Harvard Secondary School Program Professors

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

Hi, I’m going to attend the Harvard Secondary School Program this summer (2016). I was wondering if students who have participated in the program can tell me whether the professors can help me out ACT-wise? For example, are literature or algebra porfessors available for private tutories? Are there classes in the program or outside available for students wanting to get a 36?

Also,
If anyone has info of the program they would like to share, I would appreciate it. What can I expect? Level of difficulty, workload, night life, etc…

2

First off, not all SSP professors are Harvard professors; many of them are summer adjuncts who teach during the school year at Boston College, Boston University, Tufts, Emerson etc. So, if students are interested in taking a class from a Harvard professor, they need to do their due-diligence and find out from SSP who is teaching the class before they register.

Secondly, don’t expect any professor to help out with ACT prep – that’s not what professors are there to do. Harvard SSP does offer a few one-hour seminars on test-prep, but that’s about all the help you should expect to get.

FWIW: Harvard Summer School Program classes are real Harvard courses compressed into a 7-week time period. A college level course taught at the normal “16-week semester pace” can be difficult for many high school students, however when high school (and college) students are required to master the material in half the amount of time, it’s very difficult. Some humanities classes require reading 200-400 pages of dense material per week and submitting weekly 10-page papers on the material. Science and math courses are just as intense. If you want an ‘A’ in the course, you will have to work harder than you’ve ever worked in high school. Most high school students do not get ‘A’s’ in SSP courses.

Lastly, you should use the search tool on CC to find more SSP threads: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/search?cat=29&adv=1&search=summer+school

3

If not more so. For the rest, I totally agree with @gibby

4

Also, why do you want to get a 36? Perfect scores don’t matter as much as you might think.

5

My D got an “A” in one class (Psychology and Law) and a “B” in her other class Advanced Fiction Writing: The Novel . Both were rigorous in different ways, and the writing class had prerequisites that were waived for her by the professor. That class had much older students (adults) in it. She was by far the youngest in her writing class. Took one “student” awhile to realize she was qualified to be in that class. ( Thought she was too young to be in a class with him) In the end, she earned his respect as a writer and she grew a great deal as a person and as a writer. A very positive experience, well worth the $$$.