I was under the impression that the de-facto penalty for cheating was expulsion. Without coming back. Without ANY "recommendation letters." You cheated, fuck you, get out.
Then again, I went to a school which is struggling to raise itself up in the ranks ( or into the ranks at all ), so maybe Harvard doesn't have to take cheating seriously for people to take their graduates seriously.
Actually, when I talk to people who teach or TA at other universities, they tell me that Harvard's policies are comparably harsh. If you plagiarize a paper at many universities, you are likely to get a zero for the assignment. That means that you might lose a letter grade in one class. At Harvard, professors were until recently required to report students to the Ad Board which generally led to being forced to withdraw.
Then again, I went to a school which is struggling to raise itself up in the ranks ( or into the ranks at all ), so maybe Harvard doesn't have to take cheating seriously for people to take their graduates seriously.