Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For who?

Seriously, I always wonder about this when the topic comes up. I never had any desire to attend an Ivy, much less Harvard. My kids shrug when the topic comes up. None of their friends and family attended. Maybe we're just of a lesser socioeconomic class, but where are all these students who dream of Harvard?

Do you live outside the DC area?

Currently, yes - but I grew up in NoVa, graduated from high school there, and was back a few years when DH was at the Pentagon. If I'd had a dream, it would have been MIT, but I'm a reasonable person, I guess.

Spouse and I both attended ivies and it just seems normal here. It is not something we think about.

So you care about making it into an Ivy over major or fit?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For who?

Seriously, I always wonder about this when the topic comes up. I never had any desire to attend an Ivy, much less Harvard. My kids shrug when the topic comes up. None of their friends and family attended. Maybe we're just of a lesser socioeconomic class, but where are all these students who dream of Harvard?

Do you live outside the DC area?

Currently, yes - but I grew up in NoVa, graduated from high school there, and was back a few years when DH was at the Pentagon. If I'd had a dream, it would have been MIT, but I'm a reasonable person, I guess.

Spouse and I both attended ivies and it just seems normal here. It is not something we think about.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For who?

Seriously, I always wonder about this when the topic comes up. I never had any desire to attend an Ivy, much less Harvard. My kids shrug when the topic comes up. None of their friends and family attended. Maybe we're just of a lesser socioeconomic class, but where are all these students who dream of Harvard?

Do you live outside the DC area?

Currently, yes - but I grew up in NoVa, graduated from high school there, and was back a few years when DH was at the Pentagon. If I'd had a dream, it would have been MIT, but I'm a reasonable person, I guess.

Anonymous wrote:For who?

Seriously, I always wonder about this when the topic comes up. I never had any desire to attend an Ivy, much less Harvard. My kids shrug when the topic comes up. None of their friends and family attended. Maybe we're just of a lessor socioeconomic class, but where are all these students who dream of Harvard?

Do you live outside the DC area?

For who?

Seriously, I always wonder about this when the topic comes up. I never had any desire to attend an Ivy, much less Harvard. My kids shrug when the topic comes up. None of their friends and family attended. Maybe we're just of a lessor socioeconomic class, but where are all these students who dream of Harvard?

Given that these surveys are mostly about name recognition, the real story isn’t that Harvard is ranked highly but rather that MIT and Princeton (and other schools) outrank Yale among both applicants and parents.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was always number 1, people. I've lived in Europe and Asia, and I can tell you that Harvard has much, much more international visibility than all the other Ivy League schools put together. People outside the US don't even know about some of the other Ivy League schools, let alone any of the others.

And don't kid yourself that other countries cares about Israeli-Palestinian turmoil here in the US, or the alleged plagiarism of a Harvard President, which everyone was willing to overlook until teeny-weeny Palestinian support developed on campus.

The world is aghast that we are condoning mass blow-ups of innocent women and children in Gaza, blocking a UN resolution for a ceasefire, and sending money and weapons to a state committing mass murder. (30,000 deaths so far in Gaza, the immense majority of them innocent people. Compared to 2000 Israeli deaths. If you get your head out of your behind, the US is complicit.)

I think the evidence is pretty clear that the world doesn’t care whatsoever, given the lack of any military support to Hamas and the Palestinians, or any offers to host refugees. The Europeans just like to talk about it a lot to mostly make themselves feel superior and in some instances enjoy their suppressed but deep anti-Semitism. The rest of world acts with some variation of that, depending on political expediency. In any event, the world isn’t aghast, at least where “aghast” means “actually doing anything concrete.”

Harvard's international brand is fine. You are correct that nobody cares about campus nonsense.

Just came in to say THIS.
Now, back to the topic at hand…..

Imo Harvard has always been the "true" number one college. Typically ranking systems look like distracting data points like class sizes, student to faculty ratio, etc. At the end of the day, for 90% of people the only two data points that should actually matter are brand and network.

In my opinion the quality of education at Harvard is likely far lower than that of Yale, Princeton, or MIT - however that is completely and totally unimportant. It is rare that people ever even use what they're taught in college, especially at elite colleges where the focus tends to be much more theoretical and academic.

The value of an elite college degree comes largely from showing that you made it past a tough admissions committee that usually "picks winners." Based on cross admit data Harvard gets their pick of the litter - employers know this. Also historically they have so many remarkable alumni(far more than any of their competitors), that people immediately assume that someone they picked has a very high chance of becoming remarkable.

A Harvard degree is basically a stamp saying that a committee picked you out as "most likely to succeed" from a huge pool of overachievers. The education could literally consist of sitting around banging your head into a table and you'd still get more value from Harvard than from any of their peers. Throw in extremely high average GPAs that open the doors to med schools, law schools, and Wall Street and you have a winner unlike any other - even if they seem almost deliberate in trying to sabotage their own brand recently

NYC private. Harvard still number 1.


Historically, our schools sends maybe 15 kids to HYPM but none to Stanford. As a result, kids start sending fewer apps that way and as a result, Stanford accepts none out of the more limited number. Not sure why that is, but the Harvard dream is alive and well

Anonymous wrote:It was always number 1, people. I've lived in Europe and Asia, and I can tell you that Harvard has much, much more international visibility than all the other Ivy League schools put together. People outside the US don't even know about some of the other Ivy League schools, let alone any of the others.

And don't kid yourself that other countries cares about Israeli-Palestinian turmoil here in the US, or the alleged plagiarism of a Harvard President, which everyone was willing to overlook until teeny-weeny Palestinian support developed on campus.

The world is aghast that we are condoning mass blow-ups of innocent women and children in Gaza, blocking a UN resolution for a ceasefire, and sending money and weapons to a state committing mass murder. (30,000 deaths so far in Gaza, the immense majority of them innocent people. Compared to 2000 Israeli deaths. If you get your head out of your behind, the US is complicit.)

I think the evidence is pretty clear that the world doesn’t care whatsoever, given the lack of any military support to Hamas and the Palestinians, or any offers to host refugees. The Europeans just like to talk about it a lot to mostly make themselves feel superior and in some instances enjoy their suppressed but deep anti-Semitism. The rest of world acts with some variation of that, depending on political expediency. In any event, the world isn’t aghast, at least where “aghast” means “actually doing anything concrete.”

Harvard's international brand is fine. You are correct that nobody cares about campus nonsense.

Anonymous wrote:It was always number 1, people. I've lived in Europe and Asia, and I can tell you that Harvard has much, much more international visibility than all the other Ivy League schools put together. People outside the US don't even know about some of the other Ivy League schools, let alone any of the others.

And don't kid yourself that other countries cares about Israeli-Palestinian turmoil here in the US, or the alleged plagiarism of a Harvard President, which everyone was willing to overlook until teeny-weeny Palestinian support developed on campus.

The world is aghast that we are condoning mass blow-ups of innocent women and children in Gaza, blocking a UN resolution for a ceasefire, and sending money and weapons to a state committing mass murder. (30,000 deaths so far in Gaza, the immense majority of them innocent people. Compared to 2000 Israeli deaths. If you get your head out of your behind, the US is complicit.)

Hijacking of a thread by a crazy and ignorant Palestinian apologist. Check done. Now go back to hiding under your rock and ignoring the true cause of the conflict, i.e. a Palestinian attack against a sovereign nation.

Stanford and MIT have had the top spot for a number of years now. First time Harvard has claimed the top in awhile

And.... your point????

Despite turmoil, Harvard is the No. 1 'dream' school, Princeton Review poll says

Interesting