sakky

Well, no, this is not true. A significant number of classes are indeed taught by Harvard faculty. Moreover, to graduate from many HES degree programs, you do need to have taken a majority of courses taught by Harvard faculty. Hence, while there is clearly not a complete overlap of faculty, to say that there is "almost no overlap of faculty" is unfounded.

Siserune, you're simply going too far. Simply put, it's not a "lie" and it's not "fraud" to say that you did in fact study at or have a degree from Harvard when you studied/graduated from HES. Aftler all, strictly speaking, those are true statements- you did in fact study at Harvard (as HES is indeed part of Harvard). And as stated above by RubenB84, you are in fact allowed to claim a general Harvard affiliation by studying at or graduating from HES. If you don't like it, don't blame us. We didn't make the rules. Take it up with Harvard itself and ask them why HES ought to be allowed to claim a full affiliation with the rest of Harvard. Given that the extension school has been around for about a century, it sure seems to me that, for whatever reason, Harvard thinks that the extension school is a worthy division to run.

But why would Harvard require such wording? After all, no other school does. I can't think of a single school that requires that you put down the specific degree-granting body within the school from which you graduated, as opposed to the school name as a whole. For example, somebody who gets an MBA from MIT is not required to say "MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management". He can simply say "MBA from MIT". Or even just "masters' degree from MIT". All of these would be true statements. Now, surely, that might cause confusion in the sense that you might think that such a person is a stud engineer, if he has a "master's from MIT". But he is still allowed to say it. Of course, what he cannot do is say "Master's of Science from MIT". That would indeed be a lie. But the point is, no other university requires that you put down the specific subdivision of the university that granted you the degree. I don't see why HES should be singled out.

Now, I can agree with you that surely some people are leveraging HES as an easy way to take advantage of the Harvard brand name. But again, whose fault is that? Harvard itself allows this to happen. So if you don't like it, take it up with Harvard. After all, they're the ones who make up the rules.

Besides, even if you're uncomfortable with the 'ethics of misdirection', we have to take into consideration the context involved. The fact is, a lot of people want to associate themselves with the Harvard brand name for professional purposes For example, a LOT of local people choose to become employees at Harvard (i.e. secretaries, janitors, security guards, handymen, IT staffers, etc.) just because they want to say that they work at Harvard and put Harvard on their resume. Then later in their careers, they can say things like "when I was at Harvard..." That's basically the same thing. Plenty of other people take coursework at various high-prestige schools, and then put it on their resume. For example, I know plenty of people who have taken open-enrollment executive education courses at Harvard and MIT, and then list that fact prominently on their resume.

Look, we have to be clear about what exactly a resume and a job interview really is about. A resume is a marketing document. Nothing more, nothing less. A job interview is simply a marketing opportunity. Again, nothing more, nothing less. While it's unethical to lie when you market, there is nothing wrong with putting your best foot forward and presenting yourself in the best possible light, and that may include aspects of misdirection. After all, marketing is not really about the complete truth. When you watch an ad on TV, do you really think you're getting the whole truth. Of course not - the company is only going to show you the aspects of the product that are going to entice you to want to buy it. When a restaurant advertises its food, they use tricky camera angles to make the portions look as large and as delicious as possible. When a beer company advertises, they inevitably show the "cool" lifestyle, with all of the partying and beautiful women in bikinis everywhere.

And that's perfectly acceptable. In a job interview, you are acting perfectly within bounds when you do and say whatever you need to do to get the job, without outright lying. That's part of the game. That's just good hard-nosed self-marketing. After all, think of it this way. Do you really think the employer is going to tell you the complete truth about itself? Of course not - companies are always going to present themselves in a manner that makes them look desirable. Hence, you are perfectly within your rights to do the same. That's how the game is played, and there's nothing wrong with that.