In a December interview with the campus newspaper, Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana was given the chance to offer a word of advice to seniors.
“Don’t gratuitously drop the H-bomb,” Khurana said.
The H-bomb, for those unaware of lingo from the most famous Ivy League school, is the thermonuclear act of saying aloud that one attends or attended Harvard. The process of explaining to someone not from Harvard that you went to Harvard is complicated, students at Harvard will tell you, repeatedly.
For years Ivy Leaguers have been conspicuously obtuse about where they went to school. But the H-bomb conversation is at an all-time high.
The odds of admission to Harvard are at historic lows and the Supreme Court is poised to weigh in this month on whether Harvard’s affirmative-action program is constitutional. The high-profile trial that preceded the High Court case shed light on Harvard’s opaque selection process, including evidence that children of donors, offspring of alumni, as well as socioeconomically disadvantaged applicants get special consideration by the admissions office.
The revelations moved Massachusetts lawmakers to recently introduce an act proposing to tax the endowments of schools which consider an applicant’s legacy status or employ early-decision admission, which tends to benefit students from well-off families. The 0.2% surcharge would cost Harvard about $100 million a year and would fund the state’s community colleges. The bill is set for a committee hearing in the Massachusetts legislature this month.