<p>Can you take as many classes as you'd like/can fit into your timetable per semester, or is there an official cap that prevents students? </p>
<p>Most students take four classes per semester, and I’m fairly sure that first semester freshmen are limited to four. After that, you can take an additional class or two…my son is taking five right now (second semester freshman), and he will probably continue to do so for the remainder of his time there. From what he tells me, scheduling five or more is very difficult without conflicts, because many classes seem to meet at the same time - the 11:00 to 3:00 window.</p>
<p>Ah, so long as they fit, it works? How many classes max can be taken during the summer? And are there programs at universities abroad where a student could feasibly go to study for the summer, and have his/her credits transfer over? </p>
<p>Academic Year - 4/semester = standard. 6 requires approval from residential dean. It will be rare (as in pretty much never) that first semester freshman will get their study cards approved for more than 4.</p>
<p>Summer - 2 is standard. 3 requires approval from residential dean.</p>
<p>You can petition for non-Harvard summer abroad programs to count for Harvard credit.</p>
<p>Is getting approval from the dean particularly difficult? Does (s)he basically look into how well you fared with your 4 courses and permit you to take on more if you proved yourself freshman fall? </p>
<p>Blindwheel, if you look into it you will find that hardly anyone rushes through Harvard. What really makes the undergraduate experience at Harvard special is the richness and quality of extracurricular activities, alongside the world-class academics. So Harvard students tend not to overload themselves with courses, because they are already overloading themselves (and then some) with other activities, which might be sports, the Crimson, the Lampoon, music, writing a novel, directing plays, doing research, working on political campaigns. And all the time networking like a mf. Also, on the academic side, if you have the chance to take a course at Harvard, why would you take a lower-quality version of the same course someplace else during the summer? </p>
<p>There is hardly a student at Harvard who wouldn’t be capable of making it through college in less than four years, with or without a considerable amount of AP credit going in. But almost none of them do that. Because being permitted to register as a student at Harvard – widely considered the greatest university in the world – for eight regular semesters is an opportunity that only comes once in life, to a very few people, and no one wants to let it go by without taking full advantage of it.</p>
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<p>While I agree with everything else you said, @Blindwheel was referencing summer abroad. While Harvard does have amazing summer programs abroad, there are holes that can be filled by other programs, e.g. Yale in Brazil, Columbia in Japan, which I would not call lower quality.</p>
<p>@Blindwheel: Don’t worry about this issue until you are admitted. Once you have your fat envelope in hand, you can pick up the phone or email Thomas Dingman at the FDO’s office (<a href=“http://www.fdo.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k3806&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup9110”>http://www.fdo.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k3806&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup9110</a>) and have all your questions answered. Until then, it’s a bit premature to speculate.</p>
<p>Gibby knows a great deal more than me, but from what I’ve gathered you may not be able to apply credits earned at another school towards your Harvard degree. My son took math classes for credit at another Ivy while in high school - those credits did not transfer, although he could use them as prerequisites to skip lower level classes. He has no intention of graduating early, but rather wants to have a bit of wiggle room to take more electives - as an engineering concentrator, he’ll only be able to take a few with four classes per semester…which is why he’s taking five this semester and will probably go to six next year. These sorts of issues can be worked out once on campus, but extra or off campus courses should be used for enrichment only, not as some sort of shortcut to graduating.</p>
<p>I understand completely where you’re coming from JHS, but I don’t necessarily intend to graduate early. I would want to have both a Master’s and a Bachelor’s by the time I graduate and would presume that in order to do that, I’d have to accelerate a bit. Skieurope, could you expand a bit on that? How difficult is it to qualify for a master’s on top of a bachelor’s in let’s say… english literature? Are there a lot more credits involved, or is it a matter of taking some classes at the graduate level in the same department? </p>
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<p>See: Advanced Standing and the AB/AM or SM Programs
<a href=“http://apo.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k73580&pageid=icb.page388448&pageContentId=icb.pagecontent1194786&view=view.do&viewParam_name=asaddendum.html”>http://apo.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k73580&pageid=icb.page388448&pageContentId=icb.pagecontent1194786&view=view.do&viewParam_name=asaddendum.html</a></p>
<p>@Blindwheel. I agee with @gibby. Why all the mental “massage” (I would prefer using a different M-word) and hand-wringing about what “may be” when you have not been ADMITTED yet…please wait until you get the admission ticket…</p>
<p>…there’s an old saying…don’t count the chickens before they have hatched (it’s bad luck)…it’s premature to WORRY about courses/course numbers or even concentrations at this point in time…</p>
<p>…be patient until March 27…you won’t know which school(s) you will be admitted to or denied by the end of March to start gesticulating about this and that…for all we know…there may be a DIFFERENT school’s course load you will be asking about when all the dust has settled…</p>
<p>…Carpe diem! Go out and enjoy the rest of your senior year! Time is too precious!</p>
<p>SUPER helpful, Gibby! Thank you! </p>
<p>Blindwheel, while in some fields there may be value in getting a master’s and bachelor’s degree simultaneously, in English Literature the value would be approximately nothing. If you want a calling card to apply to PhD programs, your honors thesis serves that function. Doing an AB/AM gives you a lot of extra classes in your main field of concentration, but really robs you of the ability to take electives outside your concentration. For literary studies, some of those electives are more valuable than piling on more lit courses in giving you a base for more advanced study.</p>
<p>No PhD program worth its salt will give you credit for an AM earned elsewhere, even at Harvard, so you will only get value out of it if you do your PhD at Harvard.</p>
<p>I note that the Harvard English Department apparently agrees with me, and does not participate in the joint AB/AM program.</p>