[cm2187]

Don't confuse the credential factory with the skills and quality of the underlying students. Harvard is little more than a toll booth for students who were already smart and over-achieving. It's not like the teaching is extraordinary.

[ceejayoz]

Harvard does substantially more than teach undergrads.

[cm2187]

> Lawyers? Doctors? Medical research? Thousands of highly educated graduates annually?

[ceejayoz]

Lawyers and doctors aren't undergrads.

Medical research depends heavily on faculty and postgraduate folks.

Only some of their thousands of annual graduates are undergrads - about 1/3 of them, per Wiki.

[cm2187]

I am confused. Who says credentials only apply to undergrads?

[ceejayoz]

I said they do more than teach undergrads, to which you re-quoted me questioningly.

Include postgraduate folks and they're still doing a lot more than just teaching and credentialing. Places like Harvard output research, too.

[kelipso]

A university research lab is controlled by usually one professor or a very small number of professors. They can decide to move to another university and take the lab with them.