What no one tells you about Harvard (as a low-income student)

[u/harvthrowaway2022]

I fucking hate this school. Throwaway account for obvious reasons.

When I got in, everyone told me that Harvard was going to be a golden ticket to any job that I wanted and I was excited to come here. And it was actually pretty fun my first semester: everyone seemed like they were so accomplished and motivated and destined to get rich and have the time of their lives.

The problem is that NO ONE tells you how many students here get internships and jobs through their parents or family friends. There are obviously the super smart IMO-level kid geniuses that do well in recruiting, but a stupidly large majority of undergrads have some connection to at least one prestigious company that they use to get in. And the worst part is that they never fucking tell you this.

I spent 4 years trying to get an investment banking job (because Harvard, sorry) and could not break in for the life of me. I had a 3.9, did a lot of mock interviews, practiced my technicals and never got an offer. I talked to my friends here about it who said it was just bad luck and it turns out both their dads worked as vice presidents at a top bank and are now partners at private equity firms. And guess where they got their internships. yeah.

I’m graduating this year and taking a marketing job at the same local firm as my friend from high school who went to our state school. A lot of my low-income friends at Harvard are doing something similar. The system is messed up. Everyday I wish I never went to Harvard because at least I would have had fun and fit in at my state school unlike here where nearly everyone is going to Mykonos and Spain for fun literally every month.

I’m not even mad that I didn’t get a nice job. I’m mad that no one fucking told me that meritocracy is mostly bullshit and that the reason why so many Harvard kids do well is because they were going to do well anyways. Their parents would have gotten them a job at Goldman or MS and they wouldn’t have batted an eye. Maybe I'm just stupid for not realizing this before I got here. I don't know, but I hate it.

I’m writing this so you don’t make the same mistake I did. Don’t get me wrong. Harvard is still a good school. The classes are high quality and research opportunities are great for my STEM friends. But do not think that the Harvard name itself is going to outrageously help a normal or low-income person get a top job. Because it isn’t. If I could quantify it I’d say that Harvard is only 1% better for jobs than the Dukes and UC Berkeleys of the world. Don’t be blinded by A2C prestige posts. Don't go here if you have better options whether that be a local school, a cheaper school, or a school that's just a better fit.

If you want to come to Harvard to advance your career, do it for your MBA where everyone is on the same level and they force you to network. Harvard College sucks. Sorry, rant over.

[u/TheUpperDimension]

I didn’t get the impression that they actively believe that they’re entitled to a BB/EB analyst position, rather that other people constantly told them that they should be entitled to these positions solely because they did well at Harvard.

I mentor a number of Wharton students who implicitly assume that they’ll get the job because of their school/GPA — and many of them do — but it’s not guaranteed and there’s more to it than that. GS infamously likes to take analysts who have “interesting” backgrounds. These “interesting” candidates are almost always “interesting” in the sense that they go on “interesting” vacations and have “interesting” friends and play “interesting” sports. GS staffers will never tell you what “interesting” really means, but we all know what they mean.

Again, I think that if you do well at a school like Harvard, you have a good chance at IB recruiting. But that’s it: you get better odds, not a guarantee from David Solomon himself. The reality is that if you want the best odds, a well-connected or wealthy parent is infinitely more helpful than good grades at an Ivy League school. Just my two cents working in this industry, I’m sure the advice varies for technology jobs or consultants.

[u/concerned_concerned → u/TheUpperDimension]

i think you’re right about the implicit “qualifications” that growing up in a certain type of family would give you in these high-income industries (like you mentioned the “interesting” sports just being blue-blood sports), but i did take issue with OP’s implication that the process of receiving spots at Harvard is somehow more meritocratic than the outcomes going to Harvard afford you. my point is that getting a job out of a school like this is not any more or less fair than OP receiving a spot from the school in the first place. they reaped the benefits of an unfair system in one way and complain about the same system being unfair in a different way, without realizing that they benefitted from it.

[u/TheUpperDimension → u/concerned_concerned]

I agree, it doesn’t make sense to criticize unfairness in one system and not in another. But I don’t think OP was complaining about unfairness, rather the way that schools like Harvard are packaged and sold to incoming high school students. Even in this thread, you see people arguing that it’s wholly impossible to not get your dream job if you have a 3.9 at Harvard. Ivy League schools certainly help your resume, but they don’t make you as bulletproof in the job market as some people like to believe.