THE HARVARD BRAND

From Ting and I: A Memoir

Tina is proud of her Harvard M.A. and of my Harvard Ph.D. She mentions my credentials to the incoming new-hires. She may sometimes refer to me when talking to them as “Dr. Cooper ...,” but I stick to “Mr. Cooper.”

I liked getting into Harvard and thought well of many of the people there. Pride, however, is close to smugness, perilously close. Once I graduated, I found that some people viewed my Harvard connection favorably, but others were eager to prove they were not impressed. Win some, lose some.

I tease my brother, who has a Stanford Ph.D., that although some like to call Stanford “the Harvard of the West,” one never refers to Harvard as “the Stanford of the East.” I am not above a bit of sibling rivalry.