Where Does it Lead?
"I wouldn't hire someone just because they're from Winthrop House," says James H. Rowe III '73, former vice president for government, community and public affairs.
And some alumni say they think the network of alumni has never touched on their lives. The prominent Harvard name and the University's stellar reputation have given them opportunity enough, they say.
"It's the individual merits that count, not the network," says D. Ronald Daniel, treasurer of the University and former managing director of McKinsey & Co. consultants. "Who you know is not nearly as important as who you are."
"Whatever loyalty I feel with the College has nothing to do with those kinds of judgements," says Elliot R. Cutler '68, who was associate director of the Office of Management and Budget. "They are likely to be smart. If they went to Harvard there's a bit of an edge."