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If they reveal their policies, those are highly publicized and enough moral outrage is generated, they'll have to commit to changing their policies or risk havi
by pcstl 8y ago
If they reveal their policies, those are highly publicized and enough moral outrage is generated, they'll have to commit to changing their policies or risk having their reputation permanently stained. Of course, being Harvard University, they would probably wouldn't take too hard a blow, but it would still devalue them.
- eganist 8y agoI guess I'm missing a point. Why would it devalue them with their target audience?
- llampx 8y agoCurrently, Harvard, Yale and the other Ivy Leagues are perceived as the best education money can buy. If it turns out that it's not actually that hard to get into Harvard if you have money or are legacy (and that the education itself is middling), it may lead to a hit in reputation. It may not make a difference to the Cruella DeVille types directly, but public perception is a thing. If enough of the public perceives a Harvard degree as ill-gotten, the value of that degree goes down. Ergo, they start losing applicants to the other Ivys.
- s73v3r_ 8y ago"and that the education itself is middling" If this were true, wouldn't we already know this?
- csa 8y agoYes, we do. Largely, it is (esp. for lower level classes). The professors largely do not care about teaching -- they have research to do. The idea is that they typically point you to some materials, and they assume that smart people will figure it out. Don't get me wrong. The learning resources are phenomenal, and folks can and do learn a ton from their peers. That said, most of the teaching is awful. If someone wants to be taught well, don't go to an Ivy -- go to small liberal arts college (lots of good teachers at these schools).
- michaelt 8y agoPresumably pcstl thinks poor kids hoping to achieve class mobility won't apply because they don't want to support a school that discriminates against them. Hence, you get a class of people willing to overlook discrimination (such as the beneficiaries of it).
- larkeith 8y agoIf I were considering going to Harvard, knowing that there was recently a widely publicized controversy surrounding their acceptance criteria would certainly make me think twice - apart from the moral concerns of supporting such an institution, it's a safe bet that hiring managers would be aware that Harvard graduates were not necessarily selected for merit, which might cause them to value it less than a scholastically-equivalent education from a different university.
- sverige 8y agoIf there were any moral concerns in the hiring world at large, the Ivy League would already be in decline. The truth that it is more about connections than raw talent or merit has been evident for a long time. The myth that America is a meritocracy and that the Ivy League only takes the most meritorious is one of the most successful marketing schemes ever devised. This reminds me of an old joke: Q. How do you know that someone attended Harvard? A. They tell you within 30 seconds of meeting them.
- csa 8y ago> This reminds me of an old joke: > Q. How do you know that someone attended Harvard? > A. They tell you within 30 seconds of meeting them. This is almost exclusively only true for the people who were one of the (extremely) weaker admits. There is definitely a way to talking about going to Harvard (usu. only when asked), and saying it directly is not the usual preferred choice.