Current Harvard students: are you HAPPY?

gadad
Fri, 02 Apr 2010 11:29:23 +0000

^^^ "Happy vs. Awesome. Very nice, Bay. That’s about the most on target, succinct summary of the dynamics that I’ve heard.

Bear in mind also, that there’s a certain rallying point generated by being broadly perceived as #2 in any hierarchy. (I’m not playing out the H vs. Y rivalry here; I’m just noting that H is clearly the more iconic name as in “The Harvard of the [blank].”) H students seem perfectly comfortable being blunt about aspects of campus life with which they don’t agree. I’d guess that there’d be a lesser inclination for Y students to criticize their school, for fear of appearing to give up any ground to their rival.



it’s nice to know that the stereotypes are wrong



When D1 was looking at colleges four years ago, I didn’t even have Harvard on the list because of my perception of certain off-putting stereotypes. Four years later, I’m not sure I can name any of those preconceived stereotypes that have turned out to be accurate.