Alex
most lectures are too big, but the seminars and labs are great. great faculty and available tutors.
Steve
Professors are friendly for the most part and like to interact with students. Students are studying all the time, and it makes me feel pressured to study all the time even if it means not getting as much sleep as I would like. Harvard students do have intellectual conversations all the time, and are always up for talking about science, or politics, or the economy. I am a chemistry major. The chemistry department has a lot of focus on organic chemistry and that is what I like about it. Harvard's requirements are pretty flexible I think, which is great because then you can pick courses you are interested in. The education here at Harvard is more academic rather than pre-professional, which is what I like.
Blake
Is extremely competitive. But most professors are very friendly and personal if you actively engage them in conversations or actively seeks them out.
Parker
I like the academics at Harvard in terms of my professors. I am very close with most of them. The one thing that is hard is the amount of work required.
Isabell
My favorite classes are HS A-21 and GOV 2227. At college class participation could be more encouraged.
Jerry
acamdeics at harvard really vary by major. in some majors it is easy to feel like you can do everything and it others you have to drop everything to get your work done. i started in ec, had a breeze, felt really on top of school, and switched to comp sci and math, which made things much harder. i think i've really gotten to see both sides of the academic community.
Ryan
At Graduate School students are not that competitive, which very good for the atmosphere. People do not have to prove anything anymore as they already have a lot of experience
Matt
The biggest problem with academics at harvard is probably the overuse of teaching fellows. A lot of the time they don't really know the subject that well. Some professors know my name while the ones from the bigger classes definitely do not. My favorite class is probably Chinese, because the head prof is brilliant and extremely enthusiastic, also, the tf's for that class are very involved and clearly love teaching. I am also in a freshman seminar with two other students, so I've developed a good relationship with that professor. The academic requirements are really hard to get a handle on, especially if you're undecided.
Brett
Most classes are really big and you have sections with graduate students but seminars are available made up of small groups of students, even in big classes professors have office hours and are very accessible, intellectual conversations happen all the time, people study hard but also make time to have fun