Harvard University Top Questions

Classes are sometimes big, but you can still talk to professors at their office hours, although few do. Class experience sometimes is based on the TF you have, which sucks if you have a terrible TF, despite being in a fun class.

You can Harvard classes what you want them to be. If you are willing to pay attention in class and do your homework and reading they can be stimulating, thought provoking and fun. On the flip side if you neglect the above requisites then they become unintelligible, annoying and burdens. Its normally the students call.

The core program is pretty inconsistent in terms of quality (a lot of the science and math cores are pretty bad), but the administration is really working on changing it. Harvard seems like a big place, but within your concentration dept it is a lot more personal, even with big concentrations like English. The library tends to be pretty full Sunday - Thursday, which actually makes it kind of a social hot spot. The quality of discussion will almost always be far beyond anything you had in high school, although sometimes you get one of those extremely annoying Harvard kids who just loves to hear their own voice. But in general it is a fairly laid back environment, people work together and make study guides before finals, etc. Harvard's classes are definitely not geared towards getting a job and there are no pre-professional concentrations. By junior year, though, a lot of people are preoccupied with getting i-banking and consulting jobs, and Harvard definitely tends to push people towards those types of careers.

I feel like academics is important for many people but the real movers and shakers on campus are those who can balance decent academics with a lot of meaningful extra-cirriculars. Even among peers it is much more impressive to be heavily involved in the IOP rather than spend all of your time studying. I think a large part of it has to do with the fact that grade inflation allows students to do so.

My favorite classes have been my Expository writing classes. Those were very small classes of about 10-15, where we worked on developing college writing skills. The professors for that class were amazing and I continue to talk to one of them even though I am not still in that class. I have even gone out to coffee with my expository writing preceptor from last semester. Professors are extremely accessible if you shoot them an email requesting time. The most unique class I took was a course called Madness and Medicine last semester as one of my core requirements.

Students are competitve and I wish more intellectual conversations took place outside of class. Again, I believe this is a function of too much work being assigned that keeps people busy and no designated space for students to simply hang out.

Harvard classes range in size from 4 to 1000+ students. The amount of direct interaction with course-leading professors varies inversely with the size of the class. Class participation is generally welcomed by the teaching staff and is thus quite common. Students also have incredibly stimulating intellectual conversations outside the confines of the classroom. Caveat: there is really no such thing as an "easy class" at Harvard. Doing well academically will require a persistent, sustained effort; indeed, my favorite classes thus far have been among my most work-intensive and challenging.

There's a lot of work to be done at Harvard. Just like any other university, actually, you can find classes to coast through or courses that will challenge you more than you ever thought possible! (The likelihood of those "coast" classes is probably lower here, of course...) Harvard students study, study, study, but at the same time it's pretty difficult to get a terrible grade if you do your work. The key to enjoying your courses (and challenging yourself) is, at least in my opinion, finding small classes -- which is almost always a possibility at the higher levels of any department. That being said, the huge intro-level courses are often well-taught, and help is always available if you're feeling lost.

Professors are distant from students unless you make an effort to meet them. But the students are extremely smart.

economics classes are great, bio classes suck