Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Real Goddamned Mail: Mini Harvard Edition.


  • Nowhere do I see on your website where you teach. I'm betting it's not Harvard.
  • You've taken a few soundbites completely out of context to make some kind of point. I don't think it's worked.
  • One of these students is a notorious crank, and I see you're trying to piggyback on that to denigrate an institution that is without peer.
  • Wow, what a sad person you must be. I read a few of your posts and all I can say is keep trying.

8 comments:

  1. Some people must have Harvard Google Alerts!

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  2. Huh. I've only ever heard that lame "you're obviously not Haaarvard material" insult used against college students/graduates. Is it typically thrown at proffies too? It sounds like a line that would be used by someone whose knowledge of academia begins and ends with Good Will Hunting.

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  3. And apparently Harvard students these days are a bit tetchy/defensive, as well. Maybe it's the economy, or the hyper-competitiveness of getting in? Look, guys, it is an institution, and an experience, without peer. That can be good or bad; it depends on what you make of it. I can also say, from, um, close personal observation, that most Harvard graduates will not spend the majority of their professional lives in institutions (academic or otherwise) quite as high-powered as their alma mater. Many of them will do great good, and find great fulfillment, where they do land; others will spend far too much of their lives, and their energy, pining for Cambridge (or an equivalent). Enjoy it; make the most of it; be open to a wide variety of possible paths after you graduate; and for heavens sake have a sense of humor about the fact that Harvard is populated by human beings who are some combination of extremely talented and extremely lucky, but who are otherwise very much like the rest of the population. The sooner you figure that out, the better the rest of your life will be.

    And for goodness sake don't cheat on your exams! It's dishonest, it's cheating yourself out of the education you've worked to so hard to access, and, besides, when you do it in droves, it also devalues the brand in which you are apparently so invested.

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  4. Re: "without peer"

    None of the students at my school were arrested for making bomb threats this year.

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  5. Even Harvard people have time to obsess about getting enough respect.

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. Apparently going to Hahvahd doesn't keep you from dick-measuring insecurity.

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