The unbundling of Harvard has begun • Hacker News Board

Re: The unbundling of Harvard has begun

#21

Post by MattGaiser » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 1:22 PM UTC

xyst wrote: post #12

~$80K per semester at Harvard. I now understand why almost every graduate of Harvard tends to bring up the fact they graduated from Harvard on nearly every conversation. I went to a public school and my 4 year tuition cost is equivalent to half the cost of single a semester at Harvard. I only graduated a couple of years ago so inflation is negligible. Guess who I work with the most and still earn the same wage (if no…

Virtually everyone gets a large discount on that bill in one way or another. Few actually pay the sticker price.

Re: The unbundling of Harvard has begun

#22

Post by 1986 » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 1:24 PM UTC

xyst wrote: post #12

~$80K per semester at Harvard. I now understand why almost every graduate of Harvard tends to bring up the fact they graduated from Harvard on nearly every conversation. I went to a public school and my 4 year tuition cost is equivalent to half the cost of single a semester at Harvard. I only graduated a couple of years ago so inflation is negligible. Guess who I work with the most and still earn the same wage (if no…

80k per year, not per semester, and most students that don't come from wealth pay nowhere near that.

Re: The unbundling of Harvard has begun

#23

Post by throwawaybab323 » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 1:25 PM UTC

hatmatrix wrote: post #11

roenxi wrote: post #10

I'm not sure if this gentleman has a thesis but Harvard online education is worth not much. The whole value proposition of Harvard is that you socialise and bond with the sort of people who get in to Harvard. You probably have the phone number of whoever runs Goldman Sachs [0] and you know the President of Whereveristan's daughter because she was in your class. The little things in life. It is possible but unlikely t…

> Harvard online education is worth not much You're typically paying for three things: 1. The education 2. The network 3. The brand Even if 1 is not many times greater at Harvard than another institution, 2 and 3 are. Even without 2, a Harvard degree will send a signal that will open doors that might otherwise be closed.

Well I mean they sell their same courses for like 20 bucks on coursera.

Re: The unbundling of Harvard has begun

#24

Post by naiveprogrammer » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 1:26 PM UTC

tmaly wrote: post #18

Freshman year is the real deal. Its where you meet new friends and bond. I cannot really see the value of an online only first year. I see this also as an opportunity to improve the online aspect of education. I remember one of my electrical engineering classes had all the lectures recorded and available at the library. This was before YouTube. But it was great that you could re-watch them for points you missed. Bett…

In other words, you pay what you pay to attend Harvard, to a large extent, because of its network effects. And that is really the reason at the end of the day. This is especially true in areas where network is expected to be a big factor --think Economics, Law, Business.

And that's why you pay that much to go to Harvard, to gain access to their network.

Re: The unbundling of Harvard has begun

#25

Post by cvhashim » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 1:27 PM UTC

I couldn’t get through his ramblings. But I got the gist of it, and of course it’s typical Gary Vee-type of hustle porn advice about skipping college and starting a business. Sigh

Re: The unbundling of Harvard has begun

#26

Post by impendia » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 1:28 PM UTC

roenxi wrote: post #10

I'm not sure if this gentleman has a thesis but Harvard online education is worth not much. The whole value proposition of Harvard is that you socialise and bond with the sort of people who get in to Harvard. You probably have the phone number of whoever runs Goldman Sachs [0] and you know the President of Whereveristan's daughter because she was in your class. The little things in life. It is possible but unlikely t…

> It is possible but unlikely that Harvard has Secret Math

Here is an entire undergraduate course in abstract algebra, taught by retired Harvard professor Benedict Gross.

http://matterhorn.dce.harvard.edu/engage/ui/index.html#/1999...

I know Gross personally, and have heard him lecture several times; although I haven't watched these lectures in particular, I'm guessing that that they're just about as good as it gets.

You can also find online lecture courses in a variety of subjects offered by MIT, Yale, etc. It's telling that these universities feel confident in giving away this material, to anyone, for free.

Re: The unbundling of Harvard has begun

#27

Post by tmaly » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 1:29 PM UTC

naiveprogrammer wrote: post #24

tmaly wrote: post #18

Freshman year is the real deal. Its where you meet new friends and bond. I cannot really see the value of an online only first year. I see this also as an opportunity to improve the online aspect of education. I remember one of my electrical engineering classes had all the lectures recorded and available at the library. This was before YouTube. But it was great that you could re-watch them for points you missed. Bett…

In other words, you pay what you pay to attend Harvard, to a large extent, because of its network effects. And that is really the reason at the end of the day. This is especially true in areas where network is expected to be a big factor --think Economics, Law, Business. And that's why you pay that much to go to Harvard, to gain access to their network.

That is even more so for people doing an MBA. It is all networking.

Re: The unbundling of Harvard has begun

#28

Post by ykevinator » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 1:29 PM UTC

Pretty soon just unqualified celebrities kids will be going there

Re: The unbundling of Harvard has begun

#29

Post by HumblyTossed » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 1:30 PM UTC

secondcoming wrote: post #5

"I'm Brett... and Twitter power user" I can't believe a grown adult considers this some sort of qualification. As for "education-based communities on the backs of (social) media empires"... what a horrible thought. Imagine getting your education from a Twitterati or Fox News-backed organisation. "Psychology is the most underrated major in tech." Maybe for someone with a psychology degree who's looking for a "Silicon…

Even worse:

"Twitter is where all the action happens in the tech industry"

Re: The unbundling of Harvard has begun

#30

Post by thehappypm » Tue, Jul 14, 2020, 1:31 PM UTC

I always hear the argument that college/grad school is silly because you can go read the textbooks yourself.

It requires an immense amount of motivation to grind away reading 80 pages of a boring CS textbook every day. The structure and motivation provided by an institution encourages people to go deeper, meet deadlines, and not just skim the boring stuff. It isn't the only way to learn, but when I did a master's degree I felt motivated even when the road was rough.