Harvard Students Warned Not to Drop 'H-bomb'

Harvard students were advised not to reveal that they attend the Ivy League school as a way to avoid being labeled as an elitist, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana, asked in December to offer advice to graduating seniors, told the campus newspaper that the students should not "gratuitously drop the H-bomb."

The H-bomb is the act of saying aloud that one attends or attended Harvard.

"The H-bomb phenomenon is something that Harvard alumni speak about pretty regularly … they're always a little careful how they introduce that credential into a conversation," Brian Kenny, chief marketing and communications officer for Harvard Business School, said on a higher-education marketing podcast last year, WSJ.com reported.

"Because the Harvard brand, although it's well known and well respected in most circles, it's also viewed negatively — people think about it as an elitist brand."

The dropping of H-bombs has been mocked by people around the campus.

"If you've lived in Boston or Cambridge, you're familiar with the phrase 'dropping the H-Bomb,'" noted the Biglaw Investor newsletter in March 2023. "It's when a Harvard student lets it slip that he's going to Harvard."

The Messenger reported that a Crimson survey showed that 16% of students would say they attended "a school outside of Boston" or lie about which school they attended. Another 77% are willing to say they attend Harvard, but some say they have subtle ways of downplaying the achievement.

"I don't want to sound too haughty. So I'll say it with a kind of down tone instead of going up and sounding really excited," 2023 graduate Athena Ye said, WSJ.com reported. "I try to say it in a way that makes it, to me at least, seem less intimidating."

Some Harvard graduates say critics have shown even less regard for the school as it battles allegations it engages in unfair admissions practices, such as favoring applicants whose families have donated to the university.

The Supreme Court could rule as soon as this week in a case over whether Harvard can use race as a factor in admissions to help increase diversity.