<p>Please share with me any positive or negative accounts you may have of academic advising at Harvard College. I'm trying to learn more about the institution. Thanks for your time.</p>
<p>Um...basically, they expect you to know what you want and they expect YOU to go out and seek help from your advisor...at the most they will help you through picking classes etc. for your first semester and after that you will need to seek them out for help. I think personally that it's a great system because it doesn't baby you in any way and treats you like the adult you are "of age" (haha) to be.
~lb</p>
<p>It really varies. Upperclassmen help a lot. They give you a ton of advice on interesting and easy core classes to take if you're taking a hard courseload that semester and those "easy" electives that are fun but you still learn a lot (Social Analysis 34, Literature and Arts B-51, for instance). My proctor was a wonderful source of information on this too since she, though not a graduate of Harvard, knew a lot since she had been a proctor for about 4 years. </p>
<p>In addition, as a pre-med, advice from upperclassmen pre-med and the OCS pre-med advisors were invaluable. Harvard's intro science classes are taught by the same professors every year, so advice on what they like to give on exams or problem sets were always helpful. The OCS counselors told me to start taking it slow, especially since I came from a school that virtually had no AP classes (AP Environmental Science, anyone?), and I've done better academically - and have a life - because of it. </p>
<p>lowellbelle is right. Harvard gives you all the practical advice, but in the end, it is up to you to choose what path you want to take. I found this to be the case especially with departmental advising. They'll tell you all you need to know, but then the decision is yours, which I like, since you are treated like an adult, and making a mistake in college is much better than making a mistake in the real world.</p>