Harvard is the desire and the dream of millions of people, but is it really such a good university? I will try to analyze this university from different perspectives: science, education, socialization, and reputation.
Before I start explaining my point of view, I must say that I am not and have never been a student at this university, so you can be skeptical of my opinion.
Reputation
I will start with the easiest part: the reputation of the university. Of course, it is the most famous university in the world and, therefore, it has an unlimited reputation. It can be seen at least in world university rankings that Harvard is one of the top 3 universities in the world according to almost all rankings.
Ranking | Position in the World |
QS World University Ranking 2017 | 3 |
Times Higher Education World University Ranking 2017 | 6 |
Shanghai University Ranking 2017 | 1 |
Best Global University Ranking 2017 | 1 |
Reuters University Ranking 2017 | 3 |
Because the university is so highly valued, all students who studied at Harvard are extremely valuable as well. None of them has any problems with finding a well-paid job (above $100,000 annually) or creating their own businesses.
In this sense, Harvard is a perfect example of a university, which gives its students a very high status in the society. Hence, in terms of reputation, Harvard is a dream school.
Science
This section is much trickier than the reputation. Without any doubts, Harvard has very good schools: Harvard Medical School and Harvard Law School. But what about natural sciences? What about engineering? Of course, Harvard is not a bad place for engineers, but definitely not the top one. Personally, I was surprised and even shocked a little when I saw Harvard in the top 10 best universities in the world in engineering. In my opinion, there are much better universities in the world in this field, just simply because those universities specialize in this field.
So, one thing can be said for sure: Harvard has a very strong science program, but it physically can't have top-notch programs in every field of science. Therefore, every applicant must be sure that there is a science program, field of study, and professors of his particular interest. Harvard is a powerful university, but limits are everywhere.
Education
This is another very interesting topic to discuss. Of course, Harvard has a perfect education, but is it the best one as everyone thinks? You must take into consideration that those people who have studied there are extremely talented and smart. So, is it the merit of the university that those people end up being successful and smart? I don't think so.
Classes diverse in difficulty a lot: there are those which ordinary people won't be able to take at all, and it's not the merit of the university or professors that students study faster and easier.
So, at the end, I think that the education is really good, but it's not something out of this world, there are a lot of other universities with the same level and quality of education.
Socialization
I guess the society at Harvard is the biggest advantage and disadvantage of the university. Harvard is pretty much a group of people who position themselves as leaders in everything: they were leaders, best students, most perspective at their high schools, so the university is nothing more but a pool with sharks who are ready to kill each other when the time comes.
On the other hand, because almost all students are from elite families, you will have very powerful friends and acquaintances from all over the world: some of them will become CEOs of international companies, other have their future in politics.
In this case, everyone chooses what he likes more: having a powerful network, or reliable friends. The second option is definitely not for Harvard.
Worthiness
To be able to think about this question, we must first find out how much the education at Harvard cost. After googling this question for a while, I found out that the annual tuition fee starts from $45,000. If you include the rent, which is at least $16,000 annually per bed in a dorm and a little amount of money, about $10,000 annually, for personal spending and entertainment, you will end up paying more than $70,000 each year.
Tuition and Expenses | Cost (2017-2018) |
Tuition | $45,000 |
Fees | $4,000 |
Room + Board | $16,500 |
Subtotal - billed costs | $65,500 |
Books | $1,000 |
Travel costs | $3,000 |
Personal expenses | $10,000 |
Health insurance | $3,130 |
Total billed and unbilled costs | $82,630 |
In my opinion, the price doesn't correspond to the outcome at all. There are a lot of perfect European universities which provide the same level of education and science, if not better, but literally 80 times cheaper.
So you can compare how expensive it is to study at Harvard, I will give you an example of how much it costs to study at ETH Zurich, which is a top 8 university in the world according to QS World University Ranking 2017.
Tuition and Expenses | Cost (2017-2018) |
Tuition | $1,180 |
Fees | $882 |
Room | $5,300 |
Subtotal - billed costs | $7,362 |
Books | $1,000 |
Travel costs | $720 |
Personal expenses | $10,000 |
Health insurance | $3,000 |
Total billed and unbilled costs | $22,082 |
As you can see, it is almost four times cheaper to study even in the best university in continental Europe. I hope you understand that differences in education and science in all universities which are in top 10 are negligible.
Conclusion
In conclusion I want to say that the beauty and power of Harvard are in the network that you create there, but definitely not the education itself. If you think that paying more than $250,000 per four years almost exclusively for a business network worths it, then Harvard is definitely a place to go, otherwise, there are a lot of other strong universities (sometimes even stronger in terms of education and science) for much cheaper a price.
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