I went to buy some Harvard clothes to the Coop store in Harvard Square. I felt like this only a few times in my life. Only a few times in my life I went to a store of a brand as powerful as Harvard brand. I would only compare it to the time I went to Pokémon Center Mega Tokyo in Ikebukuro or to the stores of Disney in Orlando. Evidently, Harvard brand is one of the things that stand out from this university. I am sure that the level of the Professors, of its infrastructure and its students, although outstanding, are not very different than universities like Stanford, Chicago or Columbia. However, the fact that the word “Harvard” is worldwide associated with wisdom and excellence even outside of the academic or professional world is something that almost none of the other universities have. There in the store of Harvard Coop, where this brand is sold (with a 25% discount for Harvard students) there was a book called “50 Succesful Harvard Application Essays”. It was under the section label that prayed “Be Smarter”. I would have bought it if I had been here before. I am not sure if such a book would even be published in most of the top universities around the globe.

A nice feature of the Harvard Coop store was that most of the sections have some labels indicating the name and date of foundation of all the schools of Harvard and of some other important institutions of the university like the different houses of college. The frightening part was that on top of the shield of the Harvard School of Design were the words “Stay Up All Night”.