<p>I keep hearing these stories about how people aren't happy at Harvard. For those of you who are at Harvard currently, can you tell the rest of us a bit of your experiences? Whether you're happy or not. Whether you think you made the right decision. Thanks!</p>
<p>Um, I'm sure in every school there are unhappy people, who might seem like a majority, but are really an underwhelming minority. After all, it's only the people who have gripes with the system that are vocal about it, so theyre the only ones you hear.</p>
<p>You can go princetonreview.com and checkout quality of life --> happy students.</p>
<p>I reckon most people are happy with their choices. But there will always be those who arent.</p>
<p>I know that I'm incredibly happy here, as are most of the other kids I know. I'm a pred-med and do research, but I sing a cappella, shoot photo for the Crimson, play a ton of IMs, I'm running the Boston Marathon, and I'm also hooked into the final club scene (so I know a ton of the i-banking type kids as well). What I'm trying to say is that I know a lot of kids from a lot of different scenes on campus, and I really don't find my peers to be unhappy here. </p>
<p>As was pointed out in a different thread, however, apparently "just coming here for the name" (and the unhappiness that comes with making a decision for a silly reason like that) is more prevalent in some of the ethnic organizations on campus. That is one sector I'm not really tapped into, so I can't comment. </p>
<p>At the end of the day, Harvard has been hands-down the best choice for me. The resources are incredible (they gave me twice as much money as I asked for to go to West Africa for 8 weeks last summer), the students are all top-notch, and the social scene (contrary to popular belief) is actually pretty damn fun.</p>
<p>h-bomber, the whole funding thing for doing those awesome summer trips is totally one of the huge reasons i ended up applying to harvard (actually to HYP for that matter, they alll offer this).....was it relatively easy to apply for that grant?</p>
<p>and yeah my mom went to school in boston and said parties at the h-bomb were the most fun in the city</p>
<p>I have a Freshman D at H, who is very happy there. I have yet to hear a negative word from her about the courses, living arrangements, advising, competition or social scene. She is a high-achieving (duh) well-rounded student from a sophisticated neighborhood, who describes being at H as "amazing!" and "I'm finally in my element." As h-bomber corroborates, the social scene has been very satisfying, and if she complains at all, it is that she does not have enough time in the day to take advantage of all the experiences (social and otherwise) that H has to offer.</p>
<p>No way H parties are better than BC parties! :D </p>
<p>I only say this because I've been to parties with super smart kids who get drunk and have existential crises (not pretty)...whereas other kids just get belligerent and ridiculous.</p>
<p>All in jest.</p>
<p>The application process is a little inconvenient in that most of the fellowships don't tell you whether or not you got the money until late April even though you applied in early February, but in general the process itself is very straightforward. Many of the fellowships share a basic application called the CARAT (Common Application for Research and Travel) which asks you for all the logistical parts so you don't have to do needless paperwork, and then each fellowship might ask you for an essay, a rec or two, and a transcript. The funding available is ridiculous though, OCS has a database you can search for fellowships and it's pretty spectacular.</p>
<p>D loves it there, and all her friends seem to love it there. They have a blast and enjoy experiences and opportunities that they realize just aren't out there for the typical college student. Here's my take on the rumored negativity: 1) H students are by nature highly-critical people - that's how they get to be H students; and 2) H is the only school in the country to have no aspirational peer institution. Every other university is trying to catch up to the one just above it in the pecking order, and their students eagerly join in on the spin to interpret their experiences in the best light possible so that their school appears better than their rival school. H doesn't really have any other school to catch, so its students are perhaps more frank and realistic when assessing its pros and cons.</p>
<p>I'm a current freshman who made a choice between Harvard and a few rival institutions who claimed to have "happier" students (Yale?)... and, honestly, I feel like this is a useless thing to think about. You can be unhappy anywhere and happy anywhere depending on the things you take on and the choices you make, and I don't mean this in a preachy way at all.</p>
<p>I wasn't happy for a lot of first semester because I chose a class that was not right for me and took on too many activities. I had a terrible peer adviser but managed to make close friends anyway (hence: advising doesn't matter). My roommates are nothing like me and there's occasional tension but we transcend that (hence: roommate matches don't matter). I was rejected from virtually every activity I wanted to join at first but built up a decent resume with activities I love anyway (hence: you'll get over not being good enough).</p>
<p>Are there parties? Yes. I go occasionally. I'm not as sophisticated or posh as some previous posters, which might exclude me from the final club scene ;) but the Crimson (newspaper) and IOP (political union) serve as alternate social hubs on campus as well.</p>
<p>This almost sounds truistic, but you'll be happy if you choose to be. The work is overwhelming and the people are incredibly talented; the hoops are narrow and the competition has been jumping them for years; the food is mediocre and the housing (at least mine) is overcrowded. The preps are preppy, the snobs are snobby, the sluts are slutty, the jocks are stupid, the nerds are inept, and life goes on. :)</p>
<p>I was incredibly happy, too. I was not hooked in to a million different scenes -- I basically knew singers and transfers -- but my closest friends loved it like I did. I cried the entire day I graduated. I was only moving three blocks north to the law school, but I knew that I'd had it as good as it gets.</p>
<p>I just took 42 Harvard College students out for pizza on Monday and we had a blast singing in the restaurant and hanging out back at the hostel (they are in town on their spring tour). It's fun to be an alum, too. :)</p>
<p>Hanna - my D is a singer too. That may be one key (no pun) to Harvard bliss.</p>
<p>my cousin is a senior there now and he loves it...most of the time.
and i mean, lets be real...who loves where they go to school ALL the time? who loves ANYTHING that they do ALL the time? like, virtually no one. and think about it like this, even it turns out that you're kind of miserable, at least you'll have a rockin' degree when you graduate :-) </p>
<p>there are sluts at harvard O___O that's so funny! thats like the ultimate paradox</p>
<p>h-bomber: Do you belong to hcura?</p>
<p>I do, but I'm not incredibly active in it. Why do you ask?</p>
<p>I think OP might be referring to the COFHE surveys that suggests Harvard might have one of the lowest student happiness ratings.
<a href="http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2005/03/29/student_life_at_harvard_lags_peer_schools_poll_finds/%5B/url%5D">http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2005/03/29/student_life_at_harvard_lags_peer_schools_poll_finds/</a>
<a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=506807%5B/url%5D">http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=506807</a></p>
<p>I was really turned away by reading those, but I guess every school has some reasons for complaint. Anyhow, I thought all Harvard students were miserable. It's good to know that some are genuinely happy.</p>
<p>Those surveys were from 2005, before I even got to the school. Since then, several pretty major steps have been taken to address the 'happiness problem.' Interestingly, the survey was reported on in the Crimson under a front page called "Should We All Have Gone to Yale?" By my sophomore year (2007), a new issue came out called "Why We're Happier Here At Harvard."</p>
<p>All in all, there's been a new emphasis placed on undergraduates and undergraduate life here at the college. It's not just a few specific things (I'll be the first to admit that I think the 'fun czar' is a pretty worthless position), but more of an overall administrative attitude. Common gripes of years past like overcrowded housing, a complete lack of transparency in disciplinary proceedings (Ad-board), no 24 hour library, weird/bad calendar, lack of campus-wide events, etc, have been or are being addressed. </p>
<p>The housing survey resulted in Harvard realizing that the student body was outgrowing the facilities, and spurred a hard cap on admissions until the Allston campus's new residential houses are built. By the time you guys come through the school, the housing will be back to the levels it was designed for (aka, after I graduate) . The Ad-board is being reformed, the calendar has been reformed (for those of you that didn't know, exams will be moved to pre-christmas for all years after 2008-2009), we now have spring concerts, fall bbqs, campus-wide stein clubs, Lamont has been changed to 24 hours (silly to brag about, but it was ridiculous that we didn't have a place to study past midnight), and in general the administration is much more focused on students and student concerns.</p>
<p>For clarification, those surveys were actually from 2002.</p>
<p>I stand corrected</p>