I have been to Harvard, and I have done research on it curricula and the like. Although I believe it is a great school with excellent education, I believe it is too expensive.
I still think it's pretty hard to tell if you haven't attended the school. You can research the school all you want from an outsider's eye, but I still think it's wrong to judge it too quickly. There are many things in this world that are "too expensive." Ever heard of Cisco?
The main argument over the expenses is that you get "100% financial aid", which is far from the truth. You only receive anything close to that if you are making very little.
That depends on how well you applied yourself to attaining scholarships. A person who gets into Harvard is very likely to recieve a plethora of scholarships.
For people in middle class, our parents make the what I call the "perfect salary"; high enough to have little financial aid(by little, I mean just not enough), but low enough for it to take a toll on our welfare.
That should have no effect on your ability to perform well enough in academics (and other "sought after" activities) that the scholarship foundations so zealously seek.
Harvard offers free tuition for any student from a family earning under $60,000/year. That seems like a marvelous offer to me.
Also, the problem with large universities such as Harvard is that while they have tenured professors with Ph.Ds and the like, many undergraduates are actually taught by the graduate aids, and not the actual professor(I know this for a fact, since I know two people who are currently attending Harvard).
So? They are undergraduate classes; they're relatively elementary in concept. The GTA's aren't idiots. They're perfectly capable of instructing a course. They were selected for a reason. Their youth could even allow them to connect with students on a more personal level, which makes the educational experience more enjoyable and, as a result, more bashful students feel comfortable asking questions when they miss a concept. It seems to me that a GTA is a more effective instructor for the more elementary courses that an undergraduate student would generally enroll in.
I suspect that is true of most colleges, but that does not necessarily destroy the education that you would get otherwise. You're forgetting that professors still organize the curriculum, oversee the performance of the GTA and are openly available to help a distressed student. They have office hours which are open to the students of the undergraduate classes. Undergraduate research also exists in most universities. Working with these professors gives students a chance to get involved with their field early on. If the facilities and faculty of the university are of higher quality, I would reasonably suspect that the educational value of the experience would also be higher. If these opportunities are taken advantage of early on, then I don't understand how having a GTA teach a class degrades the intellectual stimulation of a higher university.
While Craz3d's comments might've been slightly uninformed, I do agree that colleges like Harvard, although very nice, are very overrated.
Even if the education you recieve at Harvard may be "overrated," I don't think its prestige is. Graduating from a university such as Harvard impresses most people, including employers. I am not saying that going to another college makes you suck at life (otherwise, I'd be saying that about myself)! I'm saying that I think Harvard is an excellent school and I'm confused that someone would dare insult it.
People at my school hear "Ivy League" and start shitting their pants. It's horrible.
I know the type of people. I think the schools are considered better for a reason, but that doesn't mean that I necessarily disagree that they are overpriced.
berkely & harvard are both ranked high in the nation, berkely is $30k+ a year cheaper.
I believe its safe for me to say that berkely seems like a better choice for people that dont have the ability to afford the school
The price is irrelivant if you are awarded lots of scholarships. Plus, I'm faily certain that Harvard and Berkely have different focuses.
Harvard is a private university. Berkely is not. I'd certainly hope the tuition rates are higher. If they weren't, I think the school would suck.
