Harvard student reveals what her dining hall serves on an average night: ‘Cries in community college’
Cafeteria food usually gets a bad rep, but one college student is proving that it’s not all stale muffins and questionable chicken nuggets. At least, not when you go to Harvard.
Elise Pham (@elipham2) has been taking TikTok on tours of Harvard’s many dining halls lately, where every night seems like a trip to a five-star restaurant.
Now, much like the woman who snuck into Columbia University’s surf-and-turf event, Elise’s series is sparking an important discussion on the level of privilege students are afforded at elite institutions like Harvard.
“SEAFOOD BAR FOR DINNER??!! come eat dinner at Harvard with me!” Pham captioned one of her recent posts, which now has more than 2 million views.
In it, she gives an insider’s view of Annenburg, one of Harvard’s many famed dining halls, which just so happens to look like The Great Hall at Hogwarts in Harry Potter.
To start, there were large platters of raw oysters, baked clams and a delicious-looking shrimp cocktail. For the main entree, Pham went for the olive oil baked cod and fig and sage-glazed chicken, which she then paired with rice, Swiss chard and roasted broccolini.
“Tonight’s dinner literally exceeded my expectations,” Pham says in the clip. “Especially the raw seafood bar, baked clams and shrimp cocktail.”
In the comments, people couldn’t hold back their amazement (or their jealousy).
“Harvard be eating like kings and queens lol,” one person wrote.
“If I watched this as a kid, I would’ve studied harder to get into Harvard,” someone else joked.
“damn, I would have brought a take home container,” another person said — to which Pham replied that she absolutely did.
As drool-worthy as this dinner was, it’s not the only time Pham has taken her followers behind the scenes of the dining halls at Harvard. In fact, her food tours have become a bit of a series lately, and TikTok can’t seem to get enough of it.
According to the Harvard website, a typical meal plan costs anywhere from $1,256 to $1,413 a semester. Tacked on to the annual tuition costs (which start at $54,269), that can really add up.
But according to Pham, who responded to multiple user comments since starting her series, she doesn’t pay that much to attend the famed institution.
Instead, she says that a scholarship covers most of her tuition, and while she does need to cover extras, it is considerably more affordable for her to attend the school than it might be for others.
As Pham continues to post more videos, she’s developed quite the devoted following.
Some are fellow foodies who follow to see what she’ll eat next.
“i love these videos,” one person wrote on her Easter brunch video.
“literally I would want to go to Harvard just for there food,” added someone else.
Others couldn’t help but note their jealousy.
“Cries in community college,” one person wrote on a different video.
“Bro my college be having Kraft Mac and cheese dude,” another person chimed in.
“What the heck we did not eat like this when we were freshmen it was literally over cooked flank steak,” said someone else.
“Me watching this as I slowly rip open my ramen packet,” yet another person joked.
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