Harvard's not purely private: it receives massive structural tax advantages, & lots of government funding via many kinds of tuition & research subsidies. Harva

Harvard's not purely private: it receives massive structural tax advantages, & lots of government funding via many kinds of tuition & research subsidies. Harvard's supposed "excellent reputation" is significantly maintained by the cartel of graduates from it, & its close peers, preferentially touting, publishing, hiring, and funding class-similar people – even when they are no better on objective measures than non-graduates. Your hiring observation is nearly fully driven not by Harvard providing any "educational lift", specific to its educational product, that would justify its state-granted advantages, but simply by Harvard getting "early pick" (pre-career) to place its brand on people who are already talented, ambitious, or highly-prepared before they arrive at Harvard.