<p>We have all heard various conflicting reports of world-renowned professors taking personal interests in undergrads and Ph. D. students teaching virtually all the classes. To all those who are currently attending H, what has been your academic experience, with regard to professors and such?</p>
<p>Above all, do you regret your attendence at H?</p>
<p>School starts next week.</p>
<p>Professors teach virtually ALL classes with a few exceptions:
(1) Expository writing, the required writing course for first-year students.
Classes are required to be small (usually under 15). You could have a professor, or a PhD candidate, or a journalist, or a visiting scholar, or a
famous writer/novelist... etc.
(2) Pre-calculus, calculus 1 - 2: usually taught in small sections run by Math PhD candidates. Format is very much like high-school math classes (daily homework, etc).
(3) Beginning & Intermediate Language classes: classes are run in small sections so there is plenty of opportunity to speak and participate... almost all language classes are taught by native speakers whenever possible.
(4) Various seminars/tutorials... often, the PhD candidate is a specialist in a particular seminar topic, especially if he/she is writing their dissertation on it.</p>
<p>Now, even when large classes are taught by professors (usually 3 hours lecture/week), the classes will almost always be broken up into smaller sections of 15-20 that meet an additional 1-2 hours for discussion with a graduate student "teaching fellow."
ALL professors are REQUIRED to hold office hours, in which you can drop by or make an appointment.</p>
<p>In my 4 years at Harvard, only 4 out of my 32 classes were primarily taught by non-professors... 3 semesters of Russian, taught by some incredible PhD candidates who were native speakers, and 1 semester of expository writing, in which my section was taught by a journalist.</p>
<p>i've been here two weeks, and simply: No, i do not regret enrolling here, and I had many options too. College is also what you make it out to be. </p>
<p>Of course... classes haven't started yet.</p>
<p>Remember, too, that admission to the graduate programs at Harvard is extremely competitive, often moreso than to Harvard College. Many of the TFs will soon be faculty stars in their own right. Being taught be a grad student isn't necessarily a bad thing.</p>
<p>True, some of them are completely uninterested in undergraduates and would rather be doing their own research. But that's true of some faculty, as well.</p>
<p>My daughter has been there for 2 weeks so far - 1 week for fall cleanup and 1week for "opening days". Contrary to the bad rap that Harvard gets - she has found all professors readily accessible and so far has had a great time. Of course classes start tomorrow so we will see what happens. I don't know if this applies to other schools but there are freshmen students who will be taking graduate level courses already - so there appears to be significant opportunities to work at your pace. So when people say that Harvard is only good for graduate school - there are students who take advantage of this even though they are undergraduates and this is can be a significant enhancement of the overall experience.</p>
<p>I'm taking a seminar on memory this semester taught by Dan Schacter ("The 7 Sins of Memory") and Randy Buckner. Maybe 12 people total in the class?</p>
<p>On the other hand, I've had to deal with some very bad TFs (especially in the sciences). There are also some great ones out there.</p>
<p>ive only been here for 3 weeks but im loving it so far
i have really interesting classes (2 cores, chinese language, expos), have cool TFs and profs and am getting really involved
so far ive only joined athletic-type stuff, but everyone here is really interesting
also, the social scene has been pretty sweet
i think that it's pretty easy to be happy here - college is what u make of it</p>
<p>I'm loving Harvard so far. The profs are brilliant and funny and approachable and even though one of mine speaks really fast and has a heavy German accent, I'm getting through it :) The workload is rather heavy but I'm sure everyone expects that... the parties are pretty crazy and it's nice to let loose on the weekends. Plus Cambridge+Boston are amazing, duh. Harvard is pretty much everything I hoped it would be and more.</p>
<p>i think "professors taking personal interests in undergrads" can be a bit missleading. from my experience, some professors are more accessible than others. for instance, i know a few profs who have lunch in the dining halls once a week to chat about class and life in general with other students. on the other hand, most students, especially freshmen who take many introductory classes, will probably not have a chance to really get to know professors. the only interactions that students may have with professors are during office hours.</p>
<p>depending on the cencentration, junior and senior years are a great time to intimately work with professors in small seminars. by the end of junior year, those planning on writing a thesis chooses a professor as advisors. thesis-writers meet regularly with professors in the long and arduous task of writing a senior thesis.</p>
<p>as for teaching fellows, they're basically a crap-shoot. sometimes you'll get an amazing TF with a true passion for teaching, while other times you may encounter someone who's just difficult or incomprehensible. the grades of students ultimately lies within the TF, and not the professor- which i guess is how it is like in most other colleges. therefore students may have a certain interest in getting to know TFs better on a more personal level.</p>
<p>as for the question on regretting my attendance at harvard, i think my undergraduate experience is based on much more than my academic experience. the social atmosphere factors in greatly in how i perceive harvard. many of the students here engage heavily in their extracurriculars, oftentimes working 20-30 hours a week. in my opinion, these activities have shaped the way i look at the world moreso than my classes. overall, it's a difficult question to ask- to be honest, based on conversations i've had with many of my friends, a lot of the people at harvard don't seem to have a great time. there are many complaints about the stiffness of the harvard administration/faculty, as well as lack of a vibrant social community. however, i think many people find their niche within harvard and ultimately leave the place happy.</p>
<p>lamont, that was REALLY help :) Thanks...I guess you brought up some points I hadn't thought about.</p>
<p>lamont? as in...ned?</p>
<p>more likely as in Lamont library</p>
<p>although ned lamont's daughter is an undergrad...</p>