<p>Inspired by a thread on the Yale forum...</p>
<p>So what's negative about the college that has it all- prestige, students, professors, and tradition?</p>
<p>The president.
heres a link:<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/02/21/harvard.resignation.ap/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/02/21/harvard.resignation.ap/index.html</a></p>
<p>Nah, the President is the BEST thing about Harvard.</p>
<p>The worst thing in most years (but not this, as it happens) is the basketball team. Hockey is king.</p>
<p>the pricetag???</p>
<p>For those who have to be concerned about such things, the pricetag will not be a problem.</p>
<p>Excessive political correctness among the faculty can, however, be irritating.</p>
<p>My biggest peeves (that are not more or less universal to all schools of Harvard's type):</p>
<p>-The weather; although this winter was pretty mild, every year the weather has started to bother me a little bit more. I've spend 21 years in New England and by now would be perfectly happy never to see seasons again.
-The core--please don't get me started on the future of the core at this point
-High real estate prices, heavy tourism, and strict carding in the Square. I think you can trace a very large portion of Harvard's lacking social life to the combination of these factors.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I don't like the way the disciplinary system operates. There ought to be more student input. I don't think this would change punishment patterns much -- if anything, student honor boards tend to be stricter -- but the process matters to me as much as the result.</p></li>
<li><p>Some freshmen arrive with superhuman expectations, thinking that every single course, teacher, classmate, dorm room, etc. ought to be at the pinnacle of perfection 100% of the time, because it's HARVARD. One of the reasons that the transfers are the happiest students at Harvard is that we appreciate that universities are collections of humans, and ought to be judged against other human institutions rather than against Platonic ideals. Measured against the appropriate standard, Harvard comes out looking great.</p></li>
<li><p>Meeting space for student groups is a real problem. There is always SOME space available for meetings or rehearsals, but often it's not ideally located, and the availability changes all the time, so the meeting has to happen in different spots each week. Publications, performing arts groups, etc. need more permanent office space. It's coming in the next few years, but it isn't there yet.</p></li>
<li><p>Change happens very slowly at a 370-year-old institution. Students can make things happen, but it sometimes takes years. (Case in point: "Fly-by" bag lunches became available in the Yard only after about 3 years of student activism on that point.)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Hanna, when did you transfer to Harvard? I am a transfer applicant myself...</p>
<p>In fall of '97, which was my junior year.</p>
<p>What would you say got you in? What was your strength?</p>
<p>martini, send me your essay. you got me all curious...</p>
<p>Many students complain about poor access to professors.</p>
<p>No they don't.</p>
<br>
<ol> <li>Some freshmen arrive with superhuman expectations, thinking that every single course, teacher, classmate, dorm room, etc. ought to be at the pinnacle of perfection 100% of the time, because it's HARVARD. One of the reasons that the transfers are the happiest students at Harvard is that we appreciate that universities are collections of humans, and ought to be judged against other human institutions rather than against Platonic ideals. Measured against the appropriate standard, Harvard comes out looking great.</li> </ol>
<br>
<p>this is an astonishingly helpful observation for a mere 30-year old,... I wish all you other veterans would redeem the time I waste foraging here with equally memorable distillations of your experience,..</p>
<p><a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2136778/%5B/url%5D">http://www.slate.com/id/2136778/</a></p>
<p>Summers instigated a review of Harvard's "core curriculum" with a view to raising the status of science and of quantitative thinking generally, as well as to answer perennial complaints from freshmen that they had little or no contact with senior faculty.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Many students complain about poor access to professors.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I think "Many professors complain about poor access to students" would be far more accurate. I know I've seen professors beg/bribe students to come to their office hours, while I've never heard anyone complain about not being able to talk to a prof (although I have heard people complain about profs being arrogant/standoffish). They also seem very responsive to emails, based on my limited experience.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Quote:
Many students complain about poor access to professors.</p>
<p>I think "Many professors complain about poor access to students" would be far more accurate. I know I've seen professors beg/bribe students to come to their office hours, while I've never heard anyone complain about not being able to talk to a prof (although I have heard people complain about profs being arrogant/standoffish). They also seem very responsive to emails, based on my limited experience.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Amen to that. I don't understand the "lack of access to professors" argument. That's what office hours are for. The only people who complain seem to be the ones too lazy to take advantage of that.</p>
<p>This is just an old defensive cliche heard on the campuses of schools with less comprehensive graduate programs and few if any professional schools (law, medicine, business, etc) who reason that this makes them, in consequence, more "undergraduate centered."</p>
<p>Harvard College is as "undergraduate centered" as anyplace, and the faculty is plenty "accessible" - although they may not invite you in for milk and cookies on Sunday night, read you bedtime stories, and tuck you into bed.</p>
<p>hey look, byerly is taken offense at any criticism of Harvard again</p>
<p>If students are anything like him you have one thing bad right there :)</p>
<p>I criticize Harvard plenty. </p>
<p>But this "access to professors" thing is a total crock, as two current students have now testified.</p>
<p>The one pushing it here is "Zepher" - a current Stanford freshman who, although denied admission to Yale, nevertheless has absorbed a Yalie-like obsession about Harvard.</p>