Harvard’s Career Machine Is Killing Its Mission

Walking to class each morning, I am surrounded by Harvard’s coat of arms and the motto it flaunts: veritas. The word follows me — wrought into metal gates, carved in the wood of the Kirkland House Junior Common Room, fixed forever in the upper-left corner of my Canvas page and the upper right of my Google Drive. Yet it often rings hollow.

Harvard’s self-serving career funnel is antithetical to the noble goal contained within that term. Veritas famously means truth, representing a commitment to the pursuit of knowledge and the common good. Yet the sheer number of students climbing corporate ladders points towards a deep-rooted failure of Harvard’s mission. The College’s infrastructure and student culture should instead promote the advancement of human knowledge and collective welfare.

According to a Crimson survey, among the Class of 2025 entering the workforce after graduation, more than half went on to roles in finance, consulting, or technology — a third of the class overall. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with these fields, but they are a far cry from working for the good of the world.

To fully understand the gravity of this failure requires understanding Harvard’s history. Veritas began as “Veritas Christo et Ecclesia” or “Truth for Christ and Church.” The Puritan Harvard of old sought a divine truth. That truth, Jesus says in John 8:32, will set you free — a motto made concrete on one of the many gates into Harvard Yard.

Freedom through truth. Regardless of religious affiliation or denomination — and regardless of the fact that Harvard centuries later has distanced itself from its Puritan roots — this idea rings true. It also points to another verse echoed in Harvard’s mission today, Galatians 5:13: “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.”

In our pursuit of knowledge, we acquire the freedom a Harvard degree provides: the doors it opens and the connections it offers. It is incredibly tempting to use that freedom for our own gain; to sell our skills merely to the highest bidder. But instead we are called — by Christ, belief in any higher power, or simply an understanding of the privilege that attending this institution provides — to serve others.

This is what veritas asks of us — to become leaders who, in Harvard’s own language, “strive toward a more just, fair, and promising world.” By this metric, the University is fundamentally failing at the premise upon which it was founded.

Harvard students cannot and will not properly serve the world at hedge funds, consulting firms, and investment banks. But when there is little support for pursuing other options, I don’t blame my peers for seeking a popular and stable career path.

Harvard must do more to encourage its students to serve the world around them instead of “selling out.” A good start would be increasing financial incentives: In the summer of 2024, the University subsidized over 600 public service internships. Broadening access to alternate career paths starts with increasing the number of available funded public service opportunities.

More difficult but equally necessary is decreasing the cultural pull of the consulting, finance, and tech triad. For example, Harvard could consider adding coursework that helps students consider how to live with purpose and reflect on how to best use their talents to serve the world. After all, the College’s website proudly proclaims that a Harvard liberal arts education “will prepare students for leading meaningful lives, with conscientious global citizenship, to enhance the greater good.”

Harvard must teach students to use their diversity of skills — from applied mathematics to comparative literature — to serve the greater good. The College should help students identify productive avenues for their talents beyond the oft-cited routes of academia and policy; alternative options include nonprofit work and altruistic-minded startups.

But at the end of the day, careerism stems from social pressures that extend far beyond Harvard’s walls. Truly addressing it requires effort from students, who must make individual choices to conform or to reach higher. In choosing to attend this institution, we make a commitment to upholding its ideals: choosing to swim against the current of recruitment; remembering the nobler goals we wrote about in our admissions essays.

If Harvard hopes to return to its motto, it must encourage its students to find a higher purpose in serving the world around them — not just the company that offers the biggest check.

Victoria L. Dolan ’28, an Associate Editorial Editor, is a History & Literature concentrator in Kirkland House.