How did Harvard gain its reputation and prestige?

thatguy100
Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:20:27 +0000

Ummmm… Why are we attacking people for their opinions? Hes not saying Harvard IS tenfold better than MIT (some might even say its worse) he is saying the Harvard BRAND is tenfold MORE WELL KNOWN than MIT…

So, why dont we agree to disagree, and stop using the web shield to say things to a person you wouldnt say face to face.

In my OPINION (just in case someone wanted to yap at me… its MY opinion… not yours)

Harvard got its reputation for being the first college in America (and the first corporation). It also got its reputation for its growing endowment, its history of educating the “sons of the elite” (people like the word elite, as much as its a love/hate relationship), the fact that many wealthy, storied families and people have gone there (the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, … we forgive Yale and Harvard for educating the Bush family), and the fact that it, from the start, was a high class institution… It, unlike, say, the College of William and Mary, chose elite status at the first available chance. W&M chose to become public and offer a high quality of education for a lower cost (which is now does)… Harvard made its choices with the backburner thought of “Will this add prestige?” And guess what, it did.

Now, as Yalie, Im honour bound to hate the place, but I can, and do, respect its prestige and the quality of education offered there (although I will never understand why people would want to go there over… say… YALE)