universityguys

Most of the students admitted have top percentile grades/test scores as well. But the competition at the very top is based in leadership rather than minuscule differences in testing, yes.

"I’ve worked in software engineering with Harvard, Stanford, and MIT students. The only difference I saw was during their first couple of years out of undergrad where the people who went to prestigious schools had more confidence to jump in and solve problems. After those first two-ish years, people’s abilities correlated more with who they were and not where they went to school."

Have you considered that the students whom you are working with were among the bottom quartile at their alma mater? The very best tend to take unique paths.

I feel like Harvard and MIT, those two universities in particular, carry a very unique cachet. Other elite universities may not be so worth it.

I have known multiple Stanford students who still bring up the fact that they "also got into Harvard." It seems that if you get into Harvard, you should just go. The brand name is too powerful.

This is the argument Professor Mansfield at Harvard uses (the bigot part). Inspiration from him or just coincidence?

Stanford has grade inflation, but not at the level at Harvard. Faculty senate said median GPA is 3.69 (so less than 50% have at least a 3.7, despite being just as selective as Harvard). And this is after taking into account that Stanford A+ is 4.3.

To be fair, U of Toronto is nowhere near selective as Harvard.

Why does Harvard have orders of magnitudes higher GPA than any school with comparable student bodies other than Yale?

most students at harvard and other elite universities come from american public schools, for the record. very high concentration of rich preppy private school kids, yes, but majority is still public.

This is true. It is simultaneously true that many of these people have excellent credentials from a signaling standpoint. e.g. Shaw loves their Rhodes Scholars

I feel like Stanford is a little different. Despite being as selective as Harvardm Harvard has a very unique international reputation as the world's best university (or at least america's best university for the oxbridge lovers)

This isn't true, it's a strange assumption often perpetuated online. Looking at cross-admit numbers actually published by Stanford's Faculty Senate, for example, Stanford's biggest overlap is with Harvard, Yale, MIT, and Princeton, in that order. It's a matter of pedigree - for undergrad, where grad school subject-specific rankings do not matter, there are an high concentration of very good STEM students at HYP; Harvard likely has the biggest concentration of excellent STEM students out of any university in America based on Olympiad winner matriculants and grad school outcomes, other than MIT. HYPSM lose virtually no students to universities other than between themselves, looking at the cross-admit numbers.

Schools like CMU, Berkeley, UIUC, etc. have different overlaps.

edit: This is just cold, hard data. Undergrads do not choose CMU/Berkeley/UIUC and whatnot over Harvard, Yale, or Princeton. Despite higher grad school rankings.

I agree, even as OP. Malcom Gladwell's writings on elite universities have gone viral, and even though some good points are sometimes made, many are just stretching the truth for clicks.

As for the general grade inflation problem: It is confusing that Harvard's grade distribution is so different than schools with similarly strong student bodies like Princeton, Columbia, UChicago, Berkeley, etc. Especially very, very large portion of students are legacy / recruited athletes / very wealthy donor parents. According to the affirmative action lawsuit, over 10% of the student body alone was on the "Dean's interest list," a very elite group of autoadmits, for example.

Right, but it makes no sense that Harvard's grade distribution is so different than schools with similarly strong student bodies like Princeton, Columbia, UChicago, Berkeley, etc.

Also keep in mind that a very, very large portion of students are legacy / recruited athletes / very wealthy donor parents.