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[quote=Anonymous]Harvard grad here. Harvard is not "the best." It's kind of sucky for undergrads. I taught at Harvard for a year, too, and can tell you that the undergrads are quite uneven in terms of their "smarts." Some are amazing. Some are amazingly... dumb. I now teach at a top law school and see kids every year from Harvard a dozens of other colleges. It is definitely true that the Ivy kids -- on average; there are always exceptions -- are a bit more entitled; they are not necessarily any smarter, more likable or harder working.

For better or for worse I will say one thing about Harvard (equally true of Yale, Stanford, Williams, or any other elite school): it's a giant machine for buffing and polishing people until they gleam with a shiny Ivy gleam. In some sense these are finishing schools; they start with smart kids from all over the country, and after four years most of the rougher regional edges have been smoothed off and they all look like baby CEOs. They tend to look and sound much more sophisticated than their state school peers.

But as I said above, this does not make them any smarter, nicer, harder-working or more likable.

I would happily hire a young Harvard grad if he/she seemed bright and hard-working and non-obnoxious, but in part b/c I know Harvard well and know how little it can mean, the Harvard diploma would not be a plus. Toe to toe, if the Harvard grad and UMd grad seemed equally smart, nice and hard-working, I'd frankly probably pick the UMd grad, just on the theory that there are enough other people who will gladly help the Harvard grad (that is, the Harvard grad has quite a network to fall back on).[/quote]

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