it comes in pints?

It's amazing how many college classmates I have who end up turning down Ivy League grad schools. One turned down Yale for med school so she could move out to Minnesota to be with her (now) husband. Another just didn't think she'd be happy there. By that point, they just made the decisions with other priorities in mind.

Good for her. Harvard is little more than a name and a bunch of sadomasochistic asshats. She is a wise person.

I hope she picks a school that is more relaxed and flexible, so that she can be herself as well as a student. That was my favorite thing about my own graduate school experience. I was able to continue to be me. At someplace like Harvard that would have been difficult.

Daughter Number One sounds wise and intelligent. Is she adopted? ;-P

There were, indeed, a lot of other priorities that went into the decision, some personal, some professional, some financial.

Harvard is definitely living on reputation, though the cachet of having it on a resume is still nothing to sneeze at.

And as wise and intelligent as she is, she is not adopted. I know, it amazes me too.

Your Bride must really be something, Ken...

I was thinking the same thing, Bing.

She is indeed.

Hey, now... I went to college with Ken and his Sainted Bride, and I can safely say that Ken does have some intelligence.
I mean, he was smart enough to marry SB, wasn't he? :-)
After all, with his looks, he MUST get by on his intelligence!
Love ya, buddy. Anytime your ego needs a boost, I'm here for ya.

Woo hoo! The site returns from the nether regions of the INTERNET!

Amen to that, Jeff! I was kind of concerned that maybe they'd decided to "end it."

And, you know? Some of the "mystique" of a Harvard degree was destroyed for me while watching video of Harvard humanities graduates being asked (at their graduation) about "what causes the seasons?"

I'm sure there was some "creative editing" a la Jay Leno's "Man on the Street" but it was kind of shocking how few of the students actually knew, and how many of them THOUGHT they knew, but knew wrong. (A lot said, basically, "We have seasons because the Earth's farther from the sun in winter! Duh!" Um, no. Doesn't work that way.)

And yeah, yeah, they're humanities graduates but still. I'm a "science graduate" and I can tell you about the Enlightenment and "magical realism" in Latin American writing and all kinds of crap like that...

My dad also put in a year at Harvard (back in the 50s) and left "in moderate disgust" as he has said...and he's a smart man.

Go Daughter Number One! It's the free market at work - more very bright people shun Hah-vahd, it loses prestige, it either closes or returns to academic rigor, and then regains bright people. Rock on, Adam Smith... rock on.

PS - great to see you guys back online, and thanks for the caption.
PPS - "Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand" is a totally boss band name.

Woo hoo! The site returns from the nether regions of the INTERNET!

I thought the You-Know-Whos had finally gotten to it.

What was the deal?

...though the cachet of having it on a resume is still nothing to sneeze at.

Indeed, and I wouldn't turn it down for that reason, unless I had an offer from a place that was just as good. Not, you know, that that's ever likely to happen.

What's DNO's field? Give us a hint, at least. Animal, mineral, or vegetable?

Her major is mathematics, emphasis in math education, and she wants to be a high school math teacher. She has already worked as an aide while an undergrad and it hasn't soured her on teaching.

That's one big reason for turning down Harvard, the program was for a credential, after which she would still have to get credentialed in California. Also, she's not interested in admin, where a Harvard degree would be most advantageous.

The program she's accepting is in California so the credential is in the bag, plus which she will be able to work and make money as part of the program. She's already interviewed with several school districts near the campus.

In my (admittedly limited) experience, for math/science types, "where you went to school" seems to be less important than "what did you do while you were there" (i.e., research experience, presentations, etc.). For business/law types, it seems that a 'good' (or formerly-good) name carries more cachet.

Yeah, for grad school, who your advisor was is more important than where his or her lab was located (unless you are from Asia - I know a Korean who went from a first-class prof at a state university and took a post-doc with a mediocre researcher at Harvard because institutional name is everything over there, and he wanted an academic career in Korea).

There are plenty of non-tenure track profs at Harvard who are nowhere as good as the top dogs at a public university such as Ohio State. Mind you, the bottom feeders at Ohio State are not as good as the lowest tier at Harvard, so the spread is wider in the public sphere.