<p>So what, I should be obsessed about an inferior school like Beserkeley instead?</p>
<p>Its just a little strange. </p>
<p>Although you are a freshman at Stanford, only 1 of your last 20 posts was on the Stanford page, with the other 19 on the Harvard page,.</p>
<p>I'm going to clarify my statement.</p>
<p>While I've found Harvard professors to be very accessible, there's no way you're going to receive the same sort of faculty attention (especially in the classroom, in large lecture classes) as you might at a small LAC. Most sections are taught by graduate students, and (with the exception of Justice) these kinds of classes don't allow for much in-class discourse.</p>
<p>Still, when I think of "accessible," that implies out of the classroom availability.</p>
<p>It sounds great to me.
I think that it used to be very fashionable to denounce and berate Harvard and some of the stories stuck so now people sell them as their own truths. To me it is analogous to some not-so-friendly countries badmouthing America.
So there I said it.
It is just like in Prozac Nation - all self inflicted.
Harvard is Harvard is Harvard.</p>
<p>prestige+money+ivy league name+ brilliant professors and students+ huge campus+outstanding alumni= superhuman expectations from the outside world.</p>
<p>
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I think that it used to be very fashionable to denounce and berate Harvard and some of the stories stuck so now people sell them as their own truths.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It's still fashionable. </p>
<p>
[quote]
prestige+money+ivy league name+ brilliant professors and students+ huge campus+outstanding alumni= superhuman expectations from the outside world.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>eggsactly.</p>
<p>
[quote]
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.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Nor should they be expected to do so.</p>
<p>I think it's interesting that it seems like freshmen are doing so much complaining about professor access. Before people buy into that, they should consider a few things:</p>
<p>Many freshmen use their first year to get core and intro classes out of the way, ie BIG CLASSES. When you're taking Justice, Life Sciences, History 10, English 10, etc. etc., yes: it's going to seem like "all" of the classes at Harvard are huge and like the professors don't really care about students. I'm not sure, though, what people expect of a professor teaching a class in which Sanders theater is filled to capacity every lecture. </p>
<p>That's what freshman seminars are for. They're small, interesting classes with great professors. My friend took a seminar with a professor who apparently won the Nobel prize either most recently or very recently, and there were something like 5 or less students in the class. I took one with a woman who is, apparently, one of the leading theorists of Slavic studies anywhere. My roommate's seminar is amazing--it is Harvard's answer to Columbia's LitHum series, and the professor invites his students to his home every weekend and makes them dinner, etc. You just have to know where to look, and what kind of classes to take; and you should realize that Sophomore year, things will be different: you will have a tutorial for your concentration, which is a very small class (by definition), and you will likely have fulfilled your major intro requirements. I'm studying Literature. My Junior Tutorial will consist of one student--me--and one professor. Doesn't get much smaller than that.</p>
<p>This semester, I am taking a Spanish class of a dozen people, a seminar of a dozen people, and expos class of a dozen people, and a poetry class of around 25-30 people. The poetry class is formatted so that each class consists of lecture and discussion. And yesterday I spent an hour sitting in the poetry professor's office chatting.</p>
<p>So not all of us at Harvard are being cast aside because of large classes. It is what you make of it.</p>
<p>On the professor issue...I didn't list the level of hand-holding at Harvard because the theme of the thread is "bad things" and I don't think it's a bad thing -- it's just something prospective students should think about when they're choosing a school.</p>
<p>My college boyfriend, who was at Oberlin, had a very tough semester sophomore year when he went through some bad personal problems. He turned in one paper very late in his English class. When the next paper was not turned in on time, the professor began calling him at home the same day to ask where the paper was, whether it was forthcoming, whether my ex needed help, etc. My ex eventually turned the paper in and ended up passing the class.</p>
<p>That's not likely to happen at Harvard, even in a 12-person class. If you want help, ask for it; otherwise, the professor is going to assume that you are an adult and that it's up to you to do your work or not. Is that a "bad thing"? Not in my book. My ex needed that kind of support and benefited from it -- his college was absolutely right for him. But I would have been insulted if a professor were calling me at home to nag me about a late assignment. I would have thought, when am I supposed to learn to take responsibility for my own work? What's the point of moving out of my parents' house if I still have a "mom" looking over my shoulder that way?</p>
<p>So it is absolutely true that there's a difference between the kind of professor contact that happens at an LAC and at Harvard...but depending on your personality, that may be a very good thing.</p>
<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>Heheheh</p>
<p>saxfreq1128: So what was the name/prof of your friend's awesome seminar? :)</p>
<p>Literature Humanities, with Prof. James Russell.</p>
<p>It's a year-long freshman seminar, one of the few--if not the only one. </p>
<p>Getting in is apparently v. competitive.</p>
<p>And in one of my weakest subjects, too. Still, I suppose college is about expanding your horizons. Perhaps fall time will see me waving stacks of paper around trying to fight to be admitted into this seminar. Thanks for the tip, saxfreq!</p>
<p>The thing that's wrong with Harvard is that most of the students I have come across, in their constant pursuit of excellence, seem to have overlooked most of the qualities which constitute a human being, instead only truly appreciating talent and skill. This is only my perception from talking to Harvard alumni in my own personal experience, as well as listening to Harvard students on this forum. Perhaps I'm wrong and these types only form a minority - I certainly hope so.</p>
<p>(1) The "weaknesses" of Harvard, in my opinion, are the weaknesses of ANY large, research-oriented institution. Namely, classes are generally large, and professors are hired on their ability to do research and bring in research money... teaching NEVER enters into the equation. Therefore, some will be excellent teachers because they are motivated to teach well, others will be absolutely horrific because they could not care less...
(2) You can mitigate (1) by carefully choosing your major and classes. Don't like large classes? Then avoid majoring in economics or government. Literally 25% of all Harvard undergrads major in one of those two fields!!!! If you just avoid the top 5 or six majors (economics, government, english, history, biology, psychology), then you are very likely to have small classes...</p>
<p>How are math, chem, physics and pre-med courses?</p>
<p>As you might imagine, many Harvard undergrads complete pre-med requirements, even those who aren't sure they want to go to med school right away. Thus, intro science classes tend to be quite large... a few hundred students... Intro math (calc I & II) are NOT taught in lectures, though... they are taught in small discussion groups by PhD candidates in classes of less than 30 students.</p>
<p>Once you get into upper division science courses, the class sizes drop dramatically...</p>
<p>Sorry, I should have clarified that I am a transfer student, so I have covered math through Linear algebra, 2 gen chem, 2 o chem, 2 physics... I meant beyond that?
I prefer a medium sized class. My o-chem was 400 people so for me anything 60-100 is great. Fewer than 30 is just too much.</p>
<p>Upper division physical science classes will range from 10-50...
I think bio will be a little bit larger.</p>
<p>With the big classes is there any scope for discussion and questions or is it mostly passive learning?</p>
<p>All classes with more than ~30 students will meet in sections of 18 or fewer as well as meeting together for lecture. So you will always have lab or discussion in a small group.</p>