<p>I visited Harvard over the summer, and absolutely fell in love with it.</p>
<p>The problem is - I'm interested in computer science, and I'm not exactly sure if Harvard is even worth the application as a result. I know the Engineering schools - UC Berkeley, MIT, CalTech, whatever - I hate those schools (I visited MIT, and UCB and CT are in-state, so I know a lot of people who attend).</p>
<p>Anyway, I'll probably end up applying to Northwestern or Rice so I can get the Computer Science degree without the typical Computer Science students, but I was still hoping that Harvard might be a valid choice.</p>
<p>I'd appreciate comments from current Harvard students about Harvard Computer Science. It sounds like the OP might find a good fit, but he's wondering and so am I.</p>
<p>Though I am not a CS concentrator, I know many people who have taken the Department's flagship introductory course, CS50. It is a tough class that requires hours of programming and work. However, my friends, including one of my blockmates, enjoyed the class very much. My three alumni friends who were CS concentrators are now at 1) Bain & Company as a consultant, 2) Google as a Software Engineer, and 3) 2L at Yale Law School. As can be seen, the career choices are quite varied, but they were very happy with their education here.</p>
<p>I'm not going to Harvard and I'm not sure whether I'm telling the truth here but, as far as I know, Harvard students can take courses at MIT (and Wellesley). You better ask a current student if this is true/feasible, though.</p>
<p>Most of the Ivies have good CS programs, especially at the undergraduate level. Princeton, Cornell, Brown, Harvard and Yale were all ranked among the top 15 computer science departments in the country by NRC. </p>
<p>Schools like Rice, NYU, UCSD, Michigan, Georgia Tech, USC, etc did not make the top 15. Northwestern was ranked #38.</p>
<p>Last year my son had to decide between computer science at Harvard vs. Carnegie Mellon - he wasn't particularly interested in the Harvard experience so he chose CMU. I'd take a look at CMU - with top notch arts and drama programs it isn't all techie kids. All computer science kids have to have a minor and it can be anything you like. One kid recently minored in bagpipes. I'd look at Stanford and Berkeley if I were you. Top notch CS with a varied student body. My son was told while theoretically you can take courses at MIT virtually no one does - their academic calendars are not particularly compatible.</p>
<p>Harvard is expanding its engineering offerings, presumably CS along with it, but I don't know what the timetable for the expansion is.</p>
<p>It's an adequate CS program. Twenty professors compared to two hundred. Last year Stanford, Berkely, Carnegie Mellon and MIT are in a virtual tie for first place graduate computer science departments and I believe Harvard was further down the list. </p>
<p>However if you love Harvard and would take advantage of it's other offerings, I don't think you'll regret it. I majored in art/architecture (Visual and Environmental Studies), hardly something Harvard excels at, and I had a great time.</p>
<p>I was considering Carnegie Mellon, but I shied away after I saw the 60/40 Male/Female Ratio. It's not that I want to have a majority of girls or anything like that (I don't know how I could possibly have that expectation if I want to major in Computer Science), but I went to a predominately male high school - and it just makes everything - well, just too much. I'd just like a balance is all. </p>
<p>I was also wondering - is Pittsburgh a nice place to live?</p>
<p>xjayz–That friend of yours sounds a bit familiar... perhaps I know him ;-)
(Edit: I misread your post... I thought you were referring to me! I think I do know the person you meant. But I'm doing the same things, just in reverse order!)</p>
<p>So I'm not a CS concentrator, so take what I say with a grain of salt. But a few pluses to Harvard CS:
1. Mike Smith, CS prof (used to teach the infamous CS50) is now dean of FAS. This has to be good news for SEAS + Harvard CS.
2. Harvard CS seems to be very, very well funded, including its plush Maxwell Dorkin digs (courtesy of Gates + Ballmer).
3. Great startup culture (maybe not to the scale of Stanford), but Facebook as well as a ton of small, but growing student initiatives (gotta plug my friend's site <a href="http://www.theupdown.com%5B/url%5D">http://www.theupdown.com</a> just launched this week!). Also cool stuff going on with the Interactive Media Group (google them!).
4. Lots of areas for cross-disciplinary collaboration. Ex. CS MBB concentration (allows you to take psychology + philosophy as part of your major, tends to be AI focused). Bio/Engineering overlap (iGEM team making crazy stuff out of DNA). Economics work, etc.
5. Solid CS recruiting (Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Accenture, Cisco, Meebo, among others); I believe there's access to MIT recruiting, should you want it. Also, from my experience, Microsoft in particular seems to be in love with Harvard grads.</p>
<p>Course offerings seem pretty interesting, if not vast. Research funding is pretty easy to get.</p>
<p>Pittsburgh is a nice city that has been voted most livable in recent years. However it's not Cambridge. The area around CMU is much quieter, there is a cute restaurant district across the river. </p>
<p>The CS department at Harvard seemed very eager to recruit kids to the major and it's true their new building is very nice. 60/40 was the male/female ratio when I attended Harvard/Radcliffe. I didn't feel particularly outnumbered, but I suppose you could say the ratio was in my favor. :)</p>
<p>I'm an engineering student at Harvard and I can say that the CS department is top-notch. Some of the top companies such as Microsoft, Google, Pixar, Cisco have recruiting events targeting Harvard CS majors. In fact, Pixar was just here yesterday. The engineering department at Harvard is growing at a very rapid pace. Over the last ten years, students in Harvard Engineering and Applied Science have doubled, faculty increased by 40 members, and the school is still growing fast. The EECS building is new and they're still in the process of building more gigantic engineering buildings right now.</p>
<p>Harvard officially launched the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences today with a celebration lunch. Members of the academic community such as the president of MIT, president of CalTech, Princeton Univ. engineering dean, and VP of IBM all attended to support Harvard's engineering school. This shows how much support Harvard has in the engineering and science world.</p>
<p>When Harvard decides to improve and expand the engineering program, and starts putting an insane amount of money into the effort, things will improve very fast.</p>
<p>
[quote]
My son was told while theoretically you can take courses at MIT virtually no one does - their academic calendars are not particularly compatible.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Isn't Harvard's calender changing now though? Will it sync up better?</p>
<p>New intro CS professor... the class is amazing this year. Am taking it now, would love to answer any questions (can't comment on upper level CS, unfortunately).</p>
<p>Is there a particular language featured in the Harvard introductory CS class, or is it about issues other than particular language implementations?</p>