<p>Earlier I received an email from my teaching fellow of last semester for a course related to the Middle Eastern security state. She let all of us who had taken the class last semester know that the professor wanted to meet with us to discuss the current events in Tunisia and Egypt (hopefully you all know what those are) over pizza. </p>
<p>This is a big name in Middle Eastern history wanting to chat with undergrads who aren't even his students anymore, over exciting political developments in countries in which he thought we would be interested. I find that pretty cool.</p>
<p>Just thought I might post this in anticipation of "should I pick Harvard or ______" threads that will come up in about 2 months.</p>
<p>It would be cool if they somehow put up a live feed online or something where students around the country, or just prospective Harvard students, could participate.</p>
<p>I wish every college’s forum had “everything that sucks about this school” and “everything awesome about this school” threads where current students and alumni can post.</p>
<p>My daughter’s professor from a freshman seminar (a Nobel laureate) has met with students again several times a year later and even offered to write her a letter of recommendation. I cannot tell you how approachable the professors she has had have been. Not all, but a lot of them. They clearly seem to want to help their students succeed and make connections. If someone says Harvard profs are aloof or uncaring, I would say they have probably not met many.</p>
<p>My Ds have told me several stories about faculty interaction similar to Ike’s. And the House dining halls have evenings when the students invite favorite profs to dine in. D1’s House Master was one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People. D1 used to dogsit his dog, and though she graduated last spring they’re still Facebook friends.</p>
<p>This was one of my chief concerns about H when my D was accepted. Now that she is in her second semester of freshman year, I can say that she has loved her profs and TA’s both last semester and this. The “shopping period” and the Q (?) Guide have been extremely helpful, as has talking to friends in other sections of classes. A number of profs and TA’s spent extra time helping her when she needed it and the many levels of advising (faculty, peer, proctor and alumni) have been extremely helpful. There is genuine emphasis in her voice when she says various professors are WONDERFUL.</p>
<p>Uapproachable professors
Hard classes
Difficult to get a good GPA
Sometimes trails Yale and Princeton in rankings. SOmetimes trails Oxford, Cambridge</p>
<p>Rich snobs
Country clubs</p>
<p>It doesnt matter. Harvard is the number one university in the world in quality and pretige - bar none. If only one is lucky enough to get in.</p>
<p>Point 1: OP has just shown that this is not true
Point 2: Hard classes are not bad
Point 3: Grade inflation anyone?
Point 4: No, it doesn’t. The only place I have seen above it in the last few years is Cambridge. Only one year, in one list…
Point 5: Not all, certainly.
Point 6: No idea…</p>
<p>Grade inflation here is about as real as John Harvard’s ghost. I know not one person here who thinks there are legions of students getting higher grades than they deserve, and I certainly have never encountered it myself. Grading can be erratic, and different TF’s and Professors may grade much harder than others (in a humanities/social science class of 40 one TF of mine gave nobody an A on a certain assignment). But nobody systematically gives out inflated grades as far as I or anybody else on campus seems to know.</p>
<p>I think kwu either got that from a post I made several days ago, OR, via The Crimson senior survey for the class of 09. What he/she fails to mention is that the 3.6 figure is a self-reported figure, and therefore, almost inevitably inflated (no pun intended). So either s/he didn’t carefully read what I/the Crimson wrote OR s/he is intentionally being provocative.</p>