<p>Hi everyone. So I'm trying to get a feel for each ivy league campus before I visit. Could someone give me some insight about the dorms, athletic facilities, weather, classes, school spirit, etc. (pretty much as much about the campus as possible). </p>
<p>And if possible, could someone please give me some intel about the basketball facilities? I'm hopefully going to try to play some ball here (trying to be recruited). Thanks</p>
<p>Hoops facilities at Harvard are pretty limited. Lavieties Pavilion is basically a high school-type gym in an airplane hangar-style building that dates back to 1926:</p>
<p>[Lavietes</a> Pavilion: GoCrimson.com](<a href=“http://www.gocrimson.com/sports/mbkb/facilities/lavieties]Lavietes”>http://www.gocrimson.com/sports/mbkb/facilities/lavieties)</p>
<p>At the same time, the student body has really gotten into Harvard basketball ([Comeback</a> Falls Short as Cornell Drops Crimson | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/2/20/mbball-cornell-recap-022010/]Comeback”>Comeback Falls Short as Cornell Drops Crimson | Sports | The Harvard Crimson)) - from what I hear, the place has been packed for the recent home games.</p>
<p>Classes depend on your major. Weather changes a ton; just look at Boston’s forecasts every so often. Dorms are some of the best I’ve been to. Athletic facilities aren’t bad at all, but they’re not like absolutely amazing either. What would you like to know about classes or other things?</p>
<p>I heard from people that go there that the atmosphere is really intense but there are a lot of intelligent yet friendly people there. Not every Harvard student is a WASP.</p>
<p>From my experience this summer the dorms were great (really hot in the summer, but during the school year ought to be nicer). I lived in Thayer Hall which was extremely close to Annenberg (Freshman food), the Science Center, and a lot of other places you’ll need to go.</p>
<p>The yard is beautiful and at least in the summer is filled with tourists, but you’ll get used to that. Sculling on the river is a lot of fun too, and there is a gym within 5 minutes of walking in Harvard Law close to Mass Ave (right next to a road at least). </p>
<p>The class I had was awesome, and I would think that most classes would be excellent there as well.</p>
<p>My son is a freshman at Harvard. He loves basketball, both as a spectator and a player, but he had no interest in being a college varsity athlete, and is not on the basketball team. He plays A LOT of pickup basketball at the various gyms and it’s been one of the high points of the school so far for him. Typically he’ll go to the gym with likeminded freshman guys and often they’ll find another set of guys (upperclassmen, law school, etc.) who are interested in a game.</p>
<p>“Not every Harvard student is a WASP.”</p>
<p>That’s the understatement of the year! Only about 50% of the undergrads are white Americans, and of that group, the majority is made up of Jews, Italians, etc. Not many WASPs at all.</p>
<p>^^agreed - I sometimes wonder when I go there especially from the standpoint of my kid’s friends if there any WASPs there.</p>
<p>^This is good news for a Catholic. ;)</p>
<p>To be honest whilst the majority of WAS’PS probably are white, you can get quite a few non-white WASP’s too - particularly the international students.</p>
<p>what is a WASP?</p>
<p>Um, honey. “While the majority of WASPs are probably white”…</p>
<p>White is in the name. Stands for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Can’t be one unless you’re white.</p>
<p>White Anglo-Saxon Protestant</p>
<p>Librazel - ah my apologies, I was assuming the term was the same as RAH (the British version we use to describe the rich students etc), who tend to be majority white but quite a lot of Asians (Indian).</p>
<p>Thinking about it, I assume WASP doesn’t mean anything like the term RAH (given what you state WASP means) - RAH is basically a term used to describe those who are rich, have stately homes, families in money etc, and hence colour/religion doesn’t play into it.</p>
<p>Well, it usually does mean rich and from New England–I’m a WASP, technically, but I’m from the South after a few years in California (hence the “honey”), so I’m surprised every time I realize that I am one. Lol xP. And you can be a really dirt-poor WASP, but that’s also not usually the connotation. I know that there are a lot of Asian kids at the best big universities-not so much at liberal arts colleges-especially Harvard, MIT, and Columbia. I simply haven’t looked up the data on the rest of the Ivies/similar. Many or most students do receive some financial aid, too. Most colleges post those statistics somewhere.</p>
<p>^^I don’t know about that. There seem to be a lot of chinese kids there and most of my D’s friends are Chinese.</p>
<p>IIRC, 20% of Harvard students are Asian. Chinese + Korean are the most common ethnicities (races? heritages?)</p>
<p>To get this thread back on track, the Harvard basketball team had a fairly exciting season. Is our basketball gym the same size as my high school gym was? Yes. Did Harvard lose to App State in its first postseason game in several decades? Yes. Will Harvard’s dominating best player, Jeremy Lin, graduate this year? Yes. Will Harvard’s basketball team be as exciting next year? Probably not. On the upside, the classes here are generally excellent, and you can pretty much find classes that are as hard or as easy as you want them to be. The housing is above average, although it varies widely. The food? Not great, often frustrating, but I’ve had worse. Oh, and if you’re a varsity athlete, you get to use the gigantic 24,000 square foot fitness facility only for varsity athletes, which I hear is very well equipped. Also, athlete alumni will pay for a team banquet at expensive places, and your athlete connections would provide a few other perks as well. Athletes aren’t exactly objects of adulation on campus, but all in all it’s a very good deal. Also, with regard to the WASPiness and privilege at Harvard, I like to measure privilege by the prevalence of pea coats (to be honest, being from the South, I didn’t even know what a pea coat was when I got here). And there are quite a few pea coats at Harvard.</p>
<p>Also there is a very large contingent of Chinese students at Harvard (I went to the Chinese student association’s annual banquet). Some of these students wear pea coats. Make of that what you will.</p>