<p>What's it like to cross register for humanities (or other) classes at Harvard?</p>
<p>Is it convenient, worth the time (or time consuming because of travel), or rewarding? Might you feel isolated from other people in the class, not be involved in a study group?
Do you still get contact with the Professors?
Do you go there many times (several times for lectures or recitations, so it becomes time consuming to travel there and back many times a week)? Or does it work smoothly?</p>
<p>Please share your experiences with me :)</p>
<p>Thanks,</p>
<p>twochickens '11</p>
<p>The travel is definitely time-consuming. The two schools are only two subway stops apart, but since classes at both schools tend to start on the hour or half-hour, you can't schedule classes back-to-back at Harvard and MIT. So it's not totally convenient, but people who do it seem to really enjoy it. </p>
<p>You would probably not spend much time with the people in the class, but humanities classes don't tend to have study groups anyway, even in MIT classes. I mean, when grades are based mostly on papers, you can't really study in a group.</p>
<p>That said, my current lab is at Mass General Hospital, and all of my classes are in the Longwood Medical Area -- two places which are farther apart than Harvard and MIT. It hasn't been that much of a problem for me to travel every afternoon. And Harvard and MIT are a lot closer than MIT and Wellesley, and Wellesley students still cross-register for classes at MIT. :)</p>
<p>That we (Wellesley students) do. Three people from MIT are taking classes at Wellesey this semester (no idea who or what, but Wellesley publishes those stats on the registrar's page). I'm taking an MIT course this semester and I have been unable so far to make any of the times people get together to do our homework. So far I've managed alone, but it isn't easy or desirable.<br>
Travelling is a pain in the butt for many, but it's what you do if there is a class you want to take. In the case of the MIT class I'm taking, I knew I wanted to take it since last year and really crossed my fingers that the time would work with the one required course for my Wellesley major (it does). I would take classes at Harvard if only if you find something worth it that genuinely interests you, not just for the experience. I know Harvard's fall term doesn't end until January, and Wellesley and MIT are a week off in the spring semester. It all depends on what you want really.</p>
<p>thanks Mollie and WendyMouse!</p>
<p>It takes 20 mins to get to Harvard, making it no real problem to go for classes, study groups, etc. Wellesley is obviously a whole lot farther, but offers a very, very different college experience than MIT/Harvard.</p>
<p>Those friends of mine who have done it, have done it for a class that they really wanted to experience. I knew one guy who wanted to read King Lear in the original, so signed up to learn some variant of Gaelic at Harvard which wasn't offered at MIT. The real trick with Harvard is not the class schedule or any trouble with isolation but with the final exam schedule.</p>
<p>Harvard's fall exams occur in the middle of IAP, which means that you can have trouble with scheduling them depending on what else you are doing. My friend doing Gaelic was on a performing tour of California with the MIT Shakespeare Ensemble at MIT, and had to arrange all kinds of things to take the exam in the middle of the tour (and touring a show is not the best exam prep).</p>
<p>As a rule, Harvard finishes their classes, has a month of "reading" and then exams, meaning that the exams test how much material you can learn in a month. Whereas MIT tends to finish classes, have a long weekend and then exams. This means that the exams test how much you can learn in a weekend, which seems far more humane, somehow.</p>
<p>Why would MIT bother to have an exchange with Wellesley? Wellesley's admission reqs. would seem rather less stringent than MIT's, and MIT is now admitting more females. Also, MIT has Harvard classes for any humanities options that may not be available at the 'tute.</p>
<p>I believe more Wellesley students cross-register at MIT than vice versa. :)</p>
<p>And anyone who has ever spent any time at all on the Wellesley campus can attest that the campus atmosphere is the antithesis of MIT's. It can be very useful to register for the odd Wellesley class, just for that different experience.</p>
<p>I'm sure that registering at one's local community college would also provide a "different experience." But why, after working hard to get to MIT, would one want to take a course at such an institution? Surely Harvard, and/or taking HASS courses, would provide sufficient excitement?</p>
<p>You must not be male....</p>
<p>Are MIT students allowed to take any humanities courses over at Harvard? I could be wrong, but I got the impression that students weren't supposed to take Harvard classes if MIT offered the same subject. If this is the case, how strictly is this enforced?</p>
<p>Basically, I think you are allowed to take any course you want at Harvard, and it will count as general elective credit. They'll get a little pickier if you're asking for your Harvard class to count as a HASS (if it's not on a pre-approved list) or particularly if you're asking for your Harvard class to count as a HASS-D.</p>
<p>So you can take anything you want, but the HASS office will sometimes get grumpy if you try to use that class to fulfill a specific MIT requirement. But it's not that they generally won't let you do it -- you just have to fill out a [url=<a href="http://web.mit.edu/registrar/student/coc/pdf/HASSpetition_final_10505.pdf%5Dform%5B/url">http://web.mit.edu/registrar/student/coc/pdf/HASSpetition_final_10505.pdf]form[/url</a>] and probably jump through some additional administrative hoops.</p>
<p>The hoop-jumping regulations are [url=<a href="http://web.mit.edu/shass/undergraduate/programs/cross-reg.shtml%5Dhere%5B/url">http://web.mit.edu/shass/undergraduate/programs/cross-reg.shtml]here[/url</a>].</p>