A Harvard Education Isn't As Advertised

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Colleges should be evaluated on something like GRE/SAT ratio, that actually shows growth. Maybe use the sum of all entering students' highest SAT scores and the sum of all graduating students' GRE scores. The caveat is that this - like all standardized test approaches is somewhat biased toward test-taking ability, but at least it's objective - not subjective. Perhaps the rate of graduates collecting unemployment should be somehow factored into the equation, or at least published alongside this ratio value.

DrT of HI 1:24PM May 01, 2013

As a current student at Harvard, I have to completely disagree with this article. I have had long, insightful conversations with both accessible professors and with my incredible classmates; I have scheduled appointments with Nobel and Pulitzer prize winning faculty who emailed me back within minutes to tell me that they would love to have coffee.
If you want to become one of Harvard's "ghost students" who only enrolls in large lecture classes and never interacts with faculty, you definitely can. There are a lot of students who do that. Don't blame the school, however, for your own lack of initiative.

Current student of MA 12:55PM April 17, 2013

I believe everyone is one main point. the intellectual 1%'ers tend to avoid university all together. So fighting to be the top turd of the heap is what it is. Learning and education is not the point or purpose, stratifying society and justifying a crony job market is.
that being said U of C, outside of the US, has long been listed the best university in the world when only academic metrics are used.

Inquisitor of NV 6:34PM December 04, 2012

Of course a Harvard, Yale etc. education is special. These attracts Nobel Laureates and the greatest intellectuals of our times. The students at these universities are better prepared than those, at say, NYU. That is why only the best of the best can typically get in; they are the only ones that can handle the courcework. If these univiersaties were not great, how did they get the prestige?
I went to Yale, so I am more than willing to insult Harvard. But your criticisms are ridiculous.
To ANDOVER/HARVARD GRAD of WY, you do know that Andover students traditionally attend Yale (Those of Exeter go to Harvard).

ANDOVER/Yale Alum of CT 12:12PM September 02, 2012

There is absolutely nothing special about a Harvard education. If you were designing the perfect curriculum, it would hardly be Harvard's.
From a historical point of view, the students and faculty are D-Listers. Harvard has never produced a Shakespeare or an Einstein and at that the rate it's going, it never will. Harvard is its own worst enemy, since a bunch of silly, vapid prep school students think spending 4 years walking around Cambridge, Massachusetts will turn them into Plato. Actually, they end up as low-level plastic surgeons and management consultants, soon to be forgotten by history.

Aristotle 2:39AM July 24, 2012

I will join the author and at least one of the posters that the Harvard culture is an incredulously self congratulatory one. And this, I believe does get in the way of true educational development. The professors are celebrities - do you really need applause after every lecture - and the Teaching Fellows so want to project their future positions that the 2 way dialogue which is the learning process does not occur. I presume if you just want me to regurgitate what you've told me, then that is ok. But if you're asking me to be an independent thinker, someone who adds value, who can craft original thought - then yes, I'd like to offer my viewpoint, and I'd like to hear more from my classmates, and I'd like the professor to hear it and provide me direct feedback as well. This type of interaction is the exception at Harvard and is somewhat disappointing. But I think it is part of the competitive, exclusive culture they wish to cultivate. Is this also the life of the academic. Is it an isolationist's paradise? Me and my thoughts. Hoping I am right, or that I said it convincingly enough that someone will take notice.

Kelli of CT 12:47AM May 09, 2012

I liked your take on it. It does make sense with bigger classrooms and faculty who are busy with other projects.

Sash of NY 11:36AM February 22, 2012

I attend the University of Chicago and we have a saying that goes "If I wanted an A, I would've gone to Harvard".
Very daring of you taking on Harvard Mr. Heffner, but I believe this is a problem that pervades most university cultures. Those who seek the intensity and intellectual rigor that you describe have to create it on their own, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it would certainly help to have institutional support. After all, the best and brightest students would have their talents wasted if they languished in lecture halls memorizing facts instead of learning how to think critically and how to apply their learning to tackle our world's thorniest problems.

Student of IL 11:11AM August 19, 2011

I attended both Andover and Harvard.
The caliber of students and teachers at Harvard is 100x that of Andover. Don't take my word for it just because I went to both, look at any objective metric (Nobel prizes won by Andover vs Harvard grads, Fields medal recipients, Turing prizes, etc).
The best and the brightest 14 year olds don't usually go to "boarding school" but the best and the brightest 18 year olds almost always do go to college, and Harvard attracts more of them than any other school.
Several of my teachers at Andover were not particularly bright. I could never say the same thing at Harvard. Yes, there is a lot more attention at Andover, probably at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings too, but I'd trade constant attention from a mediocre teacher to constant interaction with brilliant students and "up to you" interaction with brilliant professors.
My guess is that the author was merely mediocre at Harvard and rather than challenging himself further (try taking harder classes, doing more research with professors, etc) he is just sulking. He should drop out of Harvard and allow somebody who will make more of its resources to attend.

Andover/Harvard grad of WY 7:04PM June 07, 2011

As an '08 graduate, I can say with utmost certainty that "hand-holding" is NOT part of the curriculum at Andover. Those who maintain that "A Harvard education is what you make of it," do not realize that in order for Alex to have had such a fulfilling and intellectually stimulating time at Andover, he had to work damn hard for it. And I'm sure that before he even considered vocalizing his dissatisfaction on the internet of all places-- the most public of arenas-- he tried to get out of Harvard what he did at Andover and was left disappointed.
It goes without saying that a select few are privy to an Andover or a Harvard education. But the mere fact that those of us who were lucky enough to attend a school like Andover constantly yearn for its unique and unforgettable academic experience, is a testament to what the Ivy League education lacks. For me, high school was meant to be a jumping off point for college, but it was indubitably one giant step down.

PA '08, Columbia '12 of NY 6:40PM June 06, 2011