<p>I've visited Harvard and noticed its a very open campus. there is a unique goth/punk crowd that is always in Harvard square and there are a lot of outside people wandering through Harvard checking it out. I felt a little uncomfortable with almost too much spillover from the outside community ... is this a problem ...or am I an outsider that just doesn't know the real Harvard.</p>
<p>What does this post even mean?</p>
<p>Are you wanting a closed campus to keep the riffraff out?</p>
<p>LOL</p>
<p>[Homeless</a> in Harvard Square | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/column/talk-to-the-hand/article/2012/10/18/harvard-square-homeless/]Homeless”>Homeless in Harvard Square | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson)</p>
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<p>that was a little harsh, I apologize if my post was poorly worded – I didn’t mean to offend anyone.<br>
When I visited the campus and had my tour. I was having a tough time telling the difference between students and people just wandering through (& there seemed to be a lot of people wandering through). I was wondering if I just had a poor tour guide or is the campus really that open … it felt like a nicer version of Boston University which is right on Comm Ave. I was expecting a more closed in environment like Princeton. Excellent Academics are one part of the experience but the campus environment is another part of it. The catalogues and on-line pictures show a more traditional campus but my tour didn’t match what I saw on-line. Thank you for sharing your perspective. I’m not a Harvard student, I am nothing but an applicant.</p>
<p>Thank you Gibby … social awareness is very important … Cooper Union also had a few homeless people sleeping in the courtyard infront of the main building. if its an important component of a student’s growth experience then Harvard should at least show it in some of there photos.</p>
<p>I can’t answer the question, as I didn’t attend H as an undergrad, but I’ll chime in to defend the OP from charges of elitism. OP, as someone who lived in Cambridge, worked at H for many years and attended grad school there I get what you’re saying. The Harvard campus is very open, and Harvard Yard is used by visitors and locals as a cut through in a way that’s not true for most campuses.</p>
<p>As a grad student I did have to adjust to the frequent contact with the homeless just outside the walls of Harvard, but it didn’t take long and I did not find the Cambridge homeless to be particularly aggressive. I just learned to smile and say something like “Sorry, not today” when I was asked for change. In the 10 years I lived in Cambridge I never had an interaction with the homeless that was scary or violent. In my experience the goth/skater types kept to themselves. The Hare Krishnas and military recruiters who used to populated the Square many, many years ago were another story, but they’re long gone. Somehow the tourists used to bug me more but I’m not sure why-perhaps my own latent snobbism or Cambridge clannishness!</p>
<p>The area just outside Harvard Yard is very diverse. The good side is the many talented local buskers and people from all over the world you’ll encounter in Cambridge. </p>
<p>If you’re in Cambridge pick up a copy of Spare Change News, the paper written and sold by the homeless. It’s inexpensive and well worth the money. </p>
<p><a href=“http://sparechangenews.net/[/url]”>http://sparechangenews.net/</a></p>
<p>The bucolic, suburban town of Princeton is very different from the city of Cambridge (or New York City, New Haven, Providence, Philadelphia etc).</p>
<p>Harvard College is a historic landmark and tourist attraction for out-of-towners visiting the Boston area. Thousands (yes, thousands) of tourists come through Harvard Yard everyday – as they also do at Boston University, NYU, Columbia, Cooper Union, Yale, UPenn, Brown, or any college in a vibrant city. For those students living in Harvard Yard, it sometimes feels like you are living in a fish bowl. If you do your due diligence on a college by reading their student newspaper, you can find many articles about it. Here’s one from the Harvard Crimson: [Taming</a> the Tours | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“Taming the Tours | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson”>Taming the Tours | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson)</p>
<p>From your comments, it sounds like you prefer a suburban environment, which is one reason many students choose Princeton or Dartmouth over the other ivies, which are located in the middle of major metropolitan cities and have more spillover from tourists.</p>
<p>Many college applicants are looking for a school with a lot of diversity…as long as everyone is just like they are.</p>
<p>I understand that this thread may go into the direction of elitism and diversity… but I was more in line with the sensation of being in a Fish bowl with many eyes watching. The exceptional reputation of the university makes it a tourist attraction and I was wondering if I would feel like I was part of the exhibit. … and then the other piece, do people pretend to be students and try to fit in as some sort of Harvard fantasy. </p>
<p>I wasn’t singling out the homeless or anyone lower class… actually it looked like a lot of well to do young business people or tourists making pretend they were part of Harvard. If anything I felt like I was at Disney world sorting through various Character actors, employees and tourists …except with Harvard there are also students tossed in the mix trying to study and get a degree.</p>
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<p>Actually, this statement strikes me as elitist.</p>
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<p>It really doesn’t sound like Harvard (or any inner city college – public or private) would be the right fit, as you are going to find those elements at every college not in a suburban setting. Suburban campus = no tourists, no non-university employee’s, just students and faculty. That seems to be what you are looking for . . . and Harvard doesn’t fit that mold. Time to move on.</p>
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<p>There is no doubt that there are a lot of outsiders visiting the Harvard campus. You were one of them.</p>
<p>very true I was one of them and took the tour and then walked with my brother to explore. I may have caught the other campuses during off times but the Harvard campus was a very busy place. and yes that’s what I’m sorting through urban campus vs suburban vs rural. </p>
<p>I wasn’t trying to make it emotional… I live in a quiet area and I found the campus busier than expected and I was wondering if the whole university was that busy… or just the spots that the tours go.</p>
<p>Stanford wasn’t that busy
Cornell wasn’t that busy
Caltech wasn’t that busy
Princeton wasn’t
Brown wasn’t
Cooper Union was busy but wasn’t a tourist draw
MIT was busy but Harvard had a lot of interest and energy well above what I was use to seeing.</p>
<p>Some of it may depend on the time of year you visited. Harvard’s a popular tourist site, so the numbers fluctuate with the number of visitors to Boston.</p>
<p>^^agree. Unlike its peer schools…the visit to Harvard and Cambridge is frequently part of the Boston “colonial historical” tour especially popular with the Asian tour groups…</p>
<p>…you will rarely see “tour” groups visiting Stanford, Yale, or Princeton as part of a “historical tour”…</p>
<p>…students and families have to purposefully schedule a visit to the other schools…</p>
<p>@PAYNE101: As Harvard is the oldest university in the country and the most renown, it’s also going to have the most tourists and logically be busier than any other campus. That just comes with the territory.</p>
<p>May I ask, as a student, is it easy to get use to flow of people & something you really don’t notice & it just blends into the background of normal operations (like squirrels & pigeons)… I’m asking since I haven’t experienced anything like it. Is it something that’s concentrated in certain areas and its really OK and even a positive or is it a pain in the butt.</p>
<p>I really appreciate your insights. Its just the anxiety of navigating the unknown as I make my high school big decision. My school hasn’t been very helpful, they just paint a picture of an “Academic Camelot” where the bricks are gold and everyone sings .
by the way, I thought the path around the Charles river looked like an amazing place to go for a long run. Its hard to imagine a better start to the day with that as the morning run.</p>
<p>Harvard is an urban college. </p>
<p>Visit Columbia, UCLA, etc. </p>
<p>Or go by any of the better small town state Us. Try Madison or boulder or Ann Arbor. People, not just students, all over those campuses. </p>
<p>College campuses won’t be protected zones like high schools. They are places of research and collaboration and art and music and sports. </p>
<p>If you want something bucolic and isolated try some of the really great LACs. But you will also give up access to restaurants and cities and public transportation, as a result.</p>
<p>As a grad student I never felt like the outside world intruded on my academic experience. You wouldn’t have random people wandering in and out of the academic buildings or dorms.</p>
<p>Again, I sincerely appreciate that you took the time to share your perspective. Its been very helpful to read your words. Speaking for myself, This is crazy trying to pick the “right fit” and I envy all of you that have nailed down your first choice.</p>
<p>major, school, career… this is nuts trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.</p>
<p>ED, EA, SCEA, RD even applying has its own language. </p>
<p>and the essays … how many times can a person crumple up a piece of paper and try to make a few hundred words sound just a little better.</p>