I was reading an article the other day that caught my attention. The article was USA Today’s 2007 All-USA High School Academic Team. They named 20 high school seniors to the 21st annual All-USA High School Academic First team. In disciplines from physics to photography, they have exceeded their talents beyond the classroom.
The First team members were selected from almost 1,200 nominees nationwide. They each received a trophy and a $2,500 cash award.
As I was reading names like Wesley Yu, Scott Molony, and Felix Zhang, I realized a few things:
- I didn’t know any of them
- There is a huge number of young, bright people in our country
- The First team represented 16 different states
- Ohio, California and Pennsylvania were the only states that had more than one student on the list
So far all of that makes sense and nothing seems strange…yet…keep reading…
The students chose only seven different colleges:
- Caltech
- Boston College
- Harvard
- Brown
- Stanford
- Princeton
- Yale
Here goes with a few things that I was surprised about:
- Columbia, Duke, UNC, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania weren’t colleges the top students were going to
- Stanford had only one person registered to attend their school. Only one? The same number that Boston College had!
Eight of the top ten chose Harvard! Fourteen of the top twenty chose Harvard! All the students with the exception of two are attending colleges or universities in the northeast! That’s right 90% – yes I said 90% are attending schools in the northeast!
I was shocked then and frankly I am still shocked. Yes the northeast has great schools, but there are a lot of great schools.
- Does Harvard just do a much better job recruiting than the other schools?
- Are you surprised?
I look forward to your thoughts and comments.
Bob Graham says:
I think there is a very simple answer: Harvard is a very strong brand. It has worldwide recognition and is perhaps the strongest educational brand in the world (along with Oxford).
You could make a similar case for branding about all of the other schools mentioned: I think they are all established brands, but Harvard is definitely the strongest. It’s so strong that it transcends the Education category and is associated with excellence–king of the hill, top of the heap (Dubya’s MBA notwithstanding). Some schools even try to trade off of its reputation: SMU likes to think of itself as “the Harvard of the South” (yeah, right).
I’m surprised that MIT wasn’t on the list and surprised that Boston College was (although I suspect that the student who chose BC was catholic and chose the school because of it’s affiliation with the Catholic Church–just a hunch, I have no facts to back that up).
But, ya know, Harvard’s Football team still can’t beat UMASS…
Ed Sugar says:
I am surprised no one has posted a response to your question. Obviously Harvard has done an excellent job of doing something everyone in marketing research tells their clients to do: build and protect your brand equity. Along with Columbia and U of Penn., Cornell and Dartmouth failed to leveraged their Ivy League status. Also missing from the list is MIT.
Merrill Dubrow says:
Bob,
I agree that Harvard has a very strong brand. But I was surprised that it was across the board. I would have thought Stanford or other California schools had a stronger brand for people living on the west coast.
Apparently everyone wants to go to Harvard and really has out distanced the other top schools. It is almost like Harvard and than everyone else.
That was a surprising take away from me.
Merrill
Will Morris says:
All of the schools are hard to get into and my guess is that many of those who chose Harvard were also accepted by one or more of the other schools as well. Based purely on reputation, Harvard is in a class by itself. I doubt it is that far superior academically, but it’s brand is beyond compare. There may also be a certain arrogance attached to being accepted by Harvard.
Anne Berman says:
These top students are being actively recruited. The private NE schools are looking to develop international and national brands – The Harvards, Tufts, Boston Colleges, etc. are actively recruiting both nationally and internationally. An increasing and significant number of the freshman slots are going to international students; and as one admissions director told me, a teenager from the South has an easier time gaining admissions to Harvard than a local student because of geographic diversity.
Merrill Dubrow says:
Anne,
Interesting comment. I hadn’t thought about that but I guess it makes sense.
I wonder why that isn’t a strategy in schools located in different parts of the United States.
Thanks.
Merrill