<p>I'm a current Harvard grad student and cannot speak highly enough of my experience here.</p>
<p>LIFESTYLE: I'm a city guy, so I love that the campus is situated next to Boston (on the other side of the Charles River) and all that it has to offer: museums, cafes, hip bars, etc. Cambridge is also a charming town. </p>
<p>WEATHER: There are better places to be from December - February, when the temperature here is between 25-40F. Aside from those three months, however, the weather is quite pleasant. </p>
<p>STUDENTS: The stereotype of the arrogant and self-centered Harvard student is inaccurate. In the 70s, the stereotypical Harvard student was a scruffy, disheveled, artsy intellectual. The change may have been due to the 90s movie Good Will Hunting (shrug). I cannot really point to one Harvard personality type ... the only unifying characteristic is that people are extremely smart, hardworking and successful in their respective disciplines. </p>
<p>ACADEMICS: The undergrads here are very impressive. I've noticed that juniors and seniors tend to have a solid command of most of the academic literature of their fields, which in my experience usually occurs in graduate school for students at other institutions. Most of the professors here are some of the top thinkers in their fields worldwide. It's a good place to be.</p>
<p>RANKINGS: There are three or four global rankings of universities, and Harvard is #1 in all of them. </p>
<p>NETWORK: I was in SE Asia last summer for an internship, and was able to meet with more than 25 senior executives and other elites, mostly, I think, because I mentioned in my introductory email that I'm a Harvard student. This is very annoying, I agree, but it can be helpful. According to the NYTimes, Harvard also has the most powerful alumni network of any university.</p>
<p>Not to steal dillis’ thunder, but as another student I thought I could contribute. Specifically with regard to food, a major concern of mine. The food is…less than impressive. And stays that way for four years. It’s standard cafeteria fare; better than most university dining halls (worse than UGA), but a far cry from a black tie dinner. And the vast majority of meals consist of this dining hall food, as off-campus venues are to expensive to eat at on a regular basis and provide little in the way of nutritional balance. On the upside, the dining halls generally look really awesome!</p>
<p>I agree, the students are very impressive. However, if I had the option, I won’t come here. After a while that “aura of brilliance” becomes hackneyed and then the realization that the undergraduate experience in terms of being taught and immersed in research is, well, paltry. The student population, while impressive, is perennially busy, which means, ding ding ding, very anti-social. Friday nights are boring; Saturdays, disappointing. I worked hard for four years in high school, and now I feel completely miserable. I don’t like the “witticism” and the “humor” here. I don’t appreciate the finer “arts” vis-a-vis drag queen performances. Nor do I particularly care whether my professor wrote the textbook because as soon as he starts lecturing, only confusing statements ensure. Overall, if I had to do it all over again, I would not have come here. (And Yes!, I am a legitimate student. I’m in Lamont right now, and live in the Union dorms.) Seriously, for all the hype, it’s not really anything special, just a bunch of overly blessed kids who are trying to convince themselves Harvard is amazing. </p>
<p>/The last thing you should worry about is the food. That’s a ridiculous measure of the undergraduate experience.</p>