what do you consider the right way to approach it?

If it comes up, you say where you went to school. If you feel the need to bring it up often, and you're more than 2 years out of school, you're the problem.

And "(elite school, HYPS, etc)" isn't the issue. Nobody I've ever met who went to Yale had these tortured "but how do I say my school name in front of the proles without causing resentment??!?" problems. This is something specific and peculiar to Harvard - you're all telling each other no one can handle you "dropping the H bomb" in conversation and you're all falling for it. It's not that serious.

Not true. I went to Yale for undergrad and law school and it was the same. As another poster said, all you need is for one or two people to gush about how "you must be really smart!" and you start looking for ways not to mention it. Plenty of Yalies do the "I went to school in Connecticut" or "in New England" thing. (It is douche-y to say "in New Haven" though because many people associate New Haven with Yale and don't know that there are actually other colleges there, so then it looks like the weird side-step that it is.)

Happily I rarely get asked now except in a professional context and no one raises an eyebrow at learning I went to Yale Law School. There are sometimes raised eyebrows if they ask about undergrad and I say I went to Yale for that too, but there aren't really comments.