But education was not the real attraction of the university.  It was Harvard's network that was valuable.  Of course, to get in you had to have a network, that is, you had to be someone in addition to academic capability.  Harvard was a place like Yale and Princeton for maintaining elite networks from which America's political and business leaders arose, people some of whom were capable of putting the pubic interest ahead of their own.

Harvard was mainly reserved for the northeast prep school graduates and sons of alumni, but on occasion would take a promising applicant from the South, Midwest, and West Coast.  Harvard was always interested in enlarging its network.

Jews were distrusted and kept away.  It was the days of WASP rule.  Harvard refused employment to Paul Samuelson, a Jew and the dean of American economists during the last half of the 20th century.  Samuelson had to find employment at MIT.