Word: socialism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...admissions officers, it's all a question of balance: between children of the 'high' social composition of each entering class--and children of 'talent.' The actual Harvard has usually fixed that balance at around 20 percent of alumni children. They are called, fittingly enough, 'legacies...
While the House system became the so-called forum for socialization, Harvard students still felt that their social standing and careers depended on admission and success in a final club. Not every young gent made the cut--many were left outside in the cold, staring through the windows of the Pudding, watching the swirling gowns and flowing champagne--the legacy of the Gold Coast...
Boston society was stongly invested in the fate of the student-gentry and their new haunt--the social clubs--as they had been with the Gold Coast. One article found in the scrapbook of a 1903 graduate, George Stillman, proclaimed in the headline, "Student Stunts at Harvard!-Tests Required of Candidates for Secret Societies." The Boston Globe often announced the Hasty Pudding Annual Dance with detailed explanations of ball gowns and the appearance of the women as well as lists of the social elite at the party...
Among the elite, there were students who chose not to participate in this exclusive social world. Walter C. Paine '49, grandson of President Eliot, slogged through the massacres of World War Two before beginning Harvard College. "Many of us looked down on the kids sliding by and getting C grades and having a hell of a time...
Today, the Gold Coast glitters no longer. But even with current randomization policies, the question of elitism at Harvard remains. The College is accused of admitting students based on money and social standing rather than academic achievement. Miller claims that times have certainly changed...