Talk:Harvard University

Semi-protected edit request on 7 April 2026

Some user named Mwwb added “and elitist” to the intro section of the article. It’s probably just some troll who wanted to add their opinion; it should be deleted. Funkey08 (talk) 19:00, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

Good catch! MetalBreaksAndBends (talk) 20:01, 7 April 2026 (UTC)

April 1. EEng 07:11, 8 April 2026 (UTC)

Removal of prestige statement

Hey all,

I think it is important that the statement about prestige is removed. Prestige itself is inherently a subjective quality and not an objective fact (meaning it goes against Wikipedia's neutral stance). Furthermore, no other comparable college or university (Yale, Stanford, etc) has a prestige statement; if Harvard is going to get a statement, then I think it is fair one should be added to other comparable institutions. Open to discussing more but would like to set a good standard. Thanks. Linn072 (talk) 15:46, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

You seem to be misunderstanding what Wikipedia is and is not, even outside of WP:OTHERSTUFF(DOESN'T)EXIST(S). Seasider53 (talk) 16:06, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

I think I understand what you're saying. Thanks for pointing that out. Linn072 (talk) 16:49, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

I have reverted your removal of this section.

Substantively: I agree that "prestige" is a problematic term in many ways, but it is widely used in reliable sources.

Procedurally: there has been extensive discussion of this point in the past, referenced in a comment in the section which you removed.

The correct way to proceed if you believe the statement should be removed is to re-open the discussion on the talk page. --Macrakis (talk) 17:33, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for restoring the status quo, Macrakis.

@Linn072: If you believe that the consensus has changed or should change, you are welcome to propose that discussion. But edit warring with multiple editors to override an explicitly discussed decision will likely lead to you being blocked.

In general, there are competing interests in play here. On the one hand, we have a big problem with editors who edit articles about colleges and universities to make claims about their value and prestige. Some are likely editing in bad faith to promote their alma mater, some are editing because it's their job to promote the institution, and many are making good-faith edits that reflect their opinion or their understanding of the reliable sources. On the other hand, we have editors who want to protect articles from those edits because they believe that they violate WP:NPOV. The first problem has historically been so significant that many editors simply remove all mentions of prestige or promotional language in the lead section of any article about a college or university. This has the virtues of simplicity and consistency. But it also ignores the very real fact that some colleges and universities are indeed described in many reliable sources as being very prestigious, so much so that this must be described in the body of the article and included in the lead section that summarizes the article. Hence our attempt to handle this by requiring significant evidence before allowing this into the lead section of an article.

So if you believe that this information is missing from some other articles - and I agree - then you are welcome to edit those articles if you can do so in accordance with WP:HIGHEREDREP. (But watch out - the most common challenge that editors encounter in this area is that they forget that the lead section is a summary of what's in the article. So you may need to add some material to the body of the article before you edit the lead section. And you'd also want to ensure that you are using a variety of really good sources that explicitly support what you're writing.) ElKevbo (talk) 21:57, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

Harvard federal research grant status

Does this wikipedia article have any information about Harvards research grant status? I looked for sources and Harvard sued and got most of the funding it lost restored. ~2026-48597-57 (talk) 02:39, 14 September 2026 (UTC)