Article: Harvard and Class
Source: http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2011/07/11/harvard-and-class/
I chose this article expecting to read something interesting about Harvard's community and campus life. However, the piece lacked coherent thought or content. For pages, the author, Misha Glouberman, whined about how he had no Harvard-related connections in Montreal and how he supposedly "threw away" his opportunity as a Harvard graduate. It seriously irked me how the author could complain that he was a Harvard graduate in Canada and had no influential connections. He seems to expect that, by graduating from Harvard, he is entitled to success and recognition in Canada. Harvard gives people access to the most influential social networks – true – but having connections from college will help you get positions only if you are good at what you do. The author just doesn’t seem to fit in this circle. Moreover, Canada has its own top schools with their own influential alumni bases.
The author also went on to complain how Harvard locked up its students in "an ivory tower" by providing housing for its students and "preventing" them from meeting non-Harvard students. Obviously if he stayed in Harvard-only buildings, he would find only Harvard students… If this was “too weird” for him, the author could have just gone off-campus -- other schools are very close in proximity: MIT and Boston University, for instance. I doubt the Harvard community was as constrained as the author described. Just about every college in America tries to piece together a “community” with campus events and college-housing – it’s not just Harvard.
The fact that the author felt the compulsion to write a lengthy piece on how his Harvard experience was “pretty weird” and concluded that he was unsure of his own opinion on the topic only shows aimlessness of his writing. Infuriatingly, his tone was bordering on condescending. Arrogant and with nothing to back it up, the author is very likely to get on readers’ nerves. It is clear that he posted the article to show off how “smart” he was to be accepted to such an elite school and how he was supposedly able to see through the illusion of its perfection as an Ivy League school. How this obtuse, inarticulate drunkard could get accepted to Harvard still remains a wonder to me.
Source: http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2011/07/11/harvard-and-class/
I chose this article expecting to read something interesting about Harvard's community and campus life. However, the piece lacked coherent thought or content. For pages, the author, Misha Glouberman, whined about how he had no Harvard-related connections in Montreal and how he supposedly "threw away" his opportunity as a Harvard graduate. It seriously irked me how the author could complain that he was a Harvard graduate in Canada and had no influential connections. He seems to expect that, by graduating from Harvard, he is entitled to success and recognition in Canada. Harvard gives people access to the most influential social networks – true – but having connections from college will help you get positions only if you are good at what you do. The author just doesn’t seem to fit in this circle. Moreover, Canada has its own top schools with their own influential alumni bases.
The author also went on to complain how Harvard locked up its students in "an ivory tower" by providing housing for its students and "preventing" them from meeting non-Harvard students. Obviously if he stayed in Harvard-only buildings, he would find only Harvard students… If this was “too weird” for him, the author could have just gone off-campus -- other schools are very close in proximity: MIT and Boston University, for instance. I doubt the Harvard community was as constrained as the author described. Just about every college in America tries to piece together a “community” with campus events and college-housing – it’s not just Harvard.
The fact that the author felt the compulsion to write a lengthy piece on how his Harvard experience was “pretty weird” and concluded that he was unsure of his own opinion on the topic only shows aimlessness of his writing. Infuriatingly, his tone was bordering on condescending. Arrogant and with nothing to back it up, the author is very likely to get on readers’ nerves. It is clear that he posted the article to show off how “smart” he was to be accepted to such an elite school and how he was supposedly able to see through the illusion of its perfection as an Ivy League school. How this obtuse, inarticulate drunkard could get accepted to Harvard still remains a wonder to me.
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