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5 universities represented here (as a student and/or TA). I agree with this 100%. More selective colleges tend to have more demanding assignments, assign more pages of reading, grade papers to a higher level, etc. </p>
<p>Others note the same:
Hanna:
I transferred to Harvard after two years of classes at Bryn Mawr/Haverford. The workload in similar fields was similar, but the standard of writing expected in humanities and social science classes at Harvard was far higher. I got an A in my full-year freshman writing class at Bryn Mawr. But as a Harvard junior taking a Core English class in a section full of freshmen, I wasn’t able to get better than an A-minus despite working much, much harder on my papers than I had at Bryn Mawr. You will not be an A student at Harvard without being an excellent writer.</p>
<p>When I was at Bryn Mawr, I took introductory Japanese at Haverford. It was hands down the toughest course I’d ever taken, but also very rewarding. Harvard uses the same curriculum as Haverford, so I figured that after I transferred, I could start second-year Japanese. Come to find out that I would have to start over…because Harvard uses the same Japanese curriculum as Haverford, but moves through the material exactly TWICE as fast. So my first year of Japanese at Haverford only covered the first semester at Harvard. That’s regular speed; Harvard also offers accelerated Japanese, which covers the material of the entire four-year bachelor’s program at Haverford in the first year. So if you want to know if Harvard offers tough courses, that’s one apples-to-apples comparison.
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