How many degrees did Harvard confer this year?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by AlK11, May 31, 2019.

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  1. AlK11

    AlK11 Active Member

  2. mintaru

    mintaru Active Member

    Are honorary degrees included in that number? I noticed Angela Merkel got a Harvard honorary doctorate this year. It's her sixteenth honorary doctorate, by the way.
     
  3. Stoic

    Stoic Member

    @AIK11 and @mintaru What do you think is the current value of a Harvard ALB degree?
     
  4. AlK11

    AlK11 Active Member

    Honorary degrees are not included, although that number would be so small it wouldn't make a difference in the grand scheme of things. If you click on the link you can see the numbers broken down by specific degree.

    If you are a liberal arts or humanities type of major, I think the ALB is great. If you are more of a STEM type of major, I think it is still good, but you should probably look at more traditional options. The Harvard brand is still there and the education you get is still great.
     
  5. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Oh, come on!!!!

    They couldn't have confered just ONE more?
     
  6. mintaru

    mintaru Active Member

    I agree, but with one exception. I live in Europe (Germany) and the Harvard brand shines even more over here. Most people in Continental Europe wouldn't care that the degree is an ALB from Harvard Extension School, even if it's an ALB with a STEM major, simply because it's a Harvard degree. For most Europeans, a Harvard degree is the only degree that even beats an Oxbridge degree.
     
  7. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

    While the networking is not there with the extension programs, and that may be the biggest attraction of an elite education, the academic rigor has to be pretty comparable in the extension program given the requirements. So if I were interviewing a candidate here at the university with an ALB or ALM from Harvard, I'd assume they had all the intellectual goods and the work ethic. At least for me, the value would be exceptionally high.
     
  8. Stoic

    Stoic Member

    I agree. Most online Harvard Extension courses have weekly video meetings (even the Poetry ones had one meeting via Zoom, and those were considered to be watered down courses and easy for a general audience) which forces the student to put his face out there and be on the spot in front of his\her peers. So say for example you take an online course on Javascript with weekly Zoom meetings. There would be no way to get by through the course via bs'ing your way through it because the TA or Professor will ask you questions to make sure you understand the content. In contrast at the 'regular' schools with online programs and no weekly meetings I can just cram and copy and paste my way through the courses. I wonder sometimes if we are really just cheating ourselves by attending these online schools that basically pass us along as long as we pay and pass quizzes. But then again the market is forcing everyone to have a Bachelors or Masters to even be employable now in days so that's the culprit. I mean there are $12 dollar an hour jobs requiring Bachelors now in days, so that puts things into perspective since $12 per hour is poverty. Anyway, I think the Extension school offers the best online academic education for its price in the world. Though, of course Upenn LPS and other similar programs might be just as good or even better. But they are expensive.
     
  9. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

    I like Harvard's model, they do it right. The ALB and ALM are probably the best value in the entire country right now. Just wish they'd develop a doctorate in the liberal arts in that program, but Donald and Hillary will become humble before that happens.

    I'm doing a similarly-run program, though not as elite (though the particular major I'm doing is top-3 elite), an MS in accountancy through the U of Illinois. This will be my second online masters, first one was MBA. It was through a flagship uni, and had reasonable rigor, but it was something like upper division undergrad all over again and you could probably free ride your way through that program. But not this Illinois program. This degree has the weekly live sessions. I'm half way through the program, and to this point, have never done anything tougher, including a traditionally-earned bachelor's and law degree from a pretty good but not elite law school. I am worn out right now! Depending on the prof, you may be asked questions and put on the spot in front of your class, à la law school. This last semester one of the courses I took was cost accounting. The prof called on me multiple times, and there were some moments where suddenly you have to explain the method of determining the ROI or the meaning of R-squared in the regression analysis and your take on it, and that can be terrifying when you can see the faces of your classmates, all of them professionals, many of them literally professional cost accountants, there in little boxes on the screen. Had some stuttering, blank-faced moments. This is a workout.
     
  10. Stoic

    Stoic Member

    That sounds like an awesome program. In a perfect world without the spread of college degrees in our society all programs would be like that.
     
  11. FTFaculty

    FTFaculty Well-Known Member

    Thanks, it's a fine program. It's just not fun . Then again, can't imagine trying to take Harvard classes from Harvard professors while you're working a day job is exactly fun, either.
     
  12. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Harvard beats Oxford and Cambridge? Hmm.
     

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