Theodore Johnson asks if enrolling in Harvard’s distance-learning program counts as attending Harvard:
I often felt [as if] I’d snuck into one of the world’s premier institutions for higher learning. There is little chance that my slightly-above-average undergraduate GPA and an extra-curricular résumé that only consisted of a part-time job at a music store would’ve secured a spot for me in one of Harvard’s ultra-competitive graduate schools. Yet, with no admission letter in hand and exactly zero hours spent preparing for graduate admissions tests, I became a Harvard student. And I was not alone. The Extension School – Harvard’s degree-granting continuing education school – has a student population of more than 13,000.
Johnson, who was one of the .2 percent of Harvard Extension School students to graduate with a degree, asks, “Did I really go to Harvard?” Daniel Luzer says no – but it doesn’t matter anyway:
The truth is that Harvard, like other colleges, runs a lot of programs that aren’t really Harvard.
Harvard Business School runs the Executive Education Program, in which “those enrolled attend one three-week session, which … cost $33,000 a pop, per year for three years.” Enrollees don’t earn an MBA but they “still receive alumnus status.” High school students can attend Harvard Summer School and spend $7,000 to live in Harvard dorms and take a class on the Harvard campus. In the unlikely event that one is subsequently admitted to Harvard College, however, such classes cannot be applied to a Harvard degree.
Harvard Extension is not quite the same thing, of course. While it’s arguably not really Harvard, it’s not “fake Harvard,” either. It’s not a scam. It’s not an attempt to earn extra cash by selling the Harvard brand. Indeed, at $1,020 to $2,000 per four-credit course, it’s actually donating the Harvard brand.
The Dish 