Harvard University Top Questions

Students study a lot, especially for science classes. I am a Chemical and Physical Biology concentrator who is thinking about being pre-med. Still, what scares me the most are Core requirements; I hate writing essays!

Who cares about academics when there's six-figure finance jobs eagerly advertising themselves at OCS's career fairs, which are unrivaled in their balanced representation of the careers available to Harvard students? Why study for final exams in January when there's 50 companies to apply to on E-recruiting? With Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers to impress, who wouldn't take Capital Markets and cross-register for Accounting at MIT? So much talent and so many dreams enter Harvard every fall. Somehow, they emerge from the crucible as so many cogs for the finance machine.

Amazing. Professors are approachable. The resources are there, you just have to reach for them.

Yes, all of my professors know my name. There is a very close student-faculty relationship here.

The sciences in my opinion are more rigorous that the humanities. Some concerntrations particularly those with a lot of pre-med students have a more competitive atmosphere.

My professors mostly know my name. The best course I took was Social Thought in Modern America (Hist 1661) with James Kloppenberg. He gives a very challenging, comprehensive reading list and you have to read it all. But in return, he gives excellent lectures, hires quality teaching fellows and requires that you come to office hours to meet with him. Taking the course triggered a ton of intellectual conversations with my friends over meals. Our study group met every day for at least two hours for a week to prepare for the exam - it was awesome in its intensity. Students don't really talk about grades. That's probably a good thing for our health. Education at Harvard is geared towards academic life, which makes a lot of people not care since they are focused on getting a job anyway.

poor teaching, but great professors - they are amazing resources

Not what you expect. There are classes that are poorly taught, while others can be just phenomenal.

I can sum up the academics at Harvard in the following phrases: - Some classes are ridiculously hard. Some classes are ridiculously easy. There is nothing in between. Therefore GPA says little about your intellect. - Some professors are totally awesome (who actually care), and the others are simply terrible (who don't care at all). Again, there is no one in between. The amount of knowledge you gain is correlated with how much the professor cares, not with the level of difficulty of the courses. - Good TFs are the key to good understanding of class materials - I can't emphasize this enough. If your TF is obviously unprepared/annoyed to teach the section, GET OUT. You'll suffer.

Some professors are really nice. They care about students and are really interested in students' development. I am fortunate to have some of these professors. Harvard is not a job-seeking oriented educational institution. It focuses on education for its own sake.