Harvard compared to other schools, courses

Colleges & Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>The undergrad course structure at Harvard is pretty cool in most respects (I like the idea of a Core Curriculum and the freshman seminars are cool), but one thing I noticed was that students from other schools (Yale, Berkeley for example) had a lot more classes per semester, usually five or even six. To me, that’s a plus because I want to learn as much as possible in the widest range of classes possible. It seems like Harvard’s different from many other universities in terms of course structures. Pretty much, I have three questions.</p>

<li>Why only four courses/semester at Harvard? Are four courses enough/the best balance?</li>
<li>What are the differences between the semester and the quarter schedule, and are “quarters” really trimesters? (That’s what my sister told me.) What are the advantages and disadvantages of both?</li>
<li>Which of these universities have a quarter system and which have a semester system?: Stanford, Yale, MIT, Berkeley, UCI, UCLA</li>
</ol>

<p>Thanks a lot!!</p>

2

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<p>You're free to take 5 or 6 if you want to. That will probably be discouraged freshman fall, but after that, you can do what you want.</p>

3

<p>You need 36 courses to graduate from Yale.
That - and sheer excitement at the offerings - may accout for the 5- and 6-course semesters I undertook as an undergrad.
At other places, only 32 are needed.</p>

4

<p>only 30 for princeton A.B.'s, although the senior thesis counts for an additional two.</p>

5

<p>Quarters really are trimesters: you have fall, winter, and spring during a normal academic year. </p>

<p>Advantages:
1. It's harder to become complacent because you feel the time crunch more.
2. If you hate the class it's over with more quickly.
3. Theoretically, there's less material to remember for the final.</p>

<p>Disadvantages:
1. More exams.
2. At Harvard you get a ridiculously long "reading" period as well as a drawn out finals schedule (only two scheduled per day), while at a quarter system school finals week is immediately after the last week of classes. You just don't have time to review massive amounts of material, so you'll need to have a good grasp heading into that last week.
3. Sometimes they like to cram a semester's worth of material into a quarter.
4. If you do fall behind it's much harder to catch up. </p>

<p>UCLA and UCI have quarters, the rest are semester schools.</p>

6

<p>Stanford is on the quarter system as well.</p>

7

<p>4 classes per semester is generally plenty. Some people take 5, but they're encouraged to weigh the benefits and with the potential hardships that can come with a schedule of that sort. Harvard is a lot of work. I know I'd rather have a quality experience in 4 classes instead over spreading myself thin over 5.</p>

8

<p>I believe all the UCs except Cal are on the quarter system. Cal Poly - SLO is on the quarter system.</p>

<p>It seems like the west coast has more 'quarter schools'.</p>

9

<p>Harvard students learn a lot from their outside of class activities. For example, Harvard students run a daily newspaper that is a better education in journalism than a journalism degree program (which, if I remember correctly, Harvard doesn't even have).</p>

10

<p>Tokenadult--you're right of course...Harvard does not offer a journalism degree, which is considered pre-professional.</p>

<p>Yet, there are tons of Harvard grads working at publications like the Times, New Yorker, Time, Economist etc. etc.</p>

11

<p>Four courses are pretty much the norm for freshmen so they don't get stressed out, you can take five, but then you have to seek the permission of your academic advisor, because trust me, four is definitely enough.</p>

12

<p>Thanks for answering all of the questions so throrougly, all of my confusion was cleared up. =)</p>

<p>Couple other questions, what kind of stuff would you recommend for an individual who wants to major in computer science. How is the computer science department in general, as in courses, professors, resources, culture, etc. I also would like to be active in the community...Harvard Student Agencies seems interesting, and also one of the newspapers.</p>

<p>CS Department
1. Is the culture and passion of students as strong as schools known for CS such as MIT/ Stanford?
2. Are there local businesses and opportunities?
3. Is MIT significantly better than Harvard in CS?</p>

<p>HSA
1. What can a freshman do in the entrepreneurship division?
2. How much is the pay, and time commitment?</p>

<p>Newspapers
1. Are newcomers (not in journalism in high school) the minority?
2. What are the main newspapers and what are their focuses?</p>

<ol>
<li>Are minors advised?</li>
<li>Overall, in college, what would an individual who knows what major they are going to do in each year?</li>
<li>If you're going to study abroad for a year, does that really interfere with your regular schooling? If you realllly want to study abroad, but still want to graduate in four years, what's are the available options? I would like to study abroad more than once, is this possible?</li>
</ol>

<p>Thanks, again.!</p>

13

<p>An attempt at your questions:</p>

<p>CS Department
1. Is the culture and passion of students as strong as schools known for CS such as MIT/ Stanford?</p>

<p>I've never seen the MIT or Stanford CS communities firsthand, but I imagine the Harvard one to be very similar, just smaller. This is possibly a negative, but also a potential positive (closer-knit community, less competition for resources, etc). There are <em>definitely</em> a lot of students doing a lot of cool CS projects (see thefacebook.com shuttlegirl.com lots more).</p>

<ol>
<li>Are there local businesses and opportunities?</li>
</ol>

<p>Boston isn't Silicon Valley... but Silicon Valley comes here to recruit! I know people who have interned at Google + Microsoft. Also, on a smaller scale, there are <em>lots</em> of jobs/positions putting together websites + webapps for student groups + stuff like that. Not the most thrilling, but I'm sure cooler things exist if you look.</p>

<ol>
<li>Is MIT significantly better than Harvard in CS?</li>
</ol>

<p>Can't really answer that. I do know that Harvard beats MIT for most if not all non-engineering fields. I'm also a fan of Harvard's <em>academically</em> diverse student body.</p>

<p>HSA
1. What can a freshman do in the entrepreneurship division?
2. How much is the pay, and time commitment?</p>

<p>I'm on the Crimson's business board, and although a bunch of my friends work for HSA, I'm convinced its a better undergrad business opportunity. PM me if you want details!</p>

<p>Newspapers
1. Are newcomers (not in journalism in high school) the minority?</p>

<p>I can only speak for the Crimson, but they assume you have no prior newswriting knowledge + begin training with the most basic details. I would guess newcomers are the minority, but not by much.</p>

<ol>
<li>What are the main newspapers and what are their focuses?</li>
</ol>

<p>Crimson–The daily. Large news + ed depts. Smaller sports, arts + magazine departments. Design, photo + business opportunities also. Fairly rigorous semester long "comp" process where newcomers are trained + evaluated.</p>

<p>Independent–Weekly. More news analysis than straight news.</p>

<p>Salient–Biweekly(?). Conservative opinion.</p>

<ol>
<li>Are minors advised?</li>
</ol>

<p>Nothing you have to worry about now! It's a new program + people aren't sure what to make of it. In fact, no minors currently exist (but the first round of official requirements are expected to come out soon). If you're interested in two fields, but not in the overlap of the fields, a minor might be a good idea.</p>

<ol>
<li>Overall, in college, what would an individual who knows what major they are going to do in each year?</li>
</ol>

<p>Not sure what you're asking. If you know your major (or concentration in Harvard speak), you can start taking classes in it early... </p>

<ol>
<li>If you're going to study abroad for a year, does that really interfere with your regular schooling? If you realllly want to study abroad, but still want to graduate in four years, what's are the available options? I would like to study abroad more than once, is this possible?</li>
</ol>

<p>You should be able to study abroad for a year and graduate in four years, but you'll have to make sure you find a study abroad program where credits will transfer to Harvard. Study abroad for > 1 year might be theoretically possible... but I've never heard of it. On a personal note, I came into Harvard fully expecting to study abroad, but after a month or two of classes, friends + activities, I realized that there's no way I'd be able to tear myself apart for a whole semester!! Summer options abroad are definitely more popular than ones during the year.</p>

14

<p>Here's another article about Harvard academics I found. It's written by a Harvard freshman; good overall view of academics at harvard: <a href="http://admitspit.wordpress.com/2006/11/01/how-x-does-academics-x-harvard/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://admitspit.wordpress.com/2006/11/01/how-x-does-academics-x-harvard/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>