Hi Class of 2020!
Congrats on making it this far - you have an exciting four years ahead of you. I went through (almost) everything you guys will be going through, and I can only say that frosh year itself will hardly be like any of your other years. This will be the first of a (bi)-weekend series looking at both the general and Harvard-specific parts of college. Feel free to ping me with questions, too! - I’d be super happy to answer them and I’ll try my best to answer things by the end of the following weekend.
I wanted to start with extracurricular life, because this will be actually the very first thing that comes up at the end of the summer, first with pre-orientation programs (like FOP for outdoors, PBHA for community service, etc) and later at the end of your first week of classes with the student activities fair at the SOCH/Quad.
With regard to club life (encompassing traditional extracurriculars, final clubs, and sororities/fraternities/Greek life), the typical spirit of course is in finding a friend group and/or deepening your professional/academic/hobby interests.
Final clubs, historically all-male (though there are all-female and co-ed ones too), are unique to Harvard - I have never joined one and can’t profess more knowledge on the topic, but can say that there is a punch process to join sophomore year. Sororities and fraternities are actually not as big on the Harvard campus as they are at peer institutions (probably because of final clubs), and for Greek life, there is a similar rush week as well. As an alternative to sororities, there are all-girls groups e.g. like the Seneca and more specific interests, e.g. Smart Women Securities (for those looking to finance).
Heading more into traditional extracurriculars - the variety could not be more astounding. There are far too many to cover, but I’ll highlight the major areas:
PBHA. Stands for Phillips Brooks House Association, and offers the most varied opportunities for volunteering (e.g. Experimentors, Harvard square homeless shelter, etc). Alongside usual term-time initiatives, they do trips, e.g. during spring break, for community work.
THE HARVARD CRIMSON. The most easily recognized student group, with popular rivals including the Harvard Lampoon. The Harvard Crimson is known for its semester-long comp process. “Comp” stands for competency, and is technically a series of mini activities relevant to the organization’s work that get you up to pace with things. For some clubs, comps are genuinely meant to help you learn, and for others, it’s a way to weed out less committed prospective members.
FINANCE AND CONSULTING. Big ones here are Veritas Financial Group (VFG), Harvard Financial Analysts Club (HFAC), and the Harvard College Consulting Group (HCCG). These clubs are widely known for rigorous comp processes.
PRE-MED. Check out Women in Science at Harvard-Radcliffe, Harvard College Research Association (HCURA), Harvard Premedical Society (widely known for its physician mentoring), and the Harvard Undergraduate Research Journal (THURJ). There are numerous pre-med advisors on campus as well that will be able to guide non-curricular pre-med interests.
RESEARCH/PURE ACADEMIA. There is a club for almost literally every academic interest (history, chemistry, etc). Often times, these groups hold academic talks. Other academic groups are more focused on being mock academic journals. You might want to check out the FB pages for each of these groups, too. Faculty advisors are fairly well connected to these groups and can help navigate specific extracurricular interests here, too.
ANALYTICS, ENGINEERING. Check out Harvard College Data Ventures (HCDV), Harvard Computer Society (HCS), HackHarvard, Women in CS, Harvard College Engineering Society. As a disclaimer, I am also going to make a strong pitch for Data Ventures, a somewhat younger but fast-growing intercollegiate analytics group that I’ve been a part of (see: dataventures[DOT]org). Analytics is increasingly pervasive (whether your econ, pre-med, or cs, you will need to know how to process data intelligently). If you want to be part of an intellectual community where you get to work on real industry projects, collaborate with folks from disciplines different from yours, and meet folks through chapter schools, then join HCDV! As of the 2015-16 academic year, the Harvard division is currently on a fellowship system rather than a comp process. Check us out at our FB page: facebook[DOT]com/harvard.dataventures.
POLITICS. Check out the Check out the Institute of Politics (IOP) for events. For something purely at the undergrad-level, check out the Harvard College Law Review, a production of the Harvard College Law Society.
ARTS/MUSIC. Check out Hasty Pudding Theatricals, the Harvard Krokodiloes, and the Harvard Marching Band.
Of course, there are scores of student societies, and I’ve only enumerated a relatively small few. My recommendation would be to check out a few, and shop them as you would classes. If there’s anything that I can’t stress enough, it’s balance. Your freshman fall tends to be your least taxing semester and tends to be the best time to figure out niches to be a part of and flourish from during your time here. If you can make it, I’d strongly encourage doing a pre-orientation program as well - it’s a great way to spend the end of summer, and there’s really no better time to join one (there’s also no other time really that you’ll be able to do one) in transitioning to life away from home.
- The Crimson Hatter @crimsonHat
Next up. “Tales from the Crimson Hatter: Popular Classes and Academic Resources, i.e. what you came to college for”