What is it like to study at Harvard (as an undergrad)?

[APchemrocks]

I’m currently a high school student going to a high school where many students (10+) are going to Ivy/MIT/Stanford every year. I’ve talked to some people who have went to Harvard and have heard a lot of mixed reviews. Obviously it’s number one but what is it really like to study there? How are the teachers/classes?

[gibby]

You are going to get opinions that will probably be all over the map. Some students will rave about the school, others not so much. But, regardless of their opinions, I think most would agree that there is a lot of truth in this article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/teresa-hsiao/what-harvards-like_b_1657848.html

[sherpa]

“Obviously it’s number one”???

U.S. News & World Report has consistently ranked Harvard, Yale, and Princeton as the top three institutions in there National Universities category.[11] Over the past fifteen years ending with the 2015 rankings, U.S. News has named as the best national university Princeton eight times, Harvard twice and the two schools tied for first five times. In the 2015 rankings, Princeton was ranked first, Harvard was ranked second, and Yale was ranked third.[11]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Three_(colleges)#U.S.News.26_World_Report_rankings

[boldhopes24]

Huff post article is one point view; different students have different experiences - from exhilarating to horrible. It’s not a good match for everyone… dubious that “most would agree that there is a lot of truth in this article”. Sure, it’s true for the writer… but some (maybe even most) students delight in knowledge, ideas and vistas opened, foregoing snootiness

[notjoe]

@gibby, I read the article. I disagree with the basic premise, that Harvard students are “snooty.”

[gibby]

Honestly, though, I don’t think I felt completely at ease at Harvard until one evening, a few weeks into my first semester. I was having dinner in the freshman dining hall when I overheard a football player earnestly describing a night out with strippers. It was a fun night, he said, but the strippers turned out to be somewhat prudish:

“They let us get real close, but we couldn’t touch 'em… It’s like they were asymptotes.”

That, to me at least, is the essence of Harvard. Even the football players know the meaning of asymptotes!

The paragraph continues though . . .

At Harvard, there was never a dearth of stimulating conversation. Even though there was a distinct liberal, do-good slant at Harvard, we were all undeniably snooty. In a place where jocks complained about asymptotic strippers, we reveled in our seemingly superior intellectuality. Just by virtue of being at Harvard, we convinced ourselves that we were the smartest, most accomplished, and best-looking scholars and future leaders of America… the crème de la crème.

My daughter, a Harvard graduate, has always felt superior to her brother, the Yale graduate, just because she attended the university that has the better name recognition. That attitude is persuasive at Harvard. From a Harvard student’s perspective, if you attend Yale, or Tufts, BU, or even Stanford, you attend at lessor university. And that is BS! You know it and I know it – but that’s the attitude that many Harvard students have. Right or wrong - it’s there. Hence, the writers attribution towards “snootiness.”

[notjoe]

@gibby, I don’t know how typical your daughter’s attitude is, or how accurate.

Questions of “fit” aside, is it “snooty” to attend Harvard and to have the sense that one’s school is academically-superior to, say, one’s local community college? Obviously not. Thus, that sort of attitude toward certain schools is not a sign of “snootiness,” just a recognition of where things stand.

Clearly, in many measures, Harvard ranks very high among American universities. Is it “snooty” to recognize this? I don’t think it is. I think if one has an accurate view of things, it’s not bad or “snooty” to understand relative rankings of schools. Your daughter may not think as highly of Yale, but I know my son does not share this view. I know that he regards Yale, and a few other select schools, as Harvard peers, especially in his field. As he considers whether to go to grad school, these are the only ones he’s thinking of attending, because they are of similar rank as where he is now.

There will always be a little “rah-rah,” “my schools is better than your school,” between folks who attend different institutions. This is hardly unique to Harvard students. I’ve seen it in lots of Stanford students vis-a-vis Harvard, lots of Chicago students, Princeton students, and yes, even Yale students. Ironically, they all compare themselves favorabley …to Harvard! Or are all these folks “snooty”? But then if they all engage in some “snootiness,” why attribute that attitude uniquely to Harvard as a place?

In fact, The Game only makes sense in the context of a rivalry between two contenders each of who have a claim on bragging rights. If most Harvard folks felt the way your daughter feels toward Yale, The Game would be meaningless.

[sherpa]

As a Princeton grad, a past NCAA athlete in a niche sport, and now an employee at a company that recruits exclusively at elite schools, my son knows a lot of past and current HYPS students. He uses a term to generally describe Harvard students. It isn’t “snooty”, and although too crude to mention here, it means about the same thing.

[skieurope]

He uses a term to generally describe Harvard students. It isn’t “snooty”, and although too crude to mention here, it means about the same thing.

Rhymes with “sushi,” although to be fair, I think you will find that at several different schools.

[CollegeEducation]

The question demands subjective answer.
You have to study at Harvard to find out.