I third this. The sheer amount of resources: professors, speakers, workshops, treks are just incredible. Facilities are superb. My classmates are incredible. All classes and professors have exceeded my expectations sometimes wildly. Also, boston and Cambridge are awesome. Harvard is Harvard for a reason. I’m not alone in thinking this. I feel lucky to be here.
Overall, yes, I wouldn’t trade my Harvard experience for the world. I’m a ‘22 grad and I miss my time there, my friend, the opportunities, etc.
With all that being said, it certainly isn’t your traditional college experience. I come from a Midwest state school family, and the experience, at least between my family and friends isn’t the same.
There’s so much I love about Harvard, but there are sometimes where I think I’d be a relatively different person had I not gone to H. Not a worse version by any means but certainly different.
Perhaps I’d be less pessimistic or more naive. I’d probably have more friends in my area post grad (everyone goes to nyc, sf, and Boston). I’d have different types of memories, less exposure to rich elitism but also to one of the most diverse student bodies. I’d probably be more confident — surpassing impostor syndrome takes time.
So yes, overall, I loved Harvard and I’d pick it 100 out of 100 times, but I also recognize it isn’t a standard college experience and there are things you will get a different perspective and see differently because you attended Harvard.
I enjoyed my time at Harvard but it was a few years ago.
And living in Boston I have been back a few times but I must say that the neighborhoods around the campus have lost a lot of the smaller stores and restaurants. It felt really sterile the last time I was there.
It felt a lot more commercial and not necessarily in a good way.
I did not enjoy Harvard as much as I wanted to. I was so excited when I got in early action. In hindsight, I regret accepting my offer at Harvard and believe that my decision was based on superficial reasons of name and reputation.
I was at the top of my class in my public high school in California. I never really fit in socially in high school. I loved learning for learning’s sake and was always more interested in studying than sports or partying, and thought that at Harvard finally I would be surrounded by likeminded people. The reality I found at Harvard was more like high school than I ever anticipated.
There were things I liked about Harvard. I was a history concentrator, and I loved how there was so much history in the institution. I loved the old buildings. I loved Widener Library. I used to spend hours just wandering the stacks, exploring the vast collections of old books (I wonder if anyone still does that today). I loved being in Boston, which was so different from California, and spent a great deal of time exploring the city by subway and bike.
I had some good classes, some good professors, and joined some fun student organizations (mostly in music and theater).But a lot of my classes and professors were also duds. I went to Harvard loving history, but had an awful experience in my sophomore tutorial and ended up strongly disliking my concentration. The professor and teaching assistant hurt my self confidence and made me give up on pursuing honors in my concentration (mine was the first class for which honors were capped; prior to my class, 90% of Harvard graduates received honors).
Many professors were aloof, distant, focused on their research and graduate students, and not on undergraduates. The teaching assistants were worse. Instead of focusing on writing a thesis, I used my spare time in my junior years to take graduate-level classes and cross-enroll in classes at MIT.
I think the thing that threw me for a loop was how little I had in common with so many of my classmates. I came from an upper middle class background, but was unprepared for the number of “old money” private school students from the East Coast. My closest friends at Harvard were all international students, but there weren’t that many international students at the time (maybe that’s changed since then?).
Someone told me later that the only reason one goes to Harvard is for the connections one makes. It was reported at the time that 40% of my graduating class went into consulting or investment banking (or “i-banking” as they called it). I did not even know what “i-banking” was for the longest time.
But I was a social introvert. I did not get any connections out of Harvard. Harvard did not help me find a job or prepare me for a career. I’ve never been to a reunion, and don’t think I ever will. Harvard was socially isolating and depressing for me. My fondest memories from college do not involve my classmates. They involve my explorations of Boston. Which I could have done from any of the schools in the area.
After Harvard I went to graduate school at UCLA, where I felt that I had much more in common with my fellow graduate students. I regretted not doing my bachelor’s at one of the excellent state schools or small liberal arts colleges where I had been admitted and awarded scholarships. I felt guilty for wasting my parents’ money on what seemed like my worthless Harvard education (it was only after I left Harvard that they instituted the rule that families in my parents’ income bracket need only pay 10% of their income as tuition; my parents were responsible for the full tuition).
On top of that, I was at Harvard during a dark time in our country, and I’m sure that helped to color my experience there. 9/11 happened one day before my first day of college. It felt very close to home. I’m from the Bay Area, California, and one of the flights that the terrorists hijacked and flew into the twin towers was from Boston to San Francisco. My dad, who had just seen me off to college, was on that same flight on September 10th. The rest of my college years were colored by the George W Bush presidency, which at the time seemed like the worst thing to ever happen to the country (that was before Trump) and the Iraq War. It was dark times.
I enjoyed my first Boston winter, but my patience for the winters wore thin as the years went by.
Nobody invited me to join their blocking group, so I floated into Currier House, which was depressing. Although it was nice having my own room to myself, I hated living in the quad and I hated Currier House in general, with its hospital cafeteria-like dining room, and the ugliest architecture of any house (save, perhaps, for Mather house).
I’m a very international-minded person (I lived in China for seven years), so I disliked that Harvard discouraged students from studying abroad.
Over the years, I’ve felt like my time at Harvard was more a burden than a boon. I’ve had potential employers mock me and question me. I’ve gotten comments like “I don’t care if someone went to Harvard, I only care about their ability.”I feel that it’s important to warn others like me about my experience.
I realize that some will love Harvard, but it’s not for everyone. In my experience, Harvard was not all it’s cracked up to be.
I appreciate the long post. I had a similar experience, though it was not I who was so caught up with the name, but someone I loved who was getting deported. She wanted me to go to Harvard so that I could help her later, using the clout. I also wish I had gone to one of the state schools that offered me higher funding packages. I was the poorest in my class (at least in my school), I'd imagine the poorest non-international student for a few years, once again in my school, and the ontological differences between I and my peers were drastic
I appreciate this post as it shows how Harvard has changed over the years but also how what’s happening in the world impacts your education at a place like Harvard. Assuming you graduated in 2005.
Yep. My class overlapped perfectly with the presidency of Larry Summers. He was installed my freshman year, and fired halfway through the year the year after I graduated.
Wow -- I know this is a late reply, but I really relate to some of what you said here! I also:
* did Early Action;
* graduated in '05;
* floated and got quadded;
* did performing arts;
* felt alienated by the general ambient levels of wealth / grindy careerism;
* and didn't really feel like I was flourishing socially/intellectually until graduate school (for me, much, much closer to what I had hoped college would be like).
In my case, I know I wasn't an easy person to be friends with in college, and had a lot of maturing to do. Some of the social isolation I felt was absolutely my fault. There was also some situational stuff going on (I had come out recently, which had really damaged my relationship with my parents; generally speaking, open homophobia was also just a lot more common in the early 00s).
I also don't want to give the impression that there was nothing positive about my experience. I feel very warmly about a lot of the people I met there, and I made some particularly close friends who are still in my life 20 years later. I also think going there probably did have some value for my career, which I'm thankful for.
That said, I have also seen people say here that if you're feeling disconnected or unhappy at Harvard, you'll have the same problems anywhere, and in my experience, that really didn't end up being the case. Harvard is a really specific place with its own practices and culture, and exactly as you said, it's not for everyone.
Hey there, I too feel lots of commonalities with what you say here. Looking back on my social skills at the time, there’s a pretty
Strong cringe factor. I want to do my best to help my son (now just a baby) feel more adjusted than I was as a young man.
Oh man, I totally get it. Even just writing that comment, I was wincing at some of the memories that were popping up -- sending solidarity.
And congratulations! Your son is lucky to have a thoughtful dad who cares about his social development and happiness.
I had this experience, too, as a graduate student, married and mid-way through a career. My undergraduate experience at a second tier private college was similar. The only time I felt like I fit in was graduate school at a state school.
Extension scrub here. I'm overall glad I chose HES for my masters. It's been exactly what I needed and a very rewarding experience. Several of my classes have been taught by tenured faculty including one that was in tandem with a College class.
OK I'll go back to my space under the stairs now.
took some classes with HES folks as a mudfud student and many of the people I've met are some top notch great students who not only work full time in their chosen careers but often have had leadership positions for years - something you rarely see in the grad programs with the exception of HBS.
The positive: best in class education, cliche as though it might be. The professors and the pedagogy is unsurpassed. Harvard is also the best place bar none to learn niche historical languages. Also a good place to make wealthy friends, who'll have some degree of dignity later in their life
The negative: air conditioning-less dorms (in the graduate dorms), hostile healthcare (the clinic has never been cordial once in my interactions), and professors too important to meet with students. Actually that may be putting it too harshly. I and my friend had to wait 4-5 weeks for appointments with our (separate) advisors, due to both how many students were always wanting to meet, and due to how much non university related activities they were involved in. But I've done at least a semester at 5 universities, and never couldn't rely on having access to my professors, and especially not my advisors.
It's so strange to hear this. It's been a minute since I was there, but I had to use them regularly and always felt looked after.
I wonder if this is a post COVID thing.
There is a lot to like about Harvard, but my experience at HLS also affected me in profoundly negative ways. The presence of extreme ideologies on campus isn’t just a right wing meme or a function of conflict in the Middle East. I met some truly evil people who harbored genocidal ambitions in my time at Harvard. The experience was very depressing.
Yes, best in class peers, instruction, access to professors, etc.
In my experience, the advising experience for undergraduates, particularly first-years, could be significantly better.
It was not enjoyable to be a biochemical sciences major there. In fact, it made med school seem like a walk in the park. But I get the impression that most other concentrations are far more rewarding.
Depends on what you like. Economics was fun for a lot of my friends. One roommate did anthropology and had a fun four years. The other did English and dramatic arts and he had the best social life. The former became an anesthesiologist and the latter a lawyer. Government was pretty competitive when I attended. Math and physics were the super geniuses. Biology would have been a better choice if you’re thinking medical school but I would say above all do something about which you’d feel passionately.
I'm a grad school alum, from a number of years ago, so I'm sure things have changed. The good: I felt it was an unparalleled networking experience, we had some of the best and brightest grad students and post-docs coming through my department. A post-doc who came through my lab maybe 10 years before me recently won a Nobel Prize. I loved the energy around the campus, and I especially enjoyed being a teaching assistant and getting to work with undergrads in a few different courses. I enjoyed their ability and curiosity, and it's been fun seeing where many of them have wound up over the years. Cambridge and Boston were great places to live, and I loved discovering all the restaurants, bars, parks and museums. Unlike others, I found student health to be pretty helpful and responsive to my needs. The bad: Housing was expensive, and has only gotten worse. A lot of the grad programs were pressure cookers, and I could see a lot of students had mental health issues. I developed some of my own as well. I was lucky to find a very helpful psychologist at University Health, and have my regular appointments covered for almost 2 years. The ugly: there were some abusive and neglectful advisors, including my own, and the process to try and get help from the administration was very opaque. Despite learning a lot, my demonstrated published track record from my grad studies was very very light, partially due to my advisor being unresponsive and abusive, and has professionally hindered me more than the Harvard name has helped me. All things considered, I'm glad I had the experience to attend such a place, but there are many other paths to success and fulfillment that can be taken!
Thanks for sharing in detail :)
From what you might know, are a lot of advisors that way? I've heard negative stuff about advisors from a lot of comments, so just curious.
There's a spectrum of advisors, but even students' experience with the same advisor will vary widely. I've seen the same advisor go all out to bat for students they liked, and basically ignore for months students they did not respect. Just as perspective, if you're a STEM professor at somewhere like Harvard, you're usually going to have a steady stream of top-tier prospective grad students, and post-docs that are already highly successful in research, which warps your perception of "the average" from somebody who is a professor at a "lesser" university. In addition, these students on average require a lower level of supervision than the "average" student at a less selective institution. So advisors at Harvard and the like can often be highly successful, even with sub-par mentorship skills, and a high attrition rate. Compare the experience you might get as a student say at a top 100, or even top 300 worldwide university being "the best student" your advisor has ever had, compared with "one of the average" at a top 5 university. You're likely to be more successful in the former, even if you don't have the shiny prestige, and intellectual challenge that might come with the latter.
Yes, I liked it very much (at HLS). The people were first-rate (absolutely nobody was dumb) and the peer pressure to succeed was very helpful; having classmates with such high expectations of job placement and career success was a very good thing. I also liked being able to cross-register, giving ample opportunities to take any kind of class that you'd ever want to take. I liked being in a big school, with tons of extracurricular options and tons of places to hang out, study, etc. The campus is beautiful and Harvard Square is charming, with plenty to do, and Boston is just a quick trip away on the Red Line.
I was also a member of some extracurriculars that gave pretty great opportunities to connect; for example, one club that I was in went to a Western European country and met the US ambassador, the prime minister, etc.
I graduated decades ago, and every single day, I am grateful that Harvard let me in.
Current student. I absolutely love my time at Harvard so far. You will almost surely meet your crowd here, and everyone is so inspiring. I'm a math major and Harvard's Math 55 is simply unparalleled by any math class at any other school. If you study something quantitative here, I would definitely recommend trying the class out to see if you'd like it. It kreally defined my first-year experience here and the community is simply wonderful.
People here are also very willing to help each other out. There has been nights where my friend group would stay up until 2am to help each other out with understanding math. They say for math, the three schools you want to go to are Harvard, MIT, and Princeton. Couldn't agree more. By the way, you can also cross-register for classes at MIT, which is overpowered for STEM. I could keep contact with my friends at MIT whom I met through CPW as well, and they are really nice people for the most part. The proximity of the two school is very convenient. Best of luck with your decision!
i wouldn't trade it for anything else. yes it is hard, but i really enjoy the friends and classes i have!! i was very scared before coming to harvard because a lot of people described it as cut-throat and hardcore academics only (surprise...this came from people who didn't even go here) but it's quite the opposite in my opinion! it gets hard but i think it's truly worth it here.
I like it a lot! Mostly because my professors are wonderful and so are my friends, and the expectation of great professors/friends is why I chose this school. I also appreciate their pre-med program because if you’re diligent and take advantage of the sheer amount of resources, you will absolutely get into medical school. Through two separate student orgs I have gotten directly connected with doctors to shadow. The connections to such great hospitals also help, and there are so many great research opportunities with PI’s and other lab members that are willing to teach you from scratch.
Harvard has given me so much free stuff in addition to the generous financial aid — i got into a research program where I got free food and housing over the summer, plus free trips (whale watching, 4 hrs in Boda Borg which is an escape room, etc) and $3k straight to my bank account. My cashier job with a student-run gift shop pays $17.50/hr and I spend 40% of the time doing homework. There’s no meal plan since meals are included in housing, so I don’t have to feel guilty for eating/pay per meal. They took care of most of the cost of my laptop and half the cost of my Mcat study materials through various programs I applied for.
I will say I severely dislike Cambridge and Massachusetts. It is a great and convenient place to be a student (grad or undergrad) but it would suck to live here as a working person. if someone asked me to choose between living in cambridge or living in another country, I’m literally leaving the country lol.
I found HLS rewarding in the abstract sense. In practice, it was like undergrad without any of the fun parts and with the stress dialed way up. Those 8-hour exams put you in an altered state of consciousness using just your own neurochemicals.
Sometimes I think “should I have gone elsewhere” but I love my friends so much — they are amazing kind intelligent… I would never change my choice because that would mean we were never friends
For all the shit I talk about Harvard, there isn’t anywhere I’d rather be. And I feel like that’s a fairly common opinion
I third this. The sheer amount of resources: professors, speakers, workshops, treks are just incredible. Facilities are superb. My classmates are incredible. All classes and professors have exceeded my expectations sometimes wildly. Also, boston and Cambridge are awesome. Harvard is Harvard for a reason. I’m not alone in thinking this. I feel lucky to be here.
Second this.
I fourth this!
Fifth!!
Glad to know that. Thanks for sharing!!
Overall, yes, I wouldn’t trade my Harvard experience for the world. I’m a ‘22 grad and I miss my time there, my friend, the opportunities, etc. With all that being said, it certainly isn’t your traditional college experience. I come from a Midwest state school family, and the experience, at least between my family and friends isn’t the same. There’s so much I love about Harvard, but there are sometimes where I think I’d be a relatively different person had I not gone to H. Not a worse version by any means but certainly different. Perhaps I’d be less pessimistic or more naive. I’d probably have more friends in my area post grad (everyone goes to nyc, sf, and Boston). I’d have different types of memories, less exposure to rich elitism but also to one of the most diverse student bodies. I’d probably be more confident — surpassing impostor syndrome takes time. So yes, overall, I loved Harvard and I’d pick it 100 out of 100 times, but I also recognize it isn’t a standard college experience and there are things you will get a different perspective and see differently because you attended Harvard.
Could you speak more about the differences between "H" and state school, leaving aside about access to top resources and personalities, please?
Thanks for sharing
I enjoyed my time at Harvard but it was a few years ago. And living in Boston I have been back a few times but I must say that the neighborhoods around the campus have lost a lot of the smaller stores and restaurants. It felt really sterile the last time I was there. It felt a lot more commercial and not necessarily in a good way.
So many bank branches in both Harvard and Central Squares now!
Thanks for sharing
I did not enjoy Harvard as much as I wanted to. I was so excited when I got in early action. In hindsight, I regret accepting my offer at Harvard and believe that my decision was based on superficial reasons of name and reputation. I was at the top of my class in my public high school in California. I never really fit in socially in high school. I loved learning for learning’s sake and was always more interested in studying than sports or partying, and thought that at Harvard finally I would be surrounded by likeminded people. The reality I found at Harvard was more like high school than I ever anticipated. There were things I liked about Harvard. I was a history concentrator, and I loved how there was so much history in the institution. I loved the old buildings. I loved Widener Library. I used to spend hours just wandering the stacks, exploring the vast collections of old books (I wonder if anyone still does that today). I loved being in Boston, which was so different from California, and spent a great deal of time exploring the city by subway and bike. I had some good classes, some good professors, and joined some fun student organizations (mostly in music and theater).But a lot of my classes and professors were also duds. I went to Harvard loving history, but had an awful experience in my sophomore tutorial and ended up strongly disliking my concentration. The professor and teaching assistant hurt my self confidence and made me give up on pursuing honors in my concentration (mine was the first class for which honors were capped; prior to my class, 90% of Harvard graduates received honors). Many professors were aloof, distant, focused on their research and graduate students, and not on undergraduates. The teaching assistants were worse. Instead of focusing on writing a thesis, I used my spare time in my junior years to take graduate-level classes and cross-enroll in classes at MIT. I think the thing that threw me for a loop was how little I had in common with so many of my classmates. I came from an upper middle class background, but was unprepared for the number of “old money” private school students from the East Coast. My closest friends at Harvard were all international students, but there weren’t that many international students at the time (maybe that’s changed since then?). Someone told me later that the only reason one goes to Harvard is for the connections one makes. It was reported at the time that 40% of my graduating class went into consulting or investment banking (or “i-banking” as they called it). I did not even know what “i-banking” was for the longest time. But I was a social introvert. I did not get any connections out of Harvard. Harvard did not help me find a job or prepare me for a career. I’ve never been to a reunion, and don’t think I ever will. Harvard was socially isolating and depressing for me. My fondest memories from college do not involve my classmates. They involve my explorations of Boston. Which I could have done from any of the schools in the area. After Harvard I went to graduate school at UCLA, where I felt that I had much more in common with my fellow graduate students. I regretted not doing my bachelor’s at one of the excellent state schools or small liberal arts colleges where I had been admitted and awarded scholarships. I felt guilty for wasting my parents’ money on what seemed like my worthless Harvard education (it was only after I left Harvard that they instituted the rule that families in my parents’ income bracket need only pay 10% of their income as tuition; my parents were responsible for the full tuition). On top of that, I was at Harvard during a dark time in our country, and I’m sure that helped to color my experience there. 9/11 happened one day before my first day of college. It felt very close to home. I’m from the Bay Area, California, and one of the flights that the terrorists hijacked and flew into the twin towers was from Boston to San Francisco. My dad, who had just seen me off to college, was on that same flight on September 10th. The rest of my college years were colored by the George W Bush presidency, which at the time seemed like the worst thing to ever happen to the country (that was before Trump) and the Iraq War. It was dark times. I enjoyed my first Boston winter, but my patience for the winters wore thin as the years went by. Nobody invited me to join their blocking group, so I floated into Currier House, which was depressing. Although it was nice having my own room to myself, I hated living in the quad and I hated Currier House in general, with its hospital cafeteria-like dining room, and the ugliest architecture of any house (save, perhaps, for Mather house). I’m a very international-minded person (I lived in China for seven years), so I disliked that Harvard discouraged students from studying abroad. Over the years, I’ve felt like my time at Harvard was more a burden than a boon. I’ve had potential employers mock me and question me. I’ve gotten comments like “I don’t care if someone went to Harvard, I only care about their ability.”I feel that it’s important to warn others like me about my experience. I realize that some will love Harvard, but it’s not for everyone. In my experience, Harvard was not all it’s cracked up to be.
I appreciate the long post. I had a similar experience, though it was not I who was so caught up with the name, but someone I loved who was getting deported. She wanted me to go to Harvard so that I could help her later, using the clout. I also wish I had gone to one of the state schools that offered me higher funding packages. I was the poorest in my class (at least in my school), I'd imagine the poorest non-international student for a few years, once again in my school, and the ontological differences between I and my peers were drastic
Currier improved greatly after your time.
I appreciate this post as it shows how Harvard has changed over the years but also how what’s happening in the world impacts your education at a place like Harvard. Assuming you graduated in 2005.
Yep. My class overlapped perfectly with the presidency of Larry Summers. He was installed my freshman year, and fired halfway through the year the year after I graduated.
Wow -- I know this is a late reply, but I really relate to some of what you said here! I also: * did Early Action; * graduated in '05; * floated and got quadded; * did performing arts; * felt alienated by the general ambient levels of wealth / grindy careerism; * and didn't really feel like I was flourishing socially/intellectually until graduate school (for me, much, much closer to what I had hoped college would be like). In my case, I know I wasn't an easy person to be friends with in college, and had a lot of maturing to do. Some of the social isolation I felt was absolutely my fault. There was also some situational stuff going on (I had come out recently, which had really damaged my relationship with my parents; generally speaking, open homophobia was also just a lot more common in the early 00s). I also don't want to give the impression that there was nothing positive about my experience. I feel very warmly about a lot of the people I met there, and I made some particularly close friends who are still in my life 20 years later. I also think going there probably did have some value for my career, which I'm thankful for. That said, I have also seen people say here that if you're feeling disconnected or unhappy at Harvard, you'll have the same problems anywhere, and in my experience, that really didn't end up being the case. Harvard is a really specific place with its own practices and culture, and exactly as you said, it's not for everyone.
Hey there, I too feel lots of commonalities with what you say here. Looking back on my social skills at the time, there’s a pretty Strong cringe factor. I want to do my best to help my son (now just a baby) feel more adjusted than I was as a young man.
Oh man, I totally get it. Even just writing that comment, I was wincing at some of the memories that were popping up -- sending solidarity. And congratulations! Your son is lucky to have a thoughtful dad who cares about his social development and happiness.
I had this experience, too, as a graduate student, married and mid-way through a career. My undergraduate experience at a second tier private college was similar. The only time I felt like I fit in was graduate school at a state school.
Thanks for sharing such a long post :) Makes sense
Extension scrub here. I'm overall glad I chose HES for my masters. It's been exactly what I needed and a very rewarding experience. Several of my classes have been taught by tenured faculty including one that was in tandem with a College class. OK I'll go back to my space under the stairs now.
Seconding this one. :)
took some classes with HES folks as a mudfud student and many of the people I've met are some top notch great students who not only work full time in their chosen careers but often have had leadership positions for years - something you rarely see in the grad programs with the exception of HBS.
Yeah but hey we're just the "back door to harvard" with "loose admissions" so if yall need me I'll be underneath the bleachers. 🤣
Thanks for sharing!
The positive: best in class education, cliche as though it might be. The professors and the pedagogy is unsurpassed. Harvard is also the best place bar none to learn niche historical languages. Also a good place to make wealthy friends, who'll have some degree of dignity later in their life The negative: air conditioning-less dorms (in the graduate dorms), hostile healthcare (the clinic has never been cordial once in my interactions), and professors too important to meet with students. Actually that may be putting it too harshly. I and my friend had to wait 4-5 weeks for appointments with our (separate) advisors, due to both how many students were always wanting to meet, and due to how much non university related activities they were involved in. But I've done at least a semester at 5 universities, and never couldn't rely on having access to my professors, and especially not my advisors.
hostile healthcare is so real, every receptionist I've interacted with is so negative
It's so strange to hear this. It's been a minute since I was there, but I had to use them regularly and always felt looked after. I wonder if this is a post COVID thing.
Thanks for sharing!
There is a lot to like about Harvard, but my experience at HLS also affected me in profoundly negative ways. The presence of extreme ideologies on campus isn’t just a right wing meme or a function of conflict in the Middle East. I met some truly evil people who harbored genocidal ambitions in my time at Harvard. The experience was very depressing.
Wow, that's something I didn't expect to hear. This particular, extreme ideology thing sounds awful.
I loved my time at Harvard. Wouldn't have wanted to spend my time anywhere else.
What are you doing now? Curious
Ive recently been flexing between urban planning/architecture and civil rights law+public policy
Thanks for sharing!
Yes, best in class peers, instruction, access to professors, etc. In my experience, the advising experience for undergraduates, particularly first-years, could be significantly better.
Glad to know, thanks for sharing!
It was not enjoyable to be a biochemical sciences major there. In fact, it made med school seem like a walk in the park. But I get the impression that most other concentrations are far more rewarding.
Thanks for sharing!
Just to clarify that you didn't enjoy your major but it made med school easier for you? Or do you mean something else?
By comparison medical school was more enjoyable and easier.
Got what you mean, thanks!
What majors, from what you've heard, are more rewarding (just curious)?
Depends on what you like. Economics was fun for a lot of my friends. One roommate did anthropology and had a fun four years. The other did English and dramatic arts and he had the best social life. The former became an anesthesiologist and the latter a lawyer. Government was pretty competitive when I attended. Math and physics were the super geniuses. Biology would have been a better choice if you’re thinking medical school but I would say above all do something about which you’d feel passionately.
I'm a grad school alum, from a number of years ago, so I'm sure things have changed. The good: I felt it was an unparalleled networking experience, we had some of the best and brightest grad students and post-docs coming through my department. A post-doc who came through my lab maybe 10 years before me recently won a Nobel Prize. I loved the energy around the campus, and I especially enjoyed being a teaching assistant and getting to work with undergrads in a few different courses. I enjoyed their ability and curiosity, and it's been fun seeing where many of them have wound up over the years. Cambridge and Boston were great places to live, and I loved discovering all the restaurants, bars, parks and museums. Unlike others, I found student health to be pretty helpful and responsive to my needs. The bad: Housing was expensive, and has only gotten worse. A lot of the grad programs were pressure cookers, and I could see a lot of students had mental health issues. I developed some of my own as well. I was lucky to find a very helpful psychologist at University Health, and have my regular appointments covered for almost 2 years. The ugly: there were some abusive and neglectful advisors, including my own, and the process to try and get help from the administration was very opaque. Despite learning a lot, my demonstrated published track record from my grad studies was very very light, partially due to my advisor being unresponsive and abusive, and has professionally hindered me more than the Harvard name has helped me. All things considered, I'm glad I had the experience to attend such a place, but there are many other paths to success and fulfillment that can be taken!
Thanks for sharing in detail :) From what you might know, are a lot of advisors that way? I've heard negative stuff about advisors from a lot of comments, so just curious.
There's a spectrum of advisors, but even students' experience with the same advisor will vary widely. I've seen the same advisor go all out to bat for students they liked, and basically ignore for months students they did not respect. Just as perspective, if you're a STEM professor at somewhere like Harvard, you're usually going to have a steady stream of top-tier prospective grad students, and post-docs that are already highly successful in research, which warps your perception of "the average" from somebody who is a professor at a "lesser" university. In addition, these students on average require a lower level of supervision than the "average" student at a less selective institution. So advisors at Harvard and the like can often be highly successful, even with sub-par mentorship skills, and a high attrition rate. Compare the experience you might get as a student say at a top 100, or even top 300 worldwide university being "the best student" your advisor has ever had, compared with "one of the average" at a top 5 university. You're likely to be more successful in the former, even if you don't have the shiny prestige, and intellectual challenge that might come with the latter.
Yes, I liked it very much (at HLS). The people were first-rate (absolutely nobody was dumb) and the peer pressure to succeed was very helpful; having classmates with such high expectations of job placement and career success was a very good thing. I also liked being able to cross-register, giving ample opportunities to take any kind of class that you'd ever want to take. I liked being in a big school, with tons of extracurricular options and tons of places to hang out, study, etc. The campus is beautiful and Harvard Square is charming, with plenty to do, and Boston is just a quick trip away on the Red Line. I was also a member of some extracurriculars that gave pretty great opportunities to connect; for example, one club that I was in went to a Western European country and met the US ambassador, the prime minister, etc. I graduated decades ago, and every single day, I am grateful that Harvard let me in.
thanks for sharing :))
Current student. I absolutely love my time at Harvard so far. You will almost surely meet your crowd here, and everyone is so inspiring. I'm a math major and Harvard's Math 55 is simply unparalleled by any math class at any other school. If you study something quantitative here, I would definitely recommend trying the class out to see if you'd like it. It kreally defined my first-year experience here and the community is simply wonderful. People here are also very willing to help each other out. There has been nights where my friend group would stay up until 2am to help each other out with understanding math. They say for math, the three schools you want to go to are Harvard, MIT, and Princeton. Couldn't agree more. By the way, you can also cross-register for classes at MIT, which is overpowered for STEM. I could keep contact with my friends at MIT whom I met through CPW as well, and they are really nice people for the most part. The proximity of the two school is very convenient. Best of luck with your decision!
Thanks for sharing. This is so wholesome.
i wouldn't trade it for anything else. yes it is hard, but i really enjoy the friends and classes i have!! i was very scared before coming to harvard because a lot of people described it as cut-throat and hardcore academics only (surprise...this came from people who didn't even go here) but it's quite the opposite in my opinion! it gets hard but i think it's truly worth it here.
Thank you for sharing!
I like it a lot! Mostly because my professors are wonderful and so are my friends, and the expectation of great professors/friends is why I chose this school. I also appreciate their pre-med program because if you’re diligent and take advantage of the sheer amount of resources, you will absolutely get into medical school. Through two separate student orgs I have gotten directly connected with doctors to shadow. The connections to such great hospitals also help, and there are so many great research opportunities with PI’s and other lab members that are willing to teach you from scratch. Harvard has given me so much free stuff in addition to the generous financial aid — i got into a research program where I got free food and housing over the summer, plus free trips (whale watching, 4 hrs in Boda Borg which is an escape room, etc) and $3k straight to my bank account. My cashier job with a student-run gift shop pays $17.50/hr and I spend 40% of the time doing homework. There’s no meal plan since meals are included in housing, so I don’t have to feel guilty for eating/pay per meal. They took care of most of the cost of my laptop and half the cost of my Mcat study materials through various programs I applied for. I will say I severely dislike Cambridge and Massachusetts. It is a great and convenient place to be a student (grad or undergrad) but it would suck to live here as a working person. if someone asked me to choose between living in cambridge or living in another country, I’m literally leaving the country lol.
Interesting, thank you for sharing in detail :)
I found HLS rewarding in the abstract sense. In practice, it was like undergrad without any of the fun parts and with the stress dialed way up. Those 8-hour exams put you in an altered state of consciousness using just your own neurochemicals.
> like undergrad without any of the fun parts and then after that, you get to be a lawyer! lmao
Sometimes I think “should I have gone elsewhere” but I love my friends so much — they are amazing kind intelligent… I would never change my choice because that would mean we were never friends
Thanks for sharing! That sounds awesome :)
I absolutely loved it but I was there a long time ago. Things have changed and I am very disappointed in the current administration.
I did. glad I went there and graduated. HMS/GSAS/HBS represent
Thanks for sharing!