[Edmond]

I have always found it amusing that the virtue of hard work is bestowed on kids who make it into the most selective American colleges. Another way to look at it is that, it is precisely hard work that these kids(or at least their parents on their behalf)are trying to avoid.

In other words while the rest of us will have to slug it hard until the moment of death (quite literally for many), once you enter a school like Harvard it's all gravy for the rest of your life. Basically put in about five years of hard work to get into Harvard and live a cushy life from then on, sweet deal indeed.

I have meet people who went to Harvard and the kind of accommodation they get is mind blowing to a state-school Joe like me. I dated a girl who was interning in DC a couple years back from Harvard law school, she had the whole summer to turn in what was a five page paper. Mean while I had to write 10+ page papers practically every week in b-school at a public school and if I missed the due date, the penalty can be anything from losing some points to getting no points.

[rayiner]

I don't think Harvard grads tend to autopilot the rest of their lives. That said, one of the purposes of going to Harvard is to avoid risk. Harvard students tend to come from the upper middle class (but not from "fuck you" money), and going to Harvard helps minimize the risk of falling out of that class. Hence the popularity of banking, consulting, federal government, etc, among Harvard undergraduates.