Is it wrong to say that you go to Harvard if you actually go to Harvard Extension?

[Lux Et Veritas]

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Harvard has a night school? Harvard is so lame. Go Elis!

 

[Schaden Freud]

They advertise for it like crazy on the subway, too. Right next to the ads for the beauty schools and vocational colleges. "I had a job, but I wanted a career..."

Makes no sense to me personally. Don't they realize this isn't good for maintaining their trademark?

Harvard has a night school? Harvard is so lame. Go Elis!

 

[LizzyM]

Leave it to HarvardPostBach to resurrect a thread from over a year ago. Don't you have anything better to do?

This doesn't impress an adcom but it may impress a young person on whom you have romantic inclinations.😉

 

[XildUpNawth]

Being a Harvard College student is to being a Harvard Extension student as being a tenured Harvard professor is to being a Harvard janitor.

You're part of the system but don't make your position out to be more than it is.

Thanks to protests by undergrads, Harvard janitors make about the same amount of money as me with my MPH, so that doesn't sound too bad.

 

[inside_edition]

Leave it to HarvardPostBach to resurrect a thread from over a year ago. Don't you have anything better to do?

This doesn't impress an adcom but it may impress a young person on whom you have romantic inclinations.😉

i know someone (taught the MCAT at a prep company during the summer) who went to harvard extension got close to a 4.0 and now attends medschool at UMich. but she was still downplaying that she went to harvard.

 

[Schaden Freud]

Hey I work in a research lab at Harvard and I swear that the janitor is laughing under his breath when he's leaving at 5 PM and I'm still pipetting or when he rolls by me in his Beamer.

Thanks to protests by undergrads, Harvard janitors make about the same amount of money as me with my MPH, so that doesn't sound too bad.

 

[chh81]

I disagree with this analogy. Sure, you're not applying to Harvard undergrad but that doesn't detract from the quality of the extension program and many of the students that attend. I know a few very successful individuals that went to harvard extension in their 20's and 30's because they changed their career goals later in life or because their families didn't help them go to college out of high school. This is just anecdotal of course, but one even went on to be accepted to HMS...

 

[XildUpNawth]

Hey I work in a research lab at Harvard and I swear that the janitor is laughing under his breath when he's leaving at 5 PM and I'm still pipetting or when he rolls by me in his Beamer.

I wonder if his buddies in Southie make fun of him for saying he works at Harvard? He probably just tells everybody he works "in Cambridge."

 

[foofish]

Gah, it's an old thread, but people are constantly trying to do it. The HES transcript comes from a different school, with a different address, and looks markedly different from the Harvard College transcript (they're even different colors)....so if you want to look like a liar and possibly have your acceptance rescinded, go straight ahead. Honesty will get you much farther.

 

[JWinNYC]

When I was at Harvard as an undergrad, I remember when Hillary Duff was mocked for claiming she was a Harvard student when she was at the Extension school. The Crimson ran a pretty brutal op-ed and the undergrads were definitely amused - but the whole discussion seems ridiculous because it stems from the idea that the Extension school is inferior to the rest of the university.

Granted, it's far less selective than the college, but at the end of the day, isn't it a positive thing that people like Hilary Duff and post-bacc pre-meds and the various old people who take Extension classes can advance themselves educationally through continuing ed courses? And at Harvard, they can do that for a lot less money than would be demanded elsewhere. (For Hilary Duff, I realize money might be less of an issue, but at least she's spending it on her education and not on boozing her dignity away, a la Britney Spears.)

 

[EBI831]

actually i would say that boys brag about going to harvard and sometimes use it as a pickup line. girls, keep it to themselves in fear that they're dates/ppl they meet will be intimidated. now, everyone keeps quiet when they live in a small town etc where it would carry too much/or not enough weight. my little brother goes there and its weird b/c we were blatantly late for his eye appointment and the lady was like sorry we shipped our last contact order for the day you'll have ot wait and he goes but i have to fly back to school in 2 hrs(true) and she was like where and he said harvard and she like expedited the order. unfair! hahahah but he loves it...this is one of many examples of favoritism.

 

[8744]

What do you think? 🙂

Hey, is it wrong to put "Harvard" on your resume if you did not, in fact, attend Harvard (real or extension)?

I was going to list Harvard on my resume but since I am not Canadian it might have been akward trying to explain why I, as an American, did my undergraduate work in Canada.

 

[8744]

actually i would say that boys brag about going to harvard and sometimes use it as a pickup line. girls, keep it to themselves in fear that they're dates/ppl they meet will be intimidated. now, everyone keeps quiet when they live in a small town etc where it would carry too much/or not enough weight. my little brother goes there and its weird b/c we were blatantly late for his eye appointment and the lady was like sorry we shipped our last contact order for the day you'll have ot wait and he goes but i have to fly back to school in 2 hrs(true) and she was like where and he said harvard and she like expedited the order. unfair! hahahah but he loves it...this is one of many examples of favoritism.

If this is their pick-up strategy then they probably spend a lot of time alone, in their mother's basement, looking at porn and wondering why girls don't flock to them, I mean seeing that they're a fifteenth level elf warrior and all.

 

[Mr. Tee]

apparently it worked for that dr. 90210 tool

He did a fellowship at HMS, not HES.

 

[8744]

Just sort of on a tangent, you guys sure do gulp down the marketing Koolaid. I'm sure it makes sense to go to Harvard if your goal in life is academic medicine or research but personally, and I think I speak for a sizable majority of SDN medical students and residents, I cannot wait to finally get away from academic medicine. It will be a fine day, a good and memorable day which I will add to my short list of landmark days in my life, when I see my last medical student, my last attending, and never have to present a patient like a trained monkey ever again.

Then, my friends, will I eat the cheeses and hams of victory instead of the bitter fruits of medical training.

Amen.

 

[8744]

He did a fellowship at HMS, not HES.

And since getting a fellowship is many, many times more difficult thant being admitted as an undergrad, to medical school, or matching I think he earned whatever respect comes from putting what is, all kidding aside, a premier Canadian university on his resume.

 

[punkindrublic]

This is funny as hell.

Who cares if you say you go to Harvard?

Admissions are pretty open. Again, who cares? Getting in is no guarantee of success as attrition in the classes clearly shows. As a postbacc program, what is the point of closing doors? People are older, have had time to do things outside of school, etc., and if they think they can hack it, I say let 'em in. For people who work hard and succeed in the program (i.e. those who receive sponsorship), matriculation is something like 85-90%. HES gives you a cheap way to work toward your dreams without a trust fund or an additional $30k in debt; getting there is up to you.

And finally: THEY'RE PREREQS! I don't give a damn where I take them as long as I'm not paying $1k/credit, the teachers are solid, and I they teach me what I need to know to get into and succeed in medical school.

 

[HarvardPostBac]

Being a Harvard College student is to being a Harvard Extension student as being a tenured Harvard professor is to being a Harvard janitor.

You're part of the system but don't make your position out to be more than it is.

Get over it. We don't care, and anyone at HES who isn't a *****, doesn't claim to go to the college.

Our classes prepare us for medical school. We are the ones who are beating the system, getting an excellent education at very affordable prices.

If you went to Harvard college, do you like when people stereotype you???? Probably not, so don't make stereotypes about Extension school students.

 

[gujuDoc]

Um, you still go to Harvard. How is it wrong to say that?

Congrats!! I just saw that you'd been accepted this year. Looks like doing an SMP helped you a lot! Glad things worked out this year!!

 

[degoo_]

I guess I should ask here: What is harvard HST, NP, extension school, etc. I see so many different kinds of harvard out there! If someone is doing an undergrad at harvard, what are they?

 

[deleted128318]

This is funny as hell.

Who cares if you say you go to Harvard?

Seriously, are you trying to get a Hooters waitress naked?

 

[deleted106503]

...or when he rolls by me in his Beamer.

Beamer? The BMW Motorcycles cost quite a bit less than their cars, the bimmers. Did you mean Bimmer?

And to think the Boston BMW CCA chapter didn't spread the word enough. http://www.boston-bmwcca.org/reference/Bimmer-Beemer.aspx

 

[Law2Doc]

Beamer? The BMW Motorcycles cost quite a bit less than their cars, the bimmers. Did you mean Bimmer?

Actually if you check out the various urban dictionaries on the web, "beamer" also (along with bimmer) refers to the cars. Apparently "beemer" seems to mean the cycles.

 

[MedStudentWanna]

You guys are nuts! The people saying it's lying to say you went to Harvard are just worried about the implication that you GOT INTO Harvard. Once you move past that superficial implication, it's 100% true because you're getting a Harvard EDUCATION.

If I went to Podunk University at night to get my pre-reqs as a non-degree student, when people ask where I'm going to school, I'd say Podunk University with no expectation by them to qualify and say "oh, but it's only at night, part-time, and not for a degree or anything and I didn't have to apply to get in." The only reason you people say Harvard is different is because you don't want people believing that someone "unworthy" got into Harvard College. That's your problem.

The people at HES are getting a Harvard education, regardless of how they got there. Therefore, they DO attend school at Harvard since most people who ask that question ("where do you go to school?") are essentially asking "where did you get educated" and not "Where did you get accepted and/or rejected?" So there's nothing wrong with just saying Harvard.

And by the way, as another poster pointed out, Harvard Extension IS a degree program and many people DO get a degree from there. As far as pre-med classes go, they clearly state on their website that anyone who takes the pre-requisites for the first time and maintains a B in every class is eligible for a diploma in pre-medical studies. So you do get more than that committee letter.

 

[Law2Doc]

And by the way, as another poster pointed out, Harvard Extension IS a degree program and many people DO get a degree from there. As far as pre-med classes go, they clearly state on their website that anyone who takes the pre-requisites for the first time and maintains a B in every class is eligible for a diploma in pre-medical studies. So you do get more than that committee letter.

Many of the people who attend HES as a postbac get sponsorship, but only a subgroup get the diploma. And the diploma is not really a "degree" anyhow.

 

[i'm the map]

I think it depends on which element of Harvard drives its cachet. In one sense, getting into Harvard College could serve as a proxy for its students being potentially successful kids out of high school - as vetted by the admissions committee. Alternatively, it could be the Harvard College education that causes all the star power.

I'm inclined to go with the former. I don't think it's too hard to make the argument that a smart kid will get a better undergraduate education at Princeton, Stanford, UChicago, or even Yale - it's not a huge secret that Harvard's reputation among academics comes from its powerhouse graduate schools. Additionally, I remember claims from TIME and the like a few years back concerning earnings potential across college - in more words, the article insinuated that a high school student who was accepted by Harvard but went to his state school would make as much as he would have by moving to Massachusetts.

And perhaps the one strong side to the Harvard College education is that its students learn alongside 6000 or so of the top students in the country. If you're going to believe that team-learning is useful in medical school, you can't overlook this factor. Alternatively, HES students will have to learn alongside classmates of more diverse qualifications.

What this means to our thread is that no, you cannot with a straight face claim to be a "Harvard" student if you only go to HES. It's not about the Harvard education (most schools will teach you how to bulls**t graduate teaching assistants), it's about the post-high school admissions screen that drives the "I go to Harvard" mysticism.

 

[Law2Doc]

You guys all have to realize that once you get into med school, your undergrad/postbac (whether real or exaggerated) doesn't matter, and once you get a residency your med school doesn't matter, and so on. In this career you are only as good as the last place you've been. If someone gets off calling HES Harvard, big deal. A couple years later neither will matter.

 

[Law2Doc]

Additionally, I remember claims from TIME and the like a few years back concerning earnings potential across college - in more words, the article insinuated that a high school student who was accepted by Harvard but went to his state school would make as much as he would have by moving to Massachusetts.

While I don't know the stats, this intuitively strikes me that it may actually be true -- state schools crank out more business majors, while ivies tend to send more people into writing/journalism, academics, government/politics, the arts, and other "ivy tower" but not necessarilly lucrative fields.

 

[samwise2]

First off, most people I know who went to Harvard (undergrad, not extension) don't feel entirely comfortable saying that they went there. To invoke the name of Harvard in order to bolster one's esteem in other's eyes, while not even going to the actually selective version, is both disingenuous and a show of ego issues.

That's my opinion...

 

[8744]

I think it depends on which element of Harvard drives its cachet. In one sense, getting into Harvard College could serve as a proxy for its students being potentially successful kids out of high school - as vetted by the admissions committee. Alternatively, it could be the Harvard College education that causes all the star power.

I'm inclined to go with the former. I don't think it's too hard to make the argument that a smart kid will get a better undergraduate education at Princeton, Stanford, UChicago, or even Yale - it's not a huge secret that Harvard's reputation among academics comes from its powerhouse graduate schools. Additionally, I remember claims from TIME and the like a few years back concerning earnings potential across college - in more words, the article insinuated that a high school student who was accepted by Harvard but went to his state school would make as much as he would have by moving to Massachusetts.

And perhaps the one strong side to the Harvard College education is that its students learn alongside 6000 or so of the top students in the country. If you're going to believe that team-learning is useful in medical school, you can't overlook this factor. Alternatively, HES students will have to learn alongside classmates of more diverse qualifications.

What this means to our thread is that no, you cannot with a straight face claim to be a "Harvard" student if you only go to HES. It's not about the Harvard education (most schools will teach you how to bulls**t graduate teaching assistants), it's about the post-high school admissions screen that drives the "I go to Harvard" mysticism.

Team-learning is awful. My infantry squad was a team. My high school baseball team was a team. My PBL group in medical school was a collection of people with huge egos who liked hearing themselves talk and (the majority) people who just wanted the torture to end and lighted candles to the Virgin and a wide variety of pagan gods in thanks that we only had a little PBL in out curriculum.

Team-learning is like team-crapping, team-newspaper reading, team-showering, and team-walking-and-chewing gum. Nice-sounding but silly if you think about it. "Team" is another one of those words that make me reach for my revolver.

 

[8744]

Seriously, are you trying to get a Hooters waitress naked?

Trust me. A Hooter's waitress won't be impressed that you are a Harvard student. She wants a guy with some money now, not a guy with the potential to make a respectable but not spectacular income as some mid-level government functionary six or seven years down the road.

 

[beenthere2]

Basically, although officially accurate it is clearly misleading. "I go to Harvard" implies Harvard College. Unless you are attempting to mislead, you should say Harvard Extension.

 

[MedStudentWanna]

Many of the people who attend HES as a postbac get sponsorship, but only a subgroup get the diploma. And the diploma is not really a "degree" anyhow.

I never said it was a degree. I said that people DO get degrees from HES (all the other degrees cited in the thread) and that the pre-med people get more than a committee letter (i.e., the diploma).

 

[deleted103644]

Being a Harvard College student is to being a Harvard Extension student as being a tenured Harvard professor is to being a Harvard janitor.

You're part of the system but don't make your position out to be more than it is.

The most accurate statement in this thread. I've taken a couple of high level HES courses, and they are completely subpar - and I'm sure nowhere near the caliber of a real Harvard course. Most of the professors ARE NOT Harvard professors, and the ones who are make it very apparent they are only there for a few extra bucks and that their reali priorities are elsewhere. If you need a postbac, it's as good as any I suppose, but it is NOT HARVARD. It's listed as a completely different school on AMCAS, and any admissions committee that knows what it's doing will interpret it very differently.

 

[deleted128318]

Trust me. A Hooter's waitress won't be impressed that you are a Harvard student. She wants a guy with some money now, not a guy with the potential to make a respectable but not spectacular income as some mid-level government functionary six or seven years down the road.

Now, that, my friend, is a weltanschung

 

[45408]

...except everyone knows any Harvard student with a modicum of good sense and modesty will rarely come right out and say they go to Harvard, unless they're talking to alum...they'll usually look down and mumble something about Boston (even Cambridge is too much of a giveaway)

But if you need to flaunt it...go for it, I guess.

haha, you're kidding, right? Haven't you heard the best way to discover if there's a Harvard student/alum in the room?


Don't worry, they'll tell you.

 

[45408]

now, you could say, quietly and mumbed, if asked where you're going (and only then), "um, well, a small extension school outside boston" (undergrad/college alums usually go with "a small liberal arts school outside boston")

Laaaaaaaame. Someone posted that someone did that at an interview, and the dean simply asked the guy again, "WHERE did you go to school?" "Haaah-vud."

 

[pierremethod]

WOW....
I never thought people could be so uptight and superficial.

A. HES is a division of Harvard University. If you want to get technical, YOU are a student of Harvard University!!

B. The only people who go around name dropping are people who are vain and insecure.

I chose this program because it is absolutely outstanding in many ways. If you can gain sponsorship to medical school through a good gpa and good MCAT score, you are extremely likely to be accepted to an allopathic medical school. I am guessing the people debating this are either snobby harvard undergrads or people not familiar with the school. I have attended different schools throughout the country and I have to say those who do well here are among the best and brightest I have ever seen.

Most Postbac programs throughout the US are through the Department of Continuing Education at said university. Do you ever see this argument for other schools?!?! The Harvard name just carries a prejudice whether good or bad.

We are just trying to get the best education we can for our money. Some of us actually have to pay for school ourselves! This debate is just splitting hairs. Get over it.

I think some of us debating this- well at least myself- want to feel comfortable speaking about where they go without seeming like we are taking more credit than what we are worth, because we know that saying Harvard will evoke the kinds of responses as this thread is showing. It's not that I want to say, "I went to Haavahd, yay me!" It's more like, I want to tell people I studied and did well, and those courses (majorily, depending on your situation however) were taken at (enter college/university here): in my case, Harvard.

I'd like to be transparent. I'd also like to be confident in others enough for them to not get uptight and superficial just because they want to feel as if things make COMPLETE sense in their mind with how MY education has progressed.

I do thank you for posting this.

 

[claduva94]

Lol necrobump

 

[DarknightX]

I think some of us debating this- well at least myself- want to feel comfortable speaking about where they go without seeming like we are taking more credit than what we are worth, because we know that saying Harvard will evoke the kinds of responses as this thread is showing. It's not that I want to say, "I went to Haavahd, yay me!" It's more like, I want to tell people I studied and did well, and those courses (majorily, depending on your situation however) were taken at (enter college/university here): in my case, Harvard.

I'd like to be transparent. I'd also like to be confident in others enough for them to not get uptight and superficial just because they want to feel as if things make COMPLETE sense in their mind with how MY education has progressed.

I do thank you for posting this.

This is a 7 year old thread.

I also have no idea what your response means.