<p>I was recently admitted to Harvard's Master's engineering program and I'm trying to decide whether to attend Harvard with a concentration in electrical engineering in the fall.</p>
<p>I am coming from a no-name and unranked school with a small engineering program so I'm concerned about how well I will perform at a school like Harvard. I'm not very bright but I'm extremely hard working. The engineering students at my school were slackers so I got high grades and a high GPA due to the curves in my courses because I did better than the rest of the class. Harvard was probably impressed by my high GPA but I don't think it means much.</p>
<p>I probably won't do better than other students at a place like Harvard. Will I have problems finishing a Master's program at Harvard? I heard that graduate students are all very focuses and competitive and there won't be any slackers in my classes.</p>
<p>Does anyone know how many courses a full-time engineering student takes at Harvard and how many hours are spent on classes per week? I am a slow learner so should I be expecting to spend 14-16 hours a day studying and going to classes just to keep up with my peers?</p>
<p>SEAS (formerly DEAS) (and surrounding campus area) is a great place to be. You're right, the SEAS folks tend to be very focused and intense, not as laid back as some other places. </p>
<p>SM doesn't require a thesis (which can be extremely demanding as your advisors are very picky). Most courses are managable. When you devise your course plan, also consider offerings @ MIT and other schools/departments within Harvard. If SM is your final degree, plan some time for recruiting activities. Will you be TF or help out in a lab?</p>
<p>I visited the Harvard SEAS department (although I chose to attend another school) and it seems like the average student takes 3-4 classes a semester. I would imagine the work load depends on the actual classes that you take. First year grad students tend to join research groups so they might be busy w/ research. In addition, SEAS is a small department and it seems like the professors care more about their students then they would at a larger engineering school like Stanford.</p>
<p>Finally, I think motivation and hard work are as important as sheer intelligence in grad school so if I were you, I would not worry that much about my ability to compete.</p>
<p>drmambo-Clearly, I cannot say for sure what happened but one possibility is that nogardder fell for some variation of the Nigerian scam and unwittingly divulged his/her CC password. Subsequent postings under the screenname may be totally bogus. </p>
<p>I think it was Churchill who said: "...the truth is so precious she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies..."</p>