Recently, I visited a friend from high school for the weekend at his college, a small school in Cambridge, Massachusetts … Harvard University. It was a fun trip; a dash of urban excitement is a great change of pace from our secluded home in the Upper Valley. I’d highly recommend visiting friends and family in the Boston area during the term, if possible.
This excursion, while not academic in nature, ended up being quite educational. It drove home an important message: We have it good at Dartmouth.
Before I begin, I must disclaim, however, that any differences between Dartmouth and Harvard are quite small in the scheme of things. Both are amazing schools where students are guaranteed to receive a world-class education. That being said, a couple of Harvard’s shortcomings did stick out.
There was a marked discrepancy between the campus facilities. The grandeur of some buildings only made the bleakness and disrepair of others even more absurd. I sat in a concert hall that looked straight out of Vatican City, but also in an incredibly run-down rehearsal space — the ’70s called, they want their asbestos ceiling tiles back.
I slept in a freshman dorm that looked like a utility shed, but also got to hang out in a senior dorm that looked like a five-star hotel — the bathroom was about as big as my two-room triple. But unfortunately, the troubles ran far deeper than these trivial defects. It was something intangible yet equally palpable: a hostile environment and student culture that actively represses its members and places them into bitter competition with their peers.
So how can what’s commonly regarded as the best university in the world be so toxic? Well, the few freshmen I got a chance to talk with during my visit seemed to substantiate this. They all carried a certain imperiousness. I found that I was either completely dismissed or engaged in the most insincere fashion. While no one openly insulted me, there was an unspoken hostility in the air with each interaction. It felt as though unless conversing with me offered some immediate benefit, they saw no reason to engage.
I could have shrugged this off as an unlucky sample of Harvard’s student body, but only days later The New York Times published an expose on student culture at Harvard that corroborated everything I had seen. They came to the conclusion that a culture of overloading and cutting corners plagued the school. The article went on to assert that while this culture is student driven, it remains entirely enabled by the Harvard administration.
At large, students at Harvard seem to employ the “you can rest when you’re dead” mentality. It’s a race to participate in as many clubs and activities as possible, placing the actual education part of college in the background. One student described a schedule where she would stay up late doing work for her club, skip her first morning class to do the homework for her next class, and then watch video lectures from the skipped class — rinse and repeat. Students like these aren’t necessarily lazy. They work hard — but pool their time and energy to all the wrong places.
Most shocking to me was the Harvard policy allowing students to enroll in two classes that meet simultaneously, which they defend as a solution to an epidemic of classes meeting at overlapping times. However, unless these students can turn back time to attend both classes in person like Hermoine Granger, this isn’t a real solution to any scheduling issues that plague the institution.
Now, my suggestion to Harvard students is to take a page out of Dartmouth’s handbook of working hard and playing hard — instead of just working hard and working harder. Obviously, that’s easier said by someone who has no business going to Harvard than done by someone who does, but there’s more to college than just clubs and classes — though Harvard students clearly value the former much more than the latter.
There is meaning to be found in activities that won’t land you a job at a big four consulting firm, like going for a hike or playing in a band. This is a great luxury that we at Dartmouth have and should cherish: we don’t need to worry we’re falling behind our peers if we take a little break from the grind. I’m certain many people over the years have wished Dartmouth was more like Harvard prestige-wise, but culture-wise we can only hope Harvard could be more like Dartmouth.
Sure, it’s easy to beat on Harvard. They’re the top dog, after all, and plenty of Dartmouth students would want nothing more than for me to knock them down a peg — maybe because they’re still bitter they didn’t get in. But I don’t hate Harvard. In fact, I’m grateful that my trip made me appreciate the amazing community we have at Dartmouth that much more.
I can only hope the great people at Harvard will still let me visit after this article is published.
Opinion articles represent the views of their author(s), which are not necessarily those of The Dartmouth.
