How did Harvard gain its reputation and prestige?

Schmaltz
Wed, 04 Aug 2010 14:28:52 +0000

The question isn’t how did Harvard get to be known by a few eggheads in academia…it’s how did it come to be known and respected by just about every person in the country. Part of that has to do with it being a department store where you can get just about anything of the highest quality. A small boutique, even if it’s selling stuff that is of comparable quality, will never get as famous and be known far and wide. In your 21st Century minds, “huge universities” = “mediocre universities.” But I think if you go back to the 18th and 19th Centuries, when Harvard became the household name it is today, big universities tended to extremely good universities.