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Notes -
I would insist that the broad appeal Harvard has is mostly a ‘branding’ issue from the get-go. As a brand, it has far more resources to mobilize for research purposes and educational value it ‘could’ add, if it wanted to. But I have a hard time believing a person who’s there solely for learning the technical skills of his career of interest, is going to experience a substantially greater education than if he went to a university with little to no brand at all.
In a way it’s hardly any different from the restaurant industry. If you’re hungry and don’t want to starve, McDonalds or Eleven Madison Park will do. The former will accomplish just as much as the latter will. But people pay a premium for the latter, because you get to rub shoulders with the elites of society. Nepotism has an enormous appeal if you can manage your way into a place like Harvard.
When I did work in Stanford University, if you walked into the FedEx office that they had on campus, or the print centers, on certain days, students would ‘fill’ the place to the brim, with USB sticks to get these large poster prints made, that were diagrams of original research they had to do, for homework assignments. And that’s been one ‘major’ complaint of the whole American university system. That these places are research factories where students get exploited out of their insights and value for the benefit of the institution. They are not primarily teaching facilities.
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