Harvard: Home or Hogwarts

A couple months ago, high school senior Lauren Edelson penned a much-read New York Times op-ed decrying the misuse of sales strategies in college admissions outreach at Harvard, Boston college, Middlebury and others, specifically naming the tendency to liken one’s school to Hogwarts. As an Admissions Office tour guide, I try to keep the Hogwarts references to a minimum.  But from time to time, I, too, slip in one too many Harry Potter references, and I’ve heard many of my fellow guides do the same.  Are we trying to sell a Hogwarts resemblance when we should be selling the Harvard reality?  I don’t believe so.  I suspect that we are so oft inclined to make these Hogwarts analogies while trying to convey some graspable idea of the Harvard experience; the Harry Potter imagery is easier to relay, since many prospective students can more easily imagine them. Likewise, it is not a college admissions strategy itself that should warrent criticism or praise, but the university-specific content—or lack of it—that it contains.

In search of individuality, admissions offices are employing ever-new methods to aid in explaining the particular qualities inherent to a college.  Recently, videos has emerged as the favored way to reach this goal. But videos can also expose similarities, which can, to some degree, actually work against the purpose of underlining the differences of a college that would make a prospective student decide upon that institution over another.  For example, when the infamous “That’s Why I Chose Yale...” video was released, I heard many Harvard students mention how very similar Harvard and Yale are—the video revealed to them a likeness between the two colleges they had not thought of before.

Indeed, what ineffective Harry Potter anecdotes and videos show us is that colleges cannot rely on specific mediums or gimmicks to do the personalizing for them; they must also focus on university-specific content. Harvard’s Admissions Office does in fact have a Harvard Video, but unlike Yale’s 16-minute long musical extravaganza, it is not nearly as well known. Despite its popularity, I don’t actually know any high school students who became more interested in Yale after viewing it; sure, those who wanted to go to Yale prior to the video release wouldn’t stop bursting into song all throughout J-Term, but it didn’t seem to incite the same level of enthusiasm in others.  Harvard’s video does a better job of portraying what Harvard in particular is about than Yale’s does for Yale because it features very personalized stories of Harvard, and Yale’s, though it is definitely more upbeat and catchy, is more general. This trend toward further personalizing admissions outreach efforts is one we should follow.

The best way to achieve personalization and promote our beloved college while retaining our unique Harvard identity is to encourage more student involvement with the process.  Tour guides can only do so much with an hour-long walk around Harvard and while we try not to generalize too much and involve as many anecdotes as we can, it is not always possible. Inviting interested students to spend a day in the life of a Harvard student and sending Harvard students to high schools to speak about their time here, which the Undergraduate Admissions Council enables students to do through the Return to High School Program, will help prospective students gain a better understanding of Harvard life. Personal stories that allow a glimpse into a Harvardian’s life and enable visiting students to better grasp Harvard life will help us in this endeavor.

Ayse Baybars ’12, a Crimson editorial writer, is a Chemistry concentrator in Lowell House.