<p>I will be transferring to Harvard as a junior (hopefully, i'll have to see how the credit transfer works out) this fall. Does anyone (possibly past transfer students or current students) have any advice on how to get myself set up socially and academically at Harvard? Previously, I attended Carleton, a small liberal arts college in the midwest so an environment like Harvard will be totally new. I don't really know anyone in the area and I haven't gotten a chance to talk to any alums. I'm excited to start at Harvard this fall but I'm also intimidated. Any help would be great.</p>
<p>I also transferred to Harvard as a junior from a small LAC. Don't worry --it's going to be a great adventure!</p>
<h1>1: Go to all the events sponsored by the Transfer Links. There will be tours, mixers where you can meet other transfers</h1>
<h1>2: JOIN. The best possible things to join are an a cappella group or a varsity sports team; either one will have you completely set up socially, instantly. Other activities can also do a lot for your social life. If you tell me what you like to do (politics, writing, whatever), I'll tell you the most social group at Harvard that does it. This wasn't my thing at all, but joining a fraternity/sorority is another way for a transfer to find instant friends.</h1>
<h1>3: Don't be shy about going to events that look like they are intended for freshmen. You're being oriented, too. So go ahead and go to the ice cream bash, etc. if you want. There's nothing wrong with making friends with freshmen.</h1>
<h1>4: Don't be shy, period. Walk up to people at parties and introduce yourself. If you don't know anyone in the dining hall, invite yourself to sit with a table of strangers and say you're new in the house. When I did this, I was welcomed 100% of the time. It doesn't come naturally to me, but I forced myself to do it anyway, and it's the best thing to do.</h1>
<p>Have fun! And say hi to Julia (the dean of transfers) for me!</p>
<p>Thanks for the excellent advice Hanna. I've heard that your housing at Harvard is very important and is some ways defines who you get to know. Other than that, I'm a terrible singer and I'm not at the varsity level at any sport. I'm a gay man and I'm mostly involved in activism and peer counseling (coming out support, etc.). Including what you've already mentioned, my plan is to scope out the LGBT center and work my way into the community socially. </p>
<p>In terms of fulfilling academic requirements, I only have a basic understanding of the core curriculum and the requirements for a concentration in psychology/neuroscience track. But I'm not sure how much of my concentration and how much of the core I've already fulfilled with the classes I've already taken at Carleton, and what flexibility I have left with my two years. Is this something that an academic advisor will work out with me? So many questions!!!</p>
<p>sweetsangria -</p>
<p>Which House are you in? Another thing to think about is intramural sports. You certainly don't need to be varsity level. Participate on a few IM sports teams and you will get to know a bunch of others in your house very quickly.</p>
<p>I agree with coureur about the IM sports participation. Most of the social life at Harvard seems to revolve around house activities. Be sure to get a good foundation there.</p>
<p>As to understanding the core curriculum, HA! Once you understand it, please clue everyone else in. The administration is going to redo the whole thing in the coming years, and for good reason.</p>
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<p>I'm a gay man and I'm mostly involved in activism and peer counseling (coming out support, etc.). </p>
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<p>Oh, there are a lot of good things for you to join. Not surprisingly, LGBTSA throws a damn good party. At their intro meeting in the fall, they'll talk about all their sub-groups. Another great general peer-counseling group is called Room 13; the people I know involved in that are extremely cool. Each house has a queer-issues tutor who is in charge of events and counseling in the house; get in touch with yours this summer (via the house facebook) and see if you can get involved in planning. BTW, each house has house-based community service days as well as IM sports teams (which welcome terrible athletes); either one will introduce you to a lot of your neighbors.</p>
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<p>But I'm not sure how much of my concentration and how much of the core I've already fulfilled with the classes I've already taken at Carleton</p>
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<p>Julia and the Links will help you with this. In general, you shouldn't be asked to take more than one Core for each semester you're in residence at Harvard. The psych department was pretty lenient about giving me concentration credit for my Bryn Mawr psych courses. At a minimum, all your psych classes should at least count as concentration electives (I got credit for Psych 1, statistics, and two psych electives). Whether they'll let you place out of basic neuroscience courses like Sex is a separate issue. I ended up doing summer school in order to take extra psych classes and free up senior electives (and also because I didn't want to leave!).</p>
<p>I still haven't received my housing assignment yet. Are transfers placed in the freshmen dorms or are they randomly assigned to an upperclass house?</p>
<p>hello, I also got in as a spring sophmore transfer . . .
Did you opt out of Expos? If so, was it easy--did you just send them your writing samples?
Thanks</p>
<p>Transfers are placed in an upperclass house.</p>
<p>I placed out of expos...it shouldn't be a problem if you have four or five papers with good citatons, preferably from different fields.</p>
<p>Hanna,</p>
<p>I have some questions concerning the Psychology MMB concentration track.</p>
<ol>
<li>How difficult is it to get the MMB track application and thesis application approved? </li>
<li>Do they only allow a certain number of students into the MMB track?</li>
<li>Are the requirements for this track easy to fulfill (excluding the GPA requirement)? </li>
<li>How difficult is it to get into the required classes and the Honors tutorials?</li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks a bunch!!</p>
<p>congrats on your transfer? Any tips on how to make the process succesful for others?</p>
<p>Hmmm. Like freshman admission, it's very much a lottery. However, if I were to point to specific factors that helped my application, they would be college performance, ECs, and recommendations. </p>
<p>In my application:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I had a relatively high GPA for my first two years (3.765) and my GPA for my concentration is psychology was a 4.0</p></li>
<li><p>I come from a small liberal arts school and I was very involved in gay activism and peer counseling. I really needed a bigger environment to further my experiences in activism. Along with some ECs like internships, I think this was one of the biggest things that worked in my favor.</p></li>
<li><p>I also had very good relationships with my professors. That's the great thing about liberal arts schools. My recommendations were written by the department chair for the chemistry department and my English professor (who was a former dean of the college, attended Harvard and was an America studies professor at Harvard for a number of years). I had a particularly great relationship with her and she was very supportive of my decision. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Like I said before, the strengths for every acceptee are different and my experience is certainly not the only one to go by. People on the transfer board are really helpful. In fact, a member named slipper1234 was by far the greatest help on the whole board. He always had great advice and he know SOOO much about the transfer process. Also, do a search for harvard transfers--there are probably tons of threads from the last year. Hope this helps!</p>
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<p>If you're interested in the courses, then it shouldn't be too much trouble. Doing any honors track will likely cut into your available electives, though.</p>
<br> [QUOTE=""]
<ol> <li>How difficult is it to get into the required classes and the Honors tutorials?</li> </ol>
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<p>I've never heard of anyone in any department having trouble getting into a required course for a major. If it happens, tell your concentration advisor and your head tutor, and you will get into the class. The honors tutorials are designed around the number of majors in the department, so don't worry about that either. There are sections designed to accommodate students entering the concentration late (which includes junior transfers).</p>
<p>Have you met a Mike Church? I believe he graduated this year.</p>
<h2>No, I haven't met him but the name looks familiar. I think I've read some of his postings on the Carleton Caucus.</h2>
<p>Thanks Hanna for the advice and the reassurance. When I was researching the school during the initial application process, I looked at the Harvard's MMB concentration program, the lgbt website, and info about Boston but I never really looked at the nitty gritty of the academic requirements and the day-to-day issues. </p>
<p>Coming from a Bryn Mawr, how did you find the transition from a small liberal arts school to Harvard? As much as I b-tched about how "nurturing" a liberal arts administration can be, I'm sure there are many things that I've taken for granted. </p>
<p>Moreover, what were the biggest contrasts between a liberal arts school and Harvard for you? Thanks for the help. Needless to say, I'm absolutely excited!</p>
<p>Sweetsangria, I was at a tiny suburban women's college with a weak psych department, so it was like a global change -- EVERYTHING was different.</p>
<p>The biggest shift for me was being surrounding by hundreds of people I instantly liked & respected & fit in with. The next biggest was feeling like the stakes had been raised 100fold (in a good way) in music, in theater, in academics. All of a sudden there were opportunities greater than I had ever dreamed of, and before I even adjusted my dreams to account for the huge new potential, they all came true. It was like this huge wave crashing down, and to my surprise and delight I was surfing it as well as anybody else.</p>
<p>I was honestly high-on-crack happy that first semester. Don't expect to be THAT happy -- the whole experience was exaggerated for me because I'd been looking for all of that for 8 years and never finding any of it, and then I got it all at once. If you're pretty happy now, it won't be such a shock. :)</p>