<p>hey guys-
i haven't been to these forums for a while- by way of introduction, i used to be pretty active back in the junior/senior high school years, and now im a freshman at harvard...needless to say, i haven't had much time to surf the cc boards but im home for break and rather bored and would love to answer any questions all you recently-accepted (or deferred/rejected/not applied) kids have about harvard. does this make me lame?
on second thought, please don't answer that.
:)</p>
<p>No--it makes you an oustanding human being who hasn't forgotten us Harvard wannabees.</p>
<p>Question: How tough is the couseload at Harvard?</p>
<p>oh, i can answer this one. the courseload is sorta tough. it is perfectly manageable if you choose the right classes (read: don't do premed) and are superb at time management skills. both of which i failed at first semester. that being said, it's not easy. you still have to work hard. don't let anyone tell you that the hardest part is getting in (because it's not). but maybe whenicomearound will have a different opinion than me.</p>
<p>hotpiece101: As a premed, I found it easy to balance my courseload with my other activities. I do agree, however, that it is NOT easy here. You do have to work hard for your grades.</p>
<p>well, my course load is definitely not as challenging as some of my classmates (having a seminar, which is pass/fail, definitely takes some of the pressure off). expos (mandatory freshman writing class) isn't too bad, and my math class is hard but not as grueling as, say, math 23 etc. that being said, harvard's not as chock full of grade inflation as people seem to think. i'd never really seen anything below an A till this year, and i'm getting used to the appearance of other letters of the alphabet on my assignments. im often in the library till midnight, and i generally leave a good amount of people in there. but while i do my fair share of work, im a lot less anal about everything then i was in high school, and i find that to be typical of most people. also, i went to a high school where i was in class for about 9 hours, and here my longest day is 3.5 hours-that in itself gives me tons of extra time that i never had.</p>
<p>oh, oh, thank you harvard people!! more questions on the way. </p>
<p>1) what is considered a "good" GPA? in high school it's UW 4.0 by CC standards. what is it at harvard?
2) what's a recommended freshmen econ/finances course schedule? (i know this is very specific of a question. but maybe a few suggestions on the core curriculum thingie? i'm completely illiterate on the matter)</p>
<p>innocent stalker, </p>
<p>i don't really know what a good gpa is, i'm sure it varies between concentrations. as for econ, the intro course is Social Analysis 10: Principles of Economics. i'm in it right now and it's now too bad.</p>
<p>hotpiece</p>
<p>how much time does school (classes+homework) take up per week for the average person? a corollary is, how much free time do you get to devote to stuff?</p>
<p>no idea what a good gpa is, considering i do not have one yet (stupid finals after winter break). i hear mixed things about ec10, but i think you have to take it for any sort of econ schedule. classes, in my case at least, dont really take up too much time. i have no class on fridays, and only 2-3 hours of class per day. homework load really varies-some days i only spend around an hour, maybe two-and other times i'm working till 2am...this, however, might be more attributable to my procrastination than to the amount of actual work. there's always time for "stuff" :) - clubs are pretty awesome, and you'll find something you like and you will definitely have time for it.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>A "good" GPA is whatever you make of it. There are kids here who aren't satisfied with a 3.9 (which essentially qualifies you for highest honors and all sorts of academic prizes), where there are kids who are perfectly OK with a 3.0. It's really in the eye of the beholder.</p></li>
<li><p>As people have mentioned before me, Social Analysis 10 (Ec10) is the introduction to economics and is required for the Economics concentration. Many juniors/seniors audit or take classes at MIT's Sloan School of Business for accounting, etc. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>As a sophomore, I will have completed one core out of my seven at the end of this year (Foreign Cultures through a Language Citation). I have six more to go. I don't know if I would suggest this route to everyone. After all, I am a humanities pre-med so I have no room for electives.</p>
<p>Ok, this is probably a dumb question but what's a reading period? Is it just a week when students just have time to study on their own? Err.. what is it?
Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Reading period is the time before exams when there are no classes scheduled. You're expected to study for exams. For Harvard, it's two weeks. Other schools vary.</p>
<p>Ah, I see. Thank you!</p>
<p>How does Harvard calculate GPA, for admissions purposes and as a student?</p>
<p>Since this is a thread about student life...</p>
<p>GPA is calculated on a 4.0 scale. We don't have an "A+" grade.</p>
<p>A = 4.0
A- = 3.67
B+ = 3.33
B = 3.0</p>
<p>and so on.</p>
<p>hey, xjayz, do you work for the admissions office? are undergrads even allowed to do that?</p>
<p>Thanks, xjayz. So is A- considered 92 and below?</p>