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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Harvard will always have the brand name. Everyone in the world recognizes it. If you ask the average person anywhere on Earth what's the best university in the world they will likely respond with Harvard.

But for top students and well-educated professionals, Harvard undergrad doesn't have the same cachet that it's had in decades past. Everyone is aware that the majority of Harvard undergrads are hooked in some way - legacy, VIP, rich, DEI, athlete, related to faculty, etc - and that there are very, very few seats available to the genuine best and brightest. Harvard has never been a true meritocracy. But increasingly it seems more like an exclusive club for the privileged with some diversity thrown in for the optics. The academics are not challenging. [b]The average GPA of a Harvard student is 3.7, which is absurd.[/b] And while there's no way to measure this, many do seem to think that recent Harvard grads are not particularly impressive.

Personally, I think MIT, Oxford, Cambridge, Princeton, and Stanford are significantly better universities for undergraduates.

[/quote]

I'm going to push back on the bolded section. I went to Harvard mumble mumble years ago. I was one of those lazy legacy kids you hear about. I majored in drinking and chasing BU girls around. I had a B average, which I think was pretty fair.

As an alumni interviewer, I can see that the caliber of accepted students [i]including legacies[/i] is much higher than it was in my day. They might be smarter, I don't know. But they're definitely more driven and harder working than I and my friends were. If they're taking the same classes I did, but they're not showing up hung over or not showing up at all as was my wont, it stands to reason that GPAs are higher.

There are fewer Bs and Cs because there are fewer gentleman B/C students and more gunners.[/quote]

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