I find they are the most quick of any school in the nation to work the word Harvard into a sentence.

Anonymous wrote:Wait, are you talking about all the people here in D.C. who "went to school in Boston?"

If they say they went to school in Boston, you mock them. But if they say they went to Harvard, you also mock them for name dropping. What exactly are they supposed to do to avoid your opprobrium?

Sure, if in response to a question about what they had for dinner, someone says the Harvard cafeteria had great food - mock them. But lots of times schools naturally come up in discussions and only a Harvard grad will get mocked for a completely normal response, even in answering a direct question from someone about schools.

Anonymous wrote:Wait, are you talking about all the people here in D.C. who "went to school in Boston?"

That always cracks me up. 1) Harvard is in Cambridge, 2) There are 53 colleges in the Boston area. For normal people, you are just being vague, not subtle.

Now the people who say "I went to school in New Haven" -- that's old school obnoxiousness.

Some theories:

1) Harvard is a huge school. It claims more than 370,000 alumni, who are overrepresented in DC. So you meet more Harvard alumni than alumni from most other big schools.

2) You probably interact with a lot of Harvard people, some who name drop and some who don't. The ones who name drop tend to act like, well, name droppers. The others are less likely to, but you don't associate them with Harvard.

3) Confirmation bias; you are more likely to notice and remember Harvard jerks than jerks from other schools or regular people from Harvard because of the preexisting reputation.

- Harvard (grad school) alumni who tries not to mention it.

I mean, think about the elite college admission culture seen right here on these boards. A lot of these kids have been identified as extremely intelligent from a young age and always had it in their head that they'd go somewhere elite. A lot of them have been thinking about college since they were 10 (or younger). They might have private college counselors, have been taking extensive test prep classes, or had "internships" or fancy summer camps to attend since before they even entered high school. And then they get into a school that is known by practically everyone. Most of them aren't just some innocent and smart kids that applied to Harvard on a whim and were humbled to get in. Even if it wasn't to the absolute extreme, a majority of these kids have been groomed for this Harvard education. It's not surprising that they've become stuck-up and incredibly self-assured (even if they aren't aware of this).

Wait, are you talking about all the people here in D.C. who "went to school in Boston?"

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course. They went to the best school in the country. The most prestigious. That can never be taken away from them even if they flounder afterward.

Not really. Most prestigious, yes, but there are many other schools which offer better undergraduate experiences than Harvard.

And yet no one cares as much as when you name drop Harvard. Hmm, wonder why that is

Here's what y'all don't get: we actually don't care when you name drop it. You want us to, so you wind yourself up to not-quite avoid name dropping it, and when we roll our eyes at you for the conversational Olympics you convince yourselves we're just intimidated.

Harvard is a great school. It's not the only great school, or even the undisputed greatest. But plenty of people graduate from great schools and are still able to interact with people without dragging the conversation back to their alma mater. It's only Harvard people that have such extreme and lasting social awkwardness around their school. That's not a mark of honor.

Are we talking about undergrad Harvard or grad/professional Harvard? Because I think the second group actually is more into dropping the name...so many Kennedy School people in DC dropping the name, but the undergrads I know mostly don't do that.

Hard to get in, but once you are in, hard to fail out even if you do poorly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course. They went to the best school in the country. The most prestigious. That can never be taken away from them even if they flounder afterward.

Not really. Most prestigious, yes, but there are many other schools which offer better undergraduate experiences than Harvard.

And yet no one cares as much as when you name drop Harvard. Hmm, wonder why that is

Anonymous wrote:Of course. They went to the best school in the country. The most prestigious. That can never be taken away from them even if they flounder afterward.

Not really. Most prestigious, yes, but there are many other schools which offer better undergraduate experiences than Harvard.

It's part of their brand at this point. You don't hear Yalies talking about how they can't drop the "Y Bomb" in conversation, but it seems like at freshman orientation Harvard kids are instructed to be careful not to scare the normies with their exceptionalism.

Just laugh at them and keep it moving.

Of course. They went to the best school in the country. The most prestigious. That can never be taken away from them even if they flounder afterward.

Yes

I have worked and interacted with people from many top schools and various levels of intelligence from genius to smart, but I have noticed that Harvard people are consistently the most arrogant and self-assured of the bunch. Why? Does the Harvard name go to their heads?