<p>A.S.A.P:</p>
<p>Tsk, tsk. What do you know about this prof that you can make snide comments? She got teaching awards at both Harvard and the LAC. I would not have approached someone who was a failure as a prof.
I should have left out the bit about LAC students not wanting to depart from the text and merely said that they did their assigned readings conscientiously.</p>
<p>and people wonder why H has a reputation for arrogance...</p>
<p>I did my reading for most of my courses but I will confess that I once wrote a paper about Nietzche and the rise of Nazism where I only read three pages of Nietzche's book. The best course I took (a graduate seminar) we wrote a short paper on the reading for nearly every class, we all did the reading for that one! I actually preferred to take a mix of courses - some like math and art and languages required regular work all along instead of a big push at the end.</p>
<p>Mathmom:</p>
<p>Yes, that's what I told my S: to mix up courses. Even then, the first week of reading period turned out to be incredibly stressful as psets and long papers all came due at the same time.
This is why I am impressed by Sarah Eggleston (whom we have known for a long time). She had to do weekly psets besides producing all these plays and operas.</p>
<p>Marite--I didn't think it was that particular school, but the statement is very broad, and obviously dismissive of LAC students in general (unless you think "unwilling to depart from the arguments in the readings for fear of being wrong" is a compliment (and I'm betting you don't.))</p>
<p>Garland:</p>
<p>I can see how my comment was open to misinterpretation. I should have just said that the prof had taught at another highly ranked school rather than a LAC. It was not meant to be a comment about LACs. The student body's profile is very similar, and many choose it over H because of size, climate, etc....<br>
I suspect that several factors play into the difference: there is a definite culture of learning (or not learning). If you know the rest of your section does the reading, so do you! There is also the incredible temptation of all these clubs and the possibility of doing community service. Even now that school's over, S and his chums are in daily mulitple communication about their plans for fall; some are staying in town to continue with their ECs (in fact, most of his chums are staying in town for the summer).
Personally, I am netrual about the calendar reform. I am hoping my S does not put his ECs ahead of his studies. I just wanted to point out that calendar reform will change how things are done at Harvard, not just in terms of academics, but also in terms of ECs.</p>
<p>Fair enough! I don't (really can't) have an opinion on the Harvard calendar, though I find the discussion interesting. It does sound like such a different place from either of my kids' schools, that I can only be a curious observer.</p>
<p>While I knew quite a few people who majored in their ECs at Harvard and went on to make it their life's work. I also knew far more who led pretty normal lives. They might have been in orchestra, or worked on the Advocate, but they didn't do it full time. OTOH the radio guys, the editor of the Crimson, Peter Sellars (the one who now produces operas, not the movie star!), seemed to put academics second.</p>