Replies

I was being sardonic...or perhaps mordant (to use one of Ted Baxter's recent "words of the day"). The benefit of attending Harvard is to be able to tell people afterwards that you graduated from there--there are probably many places where a student can get as good or better an education.

More than 15 years ago I was on a search committee for an academic position. One of the applicants had a Harvard Ph.D. and did not make the short list. The person who was hired (who has a Ph.D. from one of the Big Ten universities) has done an excellent job.