<p>I think the answer has several overlapping parts. </p>
<p>It is a school with an unsurpassed record of preparing students for top professionals schools in high-income, high-status professions such as law, medicine and business. Their motivated student body (historically male), selected and self-selected, have a bias toward doing as opposed to just thinking. Traditionally, most students have come upper middle class backgrounds. There is, subsequently, a cohesive, well-healed alumni network with a shared set of values that benefits from what economists call “network effects”. </p>
<p>For an interesting read, see the link to “Harvard and the Dartmouth Man”.</p>
<p>[The</a> Dartmouth Review](<a href=“http://www.dartreview.com/articles/p/1998-04-29-harvard-and-the-dartmouth-man]The”>http://www.dartreview.com/articles/p/1998-04-29-harvard-and-the-dartmouth-man)</p>