<p>I'm a current sophomore at Harvard, interested in the social sciences and the humanities. Even though I'm a year and a half in, the college application process still feels like yesterday. I remember the stress and the excitement that came with acceptances, rejections, a deferral, and visits. I remember thinking that the worst thing ever would be picking the "wrong" school, and spending tons of time online trying to decide which one was "right" for me.</p>
<p>I am currently procrastinating studying for finals, and after that will be spending lots of time at home not doing much (winter break!). So if any of you prospective students have burning questions, feel free to post them here! I'll answer as best I can.</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone in the regular decision pool, and congrats to those of you with recent acceptances!</p>
<p>My question is not about the application process; it’s about life at Harvard, if you’re OK with that. I’m pretty sure it’s been asked numerous times before, but I would like some differet perspectives. </p>
<p>How much time do you spend doing class work, extracurriculars, research (if any), social actives and anything else?</p>
<p>Oh yeah, I’d much rather answer questions about life at Harvard! I’m not a college counselor by any means, but I do know more than the average person about going to school here.</p>
<p>I was actually just discussing the question of schoolwork last night, and came to the conclusion that I do a lot less of it than the average person, so take this with a grain of salt. I probably spend an average 4-6 hours per class on classwork a week (outside of class itself), which I guess is about 16-24 hours a week total. Then I do extracurriculars that probably take up another 12-15 hours a week and research that’s about 6-10. I don’t really know if there’s a way to quantify social activities, but friendship takes up a significant amount of my time :)</p>
<p>Just as an aside, the classes I take definitely impact the amount of classwork I do. Reading classes definitely aren’t easy, but it’s not as crucial to do all the assigned classwork every week as it is when you have constant problem sets due to assess your progress.</p>
<p>I’m currently writing a thesis, which takes up a lot of time. Last year, I spent maybe 15-18 hours a week on course work outside of class, 8-10 hours on extracurriculars, and had plenty of free time. (My favorite blockmate, on the other hand, spent 5-8 hours a week on coursework and 30+ at her extracurricular organization.) This past semester I’ve spent…oh, maybe 10 hours a week on my classes, 8-10 hours a week on extracurriculars, and 6-15 hours a week on my thesis. It varies a lot based on when my deadlines are, for sure.</p>
<p>My high school is really easy, its far from rigorous. I want to study economics, but I am worried that I won’t be able to do the work at Harvard because simply I am not smart enough. If I try my best and am determined, should I be able to do it?</p>
<p>Trust me, if you got in you are smart enough to do the work. People here come from all sorts of backgrounds and high schools of varying rigors; as long as you don’t overload on difficult classes your first semester, you’ll be fine. The economics department is not known for being especially difficult, and it’s also one of the biggest concentrations (if not the biggest); there are lots of concentrators who had never taken economics before coming to college. The intro to economics class (Ec 10) is a great way to get a feel for economics, and is also a really popular freshman class, which means you’ll have a lot of friends to work with on problem sets and stuff. </p>
<p>Seriously though, don’t psych yourself out because you didn’t go to a super hard high school, and congrats on your acceptance! Hope to see you here next year :)</p>
<p>Of the schools I got into, financial aid packages narrowed down the pool to Harvard and Columbia. I visited both and realized that I wanted more of a real college experience than New York City could offer, and generally liked the people better at Harvard as well. I’m sure I would have loved Columbia had I chosen to attend – both schools have great programs for my interests, both academic and extracurricular – but I definitely think I made the right decision based on the kind of college experience I wanted.</p>
<p>Hey. How is it to combine athletics and academics at Harvard? Of course academics are very important at Harvard, so I wonder if there is enough time to athletics as well? And when are the trainings, is it early before school? </p>
<p>Thanks for answers. I am from Norway and dreaming of going at harvard and attend the ski team.</p>
<p>@Natoren and RandomRhino: the problem with these “I’m a bored Harvard student. Please post questions and I’ll answer them for you” threads is they are severely limited:</p>
<p>1) the OP hasn’t been on in two weeks.<br>
2) the OP has only one perspective</p>
<p>What you should do is post your questions to the general Harvard forum so multiple people can reply if they have an answer. Just identify the nature of your question in the thread title.</p>
<p>Anyone can post on any thread, that’s how CC works. There are many experienced and helpful members on CC, why limit yourself to one POV? </p>
<p>If Qualitative wants to contribute, then they can post their comments on any thread they choose, they don’t have to have their own dedicated thread.</p>
I’m not a college counselor by any means, but I do know more than the average person about going to school here.</p>