<p>Thanks Synth. So from this I would guess that parents should plan on leaving, at the earliest on the night of the day after move-in day.</p>
<p>Completely different topic: Where is the nearest library to the freshmen dorms? Also the nearest gym? Do freshmen typically study in their rooms/dorm buildings or go to the library? Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>That entirely depends on what dorm you’re in. The Harvard yard dorms are closer to Widener. The Union dorms are closer to Lamont. Then the dorms on the nothern side of Harvard Yard are 100 yards or so from the Cabot Science library and a few hundred yards from the law library. But you have to understand that all these things are very close together. No dorm is farther then 2 minutes from lamont or widener. They are 50 yards apart or less. The nearest gym would be the law school gym for most people, though the MAC is less then a five minute walk. Many people study in both at times. Some only study in their rooms, and some only study in the library. So there is no real answer to that question.</p>
<p>Thanks White Rabbit! I haven’t been able to find a good map of campus so just having those names to try to pinpoint everything is really helpful!</p>
<p>One of the best maps available is [url=<a href=“http://lib.harvard.edu/libraries/maps/index.html”>http://lib.harvard.edu/libraries/maps/index.html</a>] here online <a href=“Courtesy%20of%20the%20Harvard%20University%20Libraries”>/url</a></p>
<p>This is so helpful - thanks Synth!</p>
<p>[Harvard</a> University Map](<a href=“http://www.map.harvard.edu%5DHarvard”>http://www.map.harvard.edu) is also a good one.</p>
<p>Thanks so much - I’ve been perusing these and am starting to get my bearings. Happy 4th everyone!</p>
<p>Do the various science departments have different reputations for how undergraduates are treated in terms of advising, access to top faculty, flexibility in course selection?</p>
<p>Anyone know any nuances of different science departments at Harvard?</p>
<p>Congratulations to all the newly accepted Class of 2014 students!! This thread seemed like it was pretty useful last spring, so I’m just bumping it up again so that those of you trying to choose a college can easily get first-hand information about Harvard from people who’ve actually attended. </p>
<p>Just some info on me, I’m a relatively recent alumna of the College, Class of 2008. I loved Harvard so much that I’m returning for another 3 years in Cambridge as a student at HLS. So please feel free to fire away with any questions or concerns you have about the school, I (and the other students/alums who’ll hopefully join in) will be happy to provide as thorough and honest answers as we can.</p>
<p>caramel. is it more difficult to go to a Harvard graduate school if you went there for undergrad?</p>
<p>Nope, getting into Harvard graduate/professional schools isn’t made harder by having attended for undergrad. In fact, it’s probably made <em>easier</em>. Harvard College is actually the best-represented undergraduate school for most (if not all) of Harvard’s grad schools, and I can personally attest to witnessing many, many of my friends from college end up right back in Cambridge when it came time to get an advanced degree.</p>
<p>hey!
I was accepted and have a few questions…thanks for this thread! i really appreciate it.
- what were some of the negatives of you Harvard experience?
- what about your personality do you think made you like the school?
- did the ‘alumni network’ help you with your career?
- what do you think about the diversity at Harvard (ethnic and socioeconomic)
- how competitive is Harvard? (examples would be nice)
- did you know anyone who hated harvard? why?</p>
<p>After being accepted to Harvard, what type of ec’s/awards do you think they like to see most? How does the admission essay and letters of recommendation affect chances of being accepted?</p>
<p>For anybody that transfered in: what did it take? Did you have to do anything special? Is one year of undergrad at some other place really enough to make up for a lackluster high school career?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Hi ianrev, congrats on your acceptance! To answer your questions:</p>
<p>1) Negatives of the Harvard experience: Hmmm, well the weather, for a start! The long winter wasn’t exactly my cup of tea. Also, the food in the dining halls was often less-than-awesome, and housing quality varied widely - it has some really high highs and some very low lows. Particularly in the River houses, sophomores and sometimes (but less often) juniors would have to deal with walkthrough rooms. I fortunately never had to live in one and neither did many others, but for those who weren’t as lucky there was the attendant lack of privacy to deal with in rooms like that. Another negative for me was section, which is a weekly small-group discussion component that pretty much all the larger courses have. Sections, led by Teaching Fellows (TFs, Harvard’s version of a TA) were meant to serve as an opportunity to dive deeper into the course readings and such, but honestly just felt like a hassle a lot of the time. The discussions frequently didn’t feel like “discussions” at all so much as people randomly jumping in with disjointed comments in order to get their participation grade for the day, regardless of whether or not they did the reading. I certainly had some great section experiences, but it all really depends on your classmates, the TF, and the material, so it’s very easy to get aggravated with them. </p>
<p>2) Personality-wise I’d say I’m pretty relaxed. I’m not prone to stress myself out too terribly about academics because, essentially, I know the work will get done at some point. While I’m quite sharp-witted, I’m actually an introvert, and prior to attending Harvard didn’t see myself as anything particularly grand or even necessarily as a leader. There are a lot of people just like me at Harvard, and probably an equal number who are the exact opposite, or something else altogether. Different personality types can thrive there. What made it wonderful for me was that since I didn’t stress about schoolwork, I was able to throw myself completely into the vibrant extracurricular scene. And though I’m an introvert, being surrounded by all sorts of amazing people, including some upperclassmen who reached out directly and mentored me, and made me realize that I didn’t need to the loudest, most outgoing person in the room to make an impact or to exhibit my own brand of leadership. Going to Harvard helped me realize my own potential, and all the resources and activities on campus gave me the opportunity to really see what I could do. </p>
<p>3) I’m not far enough along in my career to really say whether the alumni network has helped me, but I have had occasion to meet with some really accomplished people in my fields of interest and get insight from them into how they got where they are. The alumni network is a great resource that gives you access to Harvard grads who are succeeding and leading in any possible career area you can think of. And I’ve never encountered an alum who is anything less than willing and excited to help out Harvard students and younger graduates wherever they can. </p>
<p>4) Harvard is a very diverse place in terms of race/ethnicity and socioeconomics. One of the best things about it is that people generally don’t close themselves off from one another. It’s sort of the best of both worlds in that different ethnic groups have strong and close-knit communities, but members of those groups are fully integrated into Harvard as a whole because they’re participants and leaders in all the different activities. For example, I personally was very active in the Association of Black Harvard Women, but was also an editor at The Crimson. Socioeconomically, while I was there I met and became friends with people from all walks of life, from rich legacies to people who were the first in their family to attend college. All of those people socialize freely, join the same clubs, date, etc. So in terms of diversity, Harvard is great. There are of course still some incidents of racial tension, but it doesn’t pervade the campus culture.</p>
<p>5) Harvard is competitive primarily in the extracurricular scene, but even then it’s only in those student groups that actually foster it with things like elections or competitive comps. If you’re looking to be non-competitive in your ECs you can certainly find that, but people at Harvard are generally very involved. I don’t think I even know anyone who wasn’t an officer of some club or another at some point. Academically, I never saw any competition at all. No one discusses their grades, and certainly nobody is going to try to sabotage a classmate or steal their homework or anything. Why bother? It’s not like there’s a limited number of good grades to go around, at least in the humanities. (I can’t speak for sciences/math folks, but never heard of insane competition among them either.)</p>
<p>6) I did know of a couple people who hated Harvard, yes. Among their complaints: poor advising, not enough support from Career Services for students who don’t want to to i-banking or consulting, too many students looking to enter the corporate world, and too much social power given to male students through finals clubs. I’m sure there are other things, but it’s hard to say what would make anyone genuinely hate the place. I want to stress that those are <em>their</em> complaints, not mine. They do have some basis in reality, but weren’t enough to make me personally hate Harvard. No college is perfect, right? I had an amazing college experience and wouldn’t trade it for anything, but of course Harvard isn’t for everyone so of course there will be some people who hate it there. I’d say the vast majority don’t though.</p>
<p>cb0610 & antonioray,
This thread is geared more toward answering the questions of students trying to decide if Harvard is right for them rather than for giving admissions advice. You guys might be better served starting new threads for your questions, and that way this one won’t get too off course. Thanks, and good luck!</p>
<p>What is conversation like? Is there any discussion of the information from class outside of class, although not necessarily with students who aren’t in the class? Or do people shy away from intellectual subjects when they can? If people don’t like talking about nerdy stuff like that, are there subsets you can find that do?</p>
<p>Basically:
When I was a sophomore, I was geeking out about Thomas Malthus and how, although looking at Europe he seems totally wrong, people are always still freaking out about an explosion in world population with one of my friends. Then friend B swung around and, with the most disdainful voice I have heard in my life, said “[Lirazel], why are you being so BORING? Let’s talk about movies.”
Is Harvard a place where that is likely to happen, as a rule? Is it avoidable by choosing the right group of friends?</p>
<p>i bet there’s a combination of both. you should find new friends.</p>