Alumni experience

Colleges and Universities A-Z Haverford College
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<p>If anyone is interested in a young alum's perspective of HC, please let me know. I will try to look at this page on a weekly basis.</p>

<p>Several of my friends who are still active with HC, "recruited" me to participate with admissions counseling and recommended that I volunteer on a page such as this. Although it's been quite some time since I've been at HC and participated in anything Haver-related, my experience (during and after) may still be of interest to some. Looking through HC's web page recently, other than the fancy new buildings, better academic and financial resources and more selective student population, the core of Hc still remains the same. Please note that I had a great time at HC and my views wil be biased accordingly. </p>

<p>I graduated way-back-when in the last decade when HC admissions rates were in the mid-40%. My experiences relate to being a minority student, participation in several political/activist groups, customs', a pre-med, now a practicing MD and currently a grad student in policy/management.</p>

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<p>I'd love some input :D</p>

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<p>Sunny137</p>

<p>umm...er... I would like to help you but would you kindly specify what type of input you are referring to? Although I can discuss HC for a long amount of time, unfortunately, my time commitments at the moment prevent me from writing a novel. Did you have ?s about the honor code, interviewing, the sciences, pre-med, the tri-co, Philly life, after-college opportunities...?</p>

<p>let me know</p>

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<p>Two things.</p>

<p>The tri-college... how easy is it to take a class at the other two schools. Is it worth it or is it not much of a different experience.</p>

<p>We dont have an honor system in my school. How does it affect your life on campus</p>

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<p>I applied to Haverford RD, so I have some questions for you :)</p>

<p>First of all, would you mind telling us about yourself? What you majored in, in which activities you participated, and possibly what you have been up to since Haveford.</p>

6

<p>1) Tri-Co: In general, students take classes at the other colleges to complement any curricular weaknesses at their respective institutions. Academically, it's more of a bi-college consortium than tri-co given the respective distances between colleges. Taking classes at BMC is easy to set up and it's like signing up for HC classes. Scheduling swat classes is more of a challenge 'cause you have to fit class/travel time into your schedule (about 25-35 minutes). Some people also take tri-co classes just to get out of their respective geography.</p>

<p>I took a few BMC classes that HC did not offer. As a science major, I didn't feel a pull to take any classes at SC cause the sciences are exceptional at HC. Some of my friends in the languages, history and poli sci took classes at swat and enjoyed them. My brother, a swat student, took japanese and some advanced topic econ at HC. Also remember that while a lot of the academic departments are strong at all the schools, each one may have a specific emphasis that the others may not.</p>

<p>Also, a college education is also what you learn outside the classroom and the more important benefit of tri-co, for me, was the socializing and the attendance of special events hosted at the other schools.</p>

<p>2) honor code: It's something very special and unites all of the alums who I've met after graduating cause it's a very rare, yet weird, experience to go through. It's not for everyone. It's not perfect but it's something that students wrestle and challenge themselves with on a regular basis... and that process of reflection is a part of what makes it a valuable life experience in my opinion. It's not just about "not cheating" but rather trusting your classmates to do the same-which is a much more difficult but important thing to achieve... </p>

<p>For example, I took Adv Gen chemistry my sophmore year and the exam was closed book, limited-time and take home. One of my best memories is walking into the science library at midnight to cram for this exam and seeing 12 out of the 15 people in that class also studying just as hard. That's when the code really crystalized for me.</p>

<p>For the social aspect of the honor code, sometimes people misinterpret it as "behaving and being nice" but that is somewhat of a superficial rendering of something much more important. I view this as "respecting others". If you have a disagreement with others, see them do something crappy, the code normalizes and encourages you to have the strength to stand up for what you believe in and confront others in a respectful manner. It's not overbearing, it's not PC, it's not policing, it's a work in progress. It's what you make out of it. Later in life, there will be many situations where you will witness something corrupt happening or have a disagreement with someone. Some people will look the other way and others will argue and be dismissive of their opponents. I'd like to think that HC gave me an early start into thinking about how I would handle these situations and introduced me to the skills to do so. The opportunity to learn from the code is always there but it's up to the responsibility of the student to engage it.</p>

<p>As a personal example, discussions of race and class can be very confrontational in college and can turn a lot of people off because it's so intimidating- soap box preaching. As a response, my friends and I started an asian political satire magazine ("The Asian Slant", printed on yellow paper, the yellow pages, other off-color jokes...) where we embedded serious political articles next to craziness... and it worked. There are many other examples of students thinking creatively to address personally important topics as well. </p>

<p>Clearly, one can be very successful and honest without having to go to a school with an honor code and I think it has more to do with your upbringing than anything college can teach you. However, because HC distinguishes itself from the others because of the code, there is likely a greater concentration of people interested in these goals that at other places and I think, for me, being in that environment made my college years a little more meaningful.</p>

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<p>Please see my other posts for further details.</p>

<p>while at HC: Bio major with emphasis in biochem. Activities in no particular order, customs, asian students association (president, VP, treasurer, secretary), editor of political satire magazine, co-head of college film series, radio DJ, earthquakers enviro group, admissions volunteer, ulimate frisbee, protein chemisty research UW Madison soph summer, Center for Science in Public Interest in DC junior summer.</p>

<p>After HC: In NYC as Government Scholars Fellow in Mayor's Office/Dept Parks and Recreation working on work-fare program and then med school, residency in medicine @ Penn. fellowship as described previously at UCLA.</p>

<p>Plan is health policy and management</p>

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<p>Wow, looks like you were pretty busy at HC!</p>

<p>I'm also interested in knowing how easily students can get jobs/internships etc. as Haverford undergrads.</p>

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<p>People who do not have luck with internship applications may not be forthcoming with their experiences so this question is impossible to answer. I can only speak for myself. Maybe some current students can answer this for you but it seems that HC students are too engaged in their academics/ college activities to be procrastinating on a page like this. My applications were generally well received, but I think that was the norm. Many of my friends did a lot of very impressive things over their summer "breaks".</p>

<p>For my strategy, during fall semesters and sometimes over breaks, I would spend several hrs a week going over internship files at the career development office. Over winter break, I would then spend my time filling out the applications in which I was interested. By April, I would know what I would be doing for the summer. I'm a little more "Type A" and compuslive than some of the other students at HC, but this plan worked out for me.</p>

<p>From what I understand, since my graduation, HC has obtained significant endowed resources to fund summer projects. Some of these are described on the HC web page. The ones I'm most jealous of are the foreign service/research scholarships listed on the Center for Peace/Global Citizenship page.</p>

<p>If your question refers to a concern regarding name recognition, that is a non-issue. Employers are not as simple as people suspect and (1) what you did, (2) what you learned in doing it, and (3) how you present yourself, are more important than where you did it at. In my estimate, there are currently 30 national colleges and universities that think that they are in the top 10 of providing the best undergrad education and as long as you are in that peer group (and many times even if you're not) college reputation is not a critical factor.</p>

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<p>thanks that really helps</p>