Think Tank Ranks Schools

Byerly
Tue, 11 Jan 2005 04:22:52 +0000

If you buy that silly propaganda then I would withdraw your application to Harvard immediately and request a refund of your filing fee. I can’t believe why in the world you “just applied to Harvard.”

Fact is, the overwhelming majority of the very talented people fortunate enough to gain admittance to both schools pick Harvard. This has been the case for some years. Presumably these superstars visit both schools and make up their own mind about where they want to spend the next four years. (You will note that I have uttered not a negative word about Yale here.)

It is not a sign of confidence and strength to feel that in order to make the case for a school you must rely primarily on cliche criticisms of its “hated rival”. Harvard hardly needs my “defense”, and I certainly don’t need to cast aspersions on Yale in order to “boost” it.

Good luck to you.