This is what you are thinking of. Note the tuition is $5k per course though there are some scholarships.
Special Student Status
Special Student status enables you to enroll part time in Harvard College, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, or another Harvard Graduate School (certain restrictions apply).
The fee is approximately $5,000 per course.
If you are an undergraduate student, at the time of application you need to have completed 64 credits with 32 completed at Harvard, and a 3.33 GPA or higher. If a master’s candidate, you need a 3.5 or higher GPA.
The deadlines are September 1 to enroll in spring term Harvard courses and February 1 for fall term courses.
Here is the information sheet: it is quite an extensive application process.
Just want to add that it is really helpful to look through the website of the Extension School. There are indeed some great opportunities at Harvard University through the Extension School. Harvard started the ES a long time ago to serve working people, and their commitment to that mission remains genuine.
For admission to the program you take 3 probationary courses, including expository writing. There’s a lot of info on that too on the website.
Harvard Extension School is basically a local community college for working(-class) adults in the Boston area. It is not at all the same as Harvard College and someone who goes to the Extension School will certainly not be considered a “real” alumnus by Harvard alumni from other schools. (My Harvard alumni friends even look down on the Kennedy School as not being rigorous enough to cut it.)
Harvard Extension is much harder than community college, and it does not have open admissions. Graduates do pretty well actually (not that community colleges students don’t).
But it is not the same as Harvard College in terms of selectivity, obviously.
Some Harvard alumni live in a bit of a bubble I can’t really see looking down on anyone who works, raises a family and goes to school, or any combination of those things.
I think the only reason for a college age student to attend HES is money. HES is very very inexpensive. I recommend it to kids whose parents can but won’t pay for college and they want to become independent. It is a doable but difficult path in that circumstance. Socially, it probably leaves a lot to be desired for young folks.
Young people for whom cost is a priority usually qualify for financial aid at Harvard College or many other schools at varying levels of selectivity. So cost would not be a reason to choose HES for a traditional aged student I don’t think.
Many students at HES are older and some of them already have degrees too High schoolers and homeschoolers also take classes. The other young people I know who go are either practicing artists or dancers trying to accumulate some courses, or young people who have had some sort of break in the continuity of their lives. The cost of classes is about the same in the UMass system.
There is most likely a subset as described by ClassicRockerDad (with whom he has experience) whose parents don’t qualify for enough financial aid and refuse to pay for college, or even think their responsibility for kids ends at 18. Many of the young people I know in that category are waiting until they turn 24 and financial aid is based on their income, not their parents.
@TomSrOfBoston, people who want something for nothing (in this case, a Harvard degree and the doors that open because of it, without the cost that people like me paid for it) are all too common in this world. I have no patience for those types of freeloaders.
If someone lives in the Boston area and is a working adult and HES is the most convenient low-cost option, however, and the person isn’t going there for the Harvard name, then I’m all for it. That’s the purpose of HES and there is absolutely nothing wrong with going there for that purpose.
Well, I am glad you added that last paragraph. Some people take HES classes because of the quality and rigor they offer. Some because of location and price. Some because it does indeed offer many of the resources available at Harvard University (read the website).
Most people are well aware that HES is not Harvard College. The occasional poster who comes on this forum and wants the prestige of the name is not the usual student at HES.
Feel free to express your opinion, but do not continue to argue the point; it is very unlikely that opinions will change. No sense in beating a dead horse, particularly when it does not address the original poster’s question.
I’m not sure what your frame of reference is, but HES strikes me as being a veritable bargain. Total tuition for an undergraduate degree with no transfer credits runs about $43K, and total tuition for a graduate degree is about $28K. These total degree costs are about the same as a single year’s tuition at many private institutions.
You would also need to pay Boston/Cambridge rent rates, utilities, food, and live off campus not enjoying any campus life. You would be taking classes at night. Your classmates will be older people with families and jobs. HES serves a valuable function in the community, but is not a replacement for a traditional undergrad education and experience. Taking all of this into account, it is not a “veritable bargain.”
I can’t really see looking down on anyone who works, raises a family and goes to school, or any combination of those things.