<p>Though they will probably admit more than they enroll.</p>
<p>^^^I think schools like Harvard can be very targeted in their grad admissions; they aren’t necessarily handled like undergrad, where a letter goes out and you have a month to compare offers. The offer can come by telephone from the department head, even early in the process, with the urgent “suggestion” that a decision be reached asap. There was definite pressure from my daughter to make a decision quickly, and only after she said yes did she get her acceptance in the mail. I think they kind of go down the line and when one student declines, they go to the next on the list who fills that specific need. It may be necessary because when students are accepted, they are selected to work with a specific professor, so they may select based on which prof is up for getting a grad student that year. The point being, you can’t really even look at the stats regarding acceptances between grad and undergrads and compare them, as it’s a different process altogether.
Sometimes this isn’t the case. I think my Dh had an acceptance in a letter with plenty of time to consider, but that was years ago and the department was much larger.</p>
<p>@alh wrote:</p>
<p>"True Story - overheard at the hair salon monday:</p>
<p>Hairdresser, making chit chat with new customer, who’s new to the community, after asking where she worked and learning at local univeristy.</p>
<p>Hairdresser: Where did you go to college?</p>
<p>Customer: A place in New Haven.</p>
<p>Hairdresser: Where is New Haven? I mean, what state?"</p>
<p>I think the right way to respond can be situational. Some people will gape and say things like “Wow, you must be smart!” or “Are you rich?” so, years later, I tend to answer the question I wish I had been asked and then change the subject as quickly as possible.</p>
<p>But alh’s post reminded me of responses from years past:</p>
<p>1) “Harvard – is that out of town?”</p>
<p>2) From a hairdresser “Oh. What’s the exchange rate like?”</p>
<p>Me: “Um, what exchange rate?”</p>
<p>Hairdresser: “Oh, I guess I don’t know where Harvard is; I thought it was in another country.” </p>
<p>Deservedly or not, the name “Harvard” carries a lot of baggage. So I just try to avoid bringing it up in conversation.</p>
<p>Now, the kid is at a top LAC and nobody has heard of it. People who should know of it can’t quite remember where it is - and it is not far from us! I find the difference in reactions amusing, especially since I know the kid is having a great time and getting a terrific education. And I don’t miss the gaping and awkward comments like “Oh, I guess I had better watch what I say around you!” one bit. When someone who has known you for some time changes their reactions to and behavior toward you after learning you went to Harvard, is that really your fault? I was the same person before that disclosure that I am now. </p>
<p>I am actually in New Haven today, and driving around I see there are other universities too, not just Yale.</p>
<p>Perhaps the seemingly modest ‘a place in New Haven’ is actually Southern Connecticut State University, which according to its website does provide “exemplary graduate and undergraduate education in the liberal arts and professional disciplines”.</p>
<p>Boston has more than one college as well. ; )</p>
<p>and before someone points out the obvious: Yes - Cambridge has more than one college, too.</p>
<p>^ 31, in fact</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Oh, wow! He must be really smart! </p>
<p>I bet he got 2400 SATs! Is it really expensive!? Bill Gates went to Harvard!</p>
<p>Yeah, but he didn’t graduate. Just goes to show, you don’t need no fancy pants education to be a master of the universe! 
</p>
<p>Obviously apocryphal story, vintage at least 4 decades ago:</p>
<p>College kid is hitchhiking in Alabama. He gets picked up by a guy in crappy semi-truck, unshaved, wearing a dirty trucker-hat and torn T-shirt with a confederate flag on it.</p>
<p>Trucker: “'Y’all look like one a them thar college kids.”</p>
<p>Kid: “Uh … yeah, I guess so.”</p>
<p>Trucker: “Where’bouts?”</p>
<p>Kid: “Connecticut.”</p>
<p>Trucker: “Oh yeah? I bin up thataway buncha times. Where IN Connecticut?”</p>
<p>Kid: “… New Haven?”</p>
<p>Trucker: “Naw, I mean whicha them colleges up there?”</p>
<p>Kid: “Uh … uh … Saybrook.”</p>
<p>Trucker: “Really?! Hey, I was in Branford!”</p>
<p>LOL. I bet many CC parents got the joke (if it happens that they have taken their child to tour that college. It is often the case that the tour guide will take them to see these two colleges.)</p>
<p>But most laymen may not get the joke.</p>
<p>In my nest of wood, most seem to believe the flagship in our state is the best.</p>
<p>“Undergrad acceptance rate at Harvard is 5%”…It is higher. And I assure you that getting into Harvard Med School is MUCH harder than Harvard College…Only the best students from the best colleges even dare apply, and they only accept 140 or so students from the many thousands who apply. The acceptance rate is scary.</p>
<p>“Guess that tee-shirt wouldn’t have even been printed if it had said, “Princeton, the Michigan of the east.” It had to say “Harvard” to have the impact it was meant to have – that is, so people would “get it” and think it cute or amusing at all.”</p>
<p>My assumptions, from reading your postings on this thread is that you are a 23 year old with the emotional maturity of a 12 year old. The above quote confirms that you are young: the statement on the shirt is a quote from JFK and has nothing to do with galactic-implicit epistemic closure which somehow requires that one word is in the kernel of every logical statement.</p>
<p>Where I went to grad school just never comes up. Maybe in a job interview, but definitely not socially!</p>
<p>I asked a friend from Boston where his daughter was heading to college and he said “A local institution that thinks very highly of itself.” He works there so he should know! Made me laugh though.</p>
<p>I feel bad for my cousin who attends Harvard. He does not wear the sweatshirts because people consider it bragging. But I say, if you worked that hard you deserve to “show off” as long as you are not cocky and think everyone else is inferior. It is just like the rich owning fancy cars. What is the point in being rich if you do not show it off and enjoy yourself?</p>