WATCH: Mark Zuckerberg Gets Into Harvard, Dad Kvells
Image by getty images
By Dan Friedman May 19, 2017
In 2002, Mark Zuckerberg (clad in tasteful plaid pajamas) checked his email to find out whether he’d been accepted to Harvard. His dad, Edward Zuckerberg, filmed the occasion. And plotzed. The more sanguine Zuckerberg, his son, sat fairly calmly on the bed, processing what that acceptance meant.
What neither of them knew then was that Mark Zuckerberg would never earn that degree.
Mark posted the video because he’s about to go back to Harvard to give the commencement address and accept an honorary degree.
As Dan Sachs, a colleague of Zuckerberg, posted to Facebook’s CEO page, that’s a “[v]ery roundabout way to avoid Harvard’s core curriculum requirements.”
To which Zuckerberg replied, “That was definitely not my plan. Although before I went to college, my mom bet me I’d drop out and my younger sister bet me she’d finish college before me. I bet them I’d get a degree. Now I suppose the cycle is complete.”
To the extent that an honorary degree is actually a degree, I suppose he’s right, but his younger sister earned hers, whereas Zuckerberg has, basically, bought his. Mind you, it’s definitely worth giving up a Harvard degree to become the richest and most influential (not most powerful) person in the world. (Though it wouldn’t be worth giving up a Yale degree for that.)
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
