What’s more prestigious: Harvard PhD or Harvard BA?
Would a BA or PhD from a top global university like Harvard be considered more prestigious and recognized? Which would you rather have?
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Unless you’re in academia, a BA will always be more prestigious for the sake of prestige. Of course a PhD is more impressive than a BA but the brand name of the institution only matters at the undergraduate level (and for certain professional schools such as MBA programmes), while at the PhD level the department quality is what matters.
For example, Cambridge is widely recognized as a having a subpar Economics department (Top 20 in the world) compared to other globally elite institutions, but nobody can deny that Cambridge as a brand is no worse than 5th globally. I would even argue it could be as high as 3rd globally among the global general public in terms of raw name recognition. Still, any serious Economics student would choose a far less recognized university such as UChicago over Cambridge for a PhD because of its Economics department being top notch in comparison.
Yes but I feel like your average person will interpret a PhD from Harvard as more impressive than a BA from Harvard, just because a PhD sounds more prestigious.
Also Cambridge 3rd globally? That seems a little high I think MIT is definitely more known than it nowadays among the world population except for maybe in former British colonies. I assume the two you put ahead of it are Harvard and Oxford which makes sense. Was thinking it could be Harvard and Stanford but leaving out Oxford wouldn’t make sense because Oxford is obviously so much more famous and iconic than Cambridge.
And yes UChicago superiority!!! (I go to UChicago)
Maybe I’m biased because I went to Cambridge but I think Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge are the three pillars of global academia because they have unmatched historical legacies. This resonates particularly in third-world countries which still cling onto traditional sentiments. In the first-world I agree that Harvard, Stanford, and MIT have all surpassed Oxbridge but for the rest of the world it generally goes Harvard/Oxford/Cambridge in that order. Though in former British colonies in Africa, MENA, South Asia, and SE Asia it generally goes Oxford/Harvard/Cambridge in that order. Approximately 40% of the world population lives in a former part of the British Empire so that gives a lot of weight to Oxbridge’s prestige and brand name recall among uninitiated people worldwide.
I’d say Harvard is definitely the most well known university in the world but Oxford is a very strong 2nd. Cambridge is certainly less known than Harvard and Oxford but comfortably ahead of Stanford and MIT imo. If I had to give them scores out of 100 I’d give Harvard a 100, Oxford a 99, Cambridge a 90, MIT an 80, and Stanford a 75. This is according to my very unscientific worldview and anecdotal life experiences and the gap between Oxford and Cambridge could be even larger.
PHD only sounds more prestigious to other fellow academics, no one gaf about PHDs otherwise
I mean yeah that makes sense but it doesn’t really answer my question.
I went to a top school (H) for undergrad and then earned my MBA from a top school (HBS) and I've been thinking of doing a PhD from Oxford
Why Oxford and not Cambridge?
The most well known universities in the world (in order) are:
The criterion is if the university is known to even rural people living in undeveloped countries.
BA imo
Both are more prestigious than an HBS MBA
THIS THE SAME DUDE I KNKW IT
Dawg what r u talking abt
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