<p>most universities like that will have several INCOMING students who own business... sometimes very profitable ones. This one girl I know at H owns her own purse brand, and this other kid I know going somewhere else owns a very profitable software house. Things like Chicago's "Blue Chip" group which has about 10 undergrads who manage a 100,000k fund is also not too uncommon. I guess it all depends on what you mean by "tons of money"....</p>
<p>Really thoughtful post Preguntas! </p>
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Larry Summers, who had been one of the most promising leaders in American higher education, was forced to resign by a faculty that was too arrogant to critically look at their quality of undergraduate education. Summers had been key in making plans for its Allston expansion, another capital campaign, major curriculum changes, and its financial aid initiative. Now, without a permanent president, and with a divided faculty, plans for most of these promising advances have been halted or delayed. It's even been reported that many donors have reneged on their multimillion dollar pledges because of a lack of confidence in Harvard's leadership.
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<p>The undergrads will miss Larry. Some of these points are irrelevant to your undergraduate education (i.e. capital campaign). I don't think the finaid initiative is really hurt by Larry's departure. I'm not sure about the Allston timeline...</p>
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When I visited Harvard during its Pre-frosh Orientation Weekend, no one could tell me what the graduation requirements would be, including whether or not there would still be core classes. Why? Because the faculty hadn't decided what to do. No one knew how delaying the choosing of your major would affect Junior Tutorials. Why? Because the faculty hadn't made up its mind. No one could tell me if pre-med students would have to take the life sciences sequence. Why? Because faculty hadn't agreed on what to do with it after so many students complained on its impracticalities.
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<p>Did you ask Summers any of these questions during his speech? But clearly other people should have answers too! It seems that in general, the graduation requirements you have going in to Harvard are the ones you have when you leave, but you might have the option of the new requirements (i.e. Class of 2009 can choose an old or new Life Science concentration). Some of the other problems (Junior tutorials) will probably be dealt with on a concentration by concentration basis (like secondary fields), which is a slow and painful process, but seems to be the nature of academia. Pre-med sequences seem pretty set-> LS1a,b. PS1a,b,c, 50series bio, chem 17/27 (of course there are options, like physics 11 or 15). My opinion of the changes isn't nearly as rosy as xjayz (I thought LS1a ignored the fundamentals of chemistry, Chem 7 was just all over the place and really rough, and 1b had both amazing and horrible professors).</p>
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Scores of administrators have resigned or have been fired recently (Kirby, O'Brien, etc.). The school administration has been restructured recently in a way that some people don't know who is in charge of what.
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<p>This exodus scares me a little too. I guess if you want to make lemonade out of lemons, you could try to get on the selection committees, and try to influence the future of Harvard. </p>
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Harvard students complain of their social lives so much that Harvard has hired a "Fun Czar" who organizes social events for them. I mean, come on!
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<p>The "Fun Czar" isn't planning parties on a Friday night. The big campus-wide events (State Fair, Ben Folds) have been a ton of fun. Other than the goofy title, I think this is a great move.</p>
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Obviously Harvard is a great school. But I discovered that I wouldn't want to spend my undergraduate years in a place that is plagued with so many internal conflict, questions, and confusement, not to mention its lukewarm focus on undergraduates.
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<p>I think you're overestimating the influence of administrators on day to day student life. Your classes, activities, friends, parties, etc. are all rather autonomous. Sure, changing course requirements can be confusing, but that's a minor issue in the scheme of things. Still, I definitely understand where you're coming from. Where did you end up going?</p>
<p>In reply to just<em>forget</em>me's post, I agree with you that Summers' departure probably won't affect its financial aid initiative. I guess my point was that he was fundamental in making it all happen, and the fact that he was essentially ousted to salve the egos of some faculty members really bothers me.</p>
<p>At Pre-frosh Weekend this past spring, each department had an "open house" for students so they could get familiarized with the faculty, requirements, topic, etc. And maybe it was just the one I went to, but I sat in on the Political Science Dept's open house and no one seemed to know anything about how we would fulfill our department requirements. All of the professors just said that each department was figuring out their own ways to meet the university's requirements and that they were not sure when they would have everything figured out. (As a side note, I can't remember the specific vocabulary used because each school is sort of different with their word choices).</p>
<p>As for social life at Harvard, perhaps I'm just a cynic, but they devoted an entire panel session to the topic of social life at Harvard with the "fun czar," who, by the way, is a recent Harvard alumnus. The entire panel seemed to take great measures to make sure the point was made that there indeed were things to do at Harvard. The "fun czar" made repeated references to drinking throughout the program. Yes, it was for laughs, but I don't know; it just seemed that they were trying to overcompensate a component of undergraduate life in which they might not be the best at.</p>
<p>Also, I do agree with you that in general, administrative influence in everyday student life isn't the biggest component, but I'll have to respectfully disagree. Although you may not have personal contact with administrators very often, their decisions and their leadership do affect you. The physical plant of the university and ways in which it can be used to better serve students is ultimately decided by an administrator. How about academic advising? If the system isn't working, it's the administrator's responsibility. Budget allocations are determined by administrators, which may affect anything from student clubs and organizations to social activities. Also, the capital campaign is indirectly essential to undergraduate life. Not only are capital campaigns done to raise funds, they are also an important indicator of alumni support. Summers' departure may cause some alumni and backers to become disillusioned with Harvard's administrators (of course, this is all hypothetical).</p>
<p>I'm sure Harvard will eventually figure things out with regards to curriculum and administration, but the question now seems to be "How long do we have to wait?"</p>
<p>I ended up going to Princeton instead. Of course, everyone has their own reasons. I knew I wanted the quintessential undergraduate experience, and that, to me, was Princeton.</p>
<p>... and I just recently found out that you cant transfer into princeton... so your decision was indeed the best since, if all else fails, you can transfer back to H.</p>