<p>I'm just curious, current students, are you happy at harvard? Why/why not?</p>
<p>That's a very broad, vague question. </p>
<p>Is Harvard lovey-dovey, warm-fuzzy? No.</p>
<p>Are a lot of Harvard students depressed? Maybe. Some are and some aren't.</p>
<p>Harvard is full of type-A's who are inclined to be stressed out, intense, etc. But that doesn't mean everyone is depressed.</p>
<p>If you come to Harvard, though, you should know that it is a cold, hard, place, and there will be times when you want to leave. But hopefully those times will be outweighed by all the times that you are reveling in your amazing classmates, faculty members, and opportunities Harvard affords its students.</p>
<p>Let me continue on sunglasses' thoughts (By the way, sunglasses - I think I was in your Freshman Seminar before I dropped it for another class - are you majoring in what I think you're majoring in? If you are, see you in Sophomore Tutorial!):</p>
<p>I am definitely a type-A student - basically, almost everyone is. Everyone I met, I would say, is very driven to get the best possible grades, get involved and work up the ladder in different student organizations, etc. However, I - and the friends and acquaintances I met - are not depressed by any means.</p>
<p>I see it this way - when else are you going to be able to do things that you want to do? You can't do it in the real world - however, at Harvard, you can really do whatever you want to do in terms of academics and extracurricular activities, which makes for an amazing place.</p>
<p>sunglasses is right - Harvard will most definitely not hold your hand - you have to seek the resources out by yourself. At first glance, it seems as if it is a negative characteristic of Harvard, but I do not see it that way. In the real world, if you make a mistake, it can cost you not only in money but in a myriad of other ways. </p>
<p>However, at Harvard, if you make a mistake, it ends up being one not-so-stellar grade or using up an elective space or two, etc. These are far better consequences than what you would experience out in the world.</p>
<p>Harvard will teach you how to be happy!
<a href="http://my.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?course=fas-psy1504%5B/url%5D">http://my.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?course=fas-psy1504</a></p>
<p>If you take positive psych, people will laugh at you. Except, of course, for the hundreds of other students who decide to enroll.</p>
<p>xjayz--Yes, I was in that seminar, and yes, you shall see me in tutorial next year. You didn't miss much after you dropped it, my friend. He stopped baking for us, etc.</p>
<p>But, sunglasses, the midterm was "really hard."</p>
<p>Hmmm... I myself had a fairly difficult year, but that was for personal reasons, and not Harvard's fault. So I would say "no" in answer to your question, but don't take it as a reflection on the school.</p>
<p>I think Harvard is as good a place for happiness as anywhere else. It's a college, and that means that there's stress. But generally I find the people to be very nice, so at least there's that.</p>
<p>I actually have found that people at Harvard are not nearly so depressive as the people I knew in high school--not to say that my high school friends were all miserable and unhappy with their lives, but many of them had their fair share of mental health problems. At Harvard that seems less prevalent. Or perhaps it is just less talked about. I'm not sure which.</p>
<p>I think some of this thread makes Harvard sound a lot more grim than it is. First semester was really hard for me because I really didn't expect there to be much of a transition and, of course, there was. </p>
<p>Second semester I settled in and learned how to pick classes that I stayed excited about all semester, started figuring out how to evaluate and choose extracurricular opportunities that would make me happy and not stressed out, which housing configurations were right for me, and which qualities in friends I should look for and avoid.</p>
<p>If you're unhappy for any reason, be it social or academic or something else, Harvard has lots of resources in place for you. Like everything else at Harvard though, the resources are amazing but you have to reach out and go to them on your own; they don't just come to you.</p>
<p>Sometimes they do come to you (at you?), but only when you don't want them...</p>
<p>What makes you happy? If you're happiest relaxing in the sun with a pina colada, Harvard will probably not make you happy.</p>
<p>If, like me, you're happiest when you're surrounded by new challenges and you're busy doing ten of them at once with lots of other busy people, then you will probably love Harvard. I was happier there than I have ever been in my life, before or since.</p>
<p>sunglasses positive psych actually looks interesting</p>
<p>to each his own. personally, I am decidedly anti-team-building-touchy-feely-ropes-courses-talk-about-our-feelings-share-with-the-group kind of stuff, so it is definitely not my bag.</p>
<p>3 years from now, our own Sunglasses will be writing her own version of that column!</p>
<p>I asked my son, who's just completed his freshman year, for a response to this thread. He said that he bristles when he hears that Harvard is an unsupportive place, because he's found just the opposite, particularly among the students. He said that there's always someone who can empathize, reach out to you, and be supportive when you feel stressed. (And this coming from a pre-med student!) Now maybe he's just been incredibly lucky to fall in among great people, or maybe he's just an incredibly positive person. Maybe some of both. Nevertheless, he clearly couldn't be happier with his decision to attend Harvard.</p>
<p>^^Same with my daughter. She loves the place.</p>
<p>Is it possible to go to Harvard and still hold on to manhood? Don't get me wrong, friends and ec activities are great, but am I going to have to "express my feelings" and talk profound philosophy every day and night?</p>
<p><--- Getting a good chuckle out of picturing magicmonkey07 trying to express his feelings in the locker room of the Harvard varsity baseball team.</p>
<p>Depends on the people you hang around, magicmonkey.</p>
<p>Expressing your feelings is for losers. Repress, repress, repress!</p>
<p>Student life at Harvard lags peer schools, poll finds</p>
<p>By Marcella Bombardieri, Globe Staff | March 29, 2005</p>
<p>Student satisfaction at Harvard College ranks near the bottom of a group of 31 elite private colleges, according to an analysis of survey results that finds that Harvard students are disenchanted with the faculty and social life on campus.</p>