The writer claims you can potentially backdoor the admissions process by simply starting to take classes at the school you want to attend. Would be curious to know if you think this has any merit.
Sure, this is all doable. One of the most elegant social hacks out there today is to go to one of the hundreds of 12-month degree-mill graduate programs that "top" schools have launched in the last 20 years, get a degree in "Public Speaking and Elocution" for $30-50,000 and then be able to put "School X" on your CV and resume for the rest of your life.
In truth, most of these programs will admit almost anyone who sounds like they won't embarrass them or flunk out. They don't have to worry about their ability to pay the ever-climbing tuition for these programs because the students have been lulled into thinking it's a good investment to take out loans to get that name as a brand they can wear for the rest of your life.
I am very, very proud to have done my undergrad studies at a place, Princeton, that has resisted the urge to offer programs like this so far. To put on my "Ivy League Douchebag" hat for a second, if you meet someone "who went to Harvard" it could mean all sorts of things, same with Columbia, UPenn, Cornell, etc. If you meet someone who "went to Princeton" then they went there as an undergrad, which means they survived one of the toughest admissions criteria on the planet, or they did PhD work there, which is even tougher to get into. The only other program Princeton has is a 1-2 year (I forget) master's in public policy that I believe was secretly created because Uncle Sam wants a fancy school to send future generals to so they can class up their resumes and learn with some of the sharpest people around. Princeton is one of the few elite schools that actively welcomes these soldiers too. The one's I met while there as a student were incredibly smart. They were tough enough to do the military stuff, and sharp enough to hang with the faculty at the Wilson school. I feel pretty good about that one program. Those are the only two ways anyone gets to "go to Princeton." and I think that's awesome.
Meanwhile, there's a plethora of ways to "go to" a lot of the other elite schools. Anyone want a master's in higher education?
</completed a 12-month master's degree in Journalism at Northwestern, which offers a lot of other programs that>
Well...I earned a degree at Harvard via the extension program. Despite the Ivy-League douche-bag opinion of the program, it's been a big win for me socially and career-wise.
I ended up writing off school after leaving a different Ivy-League program to go chase my millions during the Internet boom. When that plan didn't pan out, I found that most of the programs offered during the times I had available were just flat...out...bad.
At least at Harvard Extension I could take a ton of classes from actual Harvard professors (not just moonlighting professionals looking to pick up some teaching cred) without all of the drama of trying to game the admissions process. At 35, I really didn't see myself living in a dorm with the other Harvard undergraduates.
You might make the case that it's not really a "Harvard" degree, but I'm willing to bet that my record of accomplishment since then would say otherwise.
It's certainly a Harvard degree. My comment was aimed at pointing out that phrase is pretty malleable at most schools. I have friends who went to other programs there. You all have "Harvard degrees." Each of you had very, very different experiences and learned different things. It's an interesting hack that to the average person, that distinction doesn't mean much.
It's an odd thing. While I was there at school, I was often pretty ambivalent about being there. Classes were tough. I felt like I had a hard time standing out. The East Coast was a strange and foreign place. But in the years since, as I've met more people and connected with alumni older and younger than me, I'm prouder and prouder and more and more grateful for the opportunity I had to spend 4 years there.
One of the ways to hack your into my alma mater used to be to start getting a degree at an offshoot of the engineering department that was designed to be night school for practicing engineers and vocational training for local kids without much academic inclination... then transfer straight into the engineering department at one of the most selective schools in the country, totally bypassing Undergraduate Admissions.
A classmate of mine did it. His degree is printed on the same paper mine is.
I saw it featured in a "hidden secrets of college admissions" article once and it looks like they have rejiggered things so that it no longer works, although I'm not positive about that.
Happens all the time. They get the same degree in the end and no one cares. It's a great hack.
I have friends who are doctors who went to fancy med schools and complain all the time about the other doctors who went to school in the Caribbean. To the average Joe, a doctor's a doctor.
The writer claims you can potentially backdoor the admissions process by simply starting to take classes at the school you want to attend. Would be curious to know if you think this has any merit.