Why Harvard?

I'll be applying to university in Ireland, the UK, and to a few US Ivy Leagues and assessing my potential options and I'm left wondering why Harvard has the most international name recognition of any university. I have always heard about it but never figured out what they were actually good at academically besides producing billionaires and world leaders.

In Ireland everyone knows Oxford because it is the best university in the UK and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Many people know Cambridge because it is affiliated with Oxford, similar to how many people know Yale because it is affiliated with Harvard.

But I am left wondering why exactly Harvard, according to any metric or anecdotal evidence, is the most known university in the world, or at least the world I have been exposed to, which is primarily the West and Asia. I know that in certain parts of the former British Empire like Pakistan and Kenya, Oxford tends to be the most known university, but these are few and far between compared to the rest of the world where Harvard has more recognition generally. Is it just because it's the oldest American university or is there something Harvard did that made it a lot more famous than its peers?

I have no skin in this game by the way because I'm not even applying but I was just wondering.

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Oldest university in the US which has had absolute dominance over global culture for nearly the past century. Same reason why Oxford is the 2nd most famous university in the world is that it’s the oldest university in the UK and the UK has the 2nd most cultural influence of any country along with the legacy of the British Empire. Next tier includes their peer schools but tbh nobody really cares or knows about Cambridge or Yale to the same extent. After all, Oxford founded Cambridge and Harvard founded Yale. Harvard was founded by the Massachusetts Bay Colony and we don’t know who/what founded Oxford because it’s so old. 

I personally chose Yale over Oxford though which has far less intl recognition but more prestige among educated folk. Pick your school based on what you want out of university not what some random people think.

 

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