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The H-Bomb effect:" While non-students claim they’d kill for the chance to brag about attending Harvard, actual students know their school’s brand-name appeal can be both a blessing and a socially-awkward curse of heightened expectations. Despite what you may have heard about the brilliant student body, massive endowment raining money down on Cambridge, or world-class resources, "
Harvard doesn’t have the shiny golden aura that most people perceive it to have,” explains one sophomore. “
Sure, there are tons of opportunities—but no one hands them easily to students.” Harvard’s students worked hard to get where they are, and college isn’t just a four-year party—most elect to throw themselves into their studies and activities with the same intensity they did in high school. Being around their fellow best-and-brightest is a humbling experience (“
Harvard can have the tendency to make everyone feel insufficient… next to students who are saving baby seals and starting AIDS research programs in Africa”), and "
constant competition" over everything from grades to housing is challenging even for the toughest students. Whether students love or hate their Harvard experience, almost everyone is thrilled to become a part of the “
richness and tradition” associated with Harvard’s powerhouse name.
While Harvard regularly makes top-10 national college lists, students aren’t always happy with what’s going on inside the classroom. “
Even when you realize that Harvard is a medium-sized school where large classes and little face-time with professors are inevitable, it’s hard to square off the expectation of what a Harvard education should be with what it actually is,” observes one sophomore. "
Most lectures are too big," explains a freshman, especially in large departments like Economics or Sociology, where hundreds enroll in the largest classes each semester. “
But the seminars and labs are great,” with smaller sizes, individual attention, and appealing topics. Having top-notch professors at the forefront of their fields means lectures and reading lists are stellar, but “
professors generally don't know your name unless you frequent their office hours constantly.” And busy schedules mean most student-instructor interaction happens with the teaching fellow (TF) assigned to small groups within large lectures. Some students feel the TFs are overused as teachers and caution that TF quality can make or break a semester.
Harvard’s notoriety for grade inflation isn’t totally deserved, say students. “
It's true that if you study hard, you probably won't get a C or D,” according to one sophomore in the economics department. “
But…Harvard students are people who are used to working hard and getting A's.” Perhaps the best thing about the academics at Harvard isn’t the actual academics. Harvard’s “
wealth provides endless opportunities…for internships, research, anything you can imagine,” writes one sophomore, who had materials for her painting class fully subsidized. And while some overly-ambitious types take pleasure in busting curves, “
people also work well together,” frequently collaborating in study groups, says a senior.
With a name entrenched over three centuries, there are a plethora of stereotypes about the typical Harvard students. “
Rich, white, WASP-y, and old money; elitist, entitled, and snobbish; collar-popping and arrogant; smarter-than-thou with 4.0s and perfect SATs (but no social graces),” one sophomore lists. “
No wonder I’ve rarely received positive responses when telling strangers I attend Harvard.” But the reality is much different: “
Harvard these days is much more diverse and egalitarian...We have international students, athletes, people from rural Kansas, and classmates with no apparent academic merit whatsoever. There is no ‘average Harvard student.’”
Because it receives so many applications for so few spots, Harvard has the luxury of handpicking a group of diverse students from a variety of backgrounds, with a range of achievements and points-of-view. “
I’ve never met a more diverse group of people,” says a sophomore from Maryland. “
I’ve met people who are from countries I had never even heard of, belong to religious groups I didn’t know existed, and have the most obscure hobbies (e.g. champion bird watchers, world-champion DJ, New York Times crossword puzzle developer).” Recent financial-aid initiatives have added financial diversity to that list as Harvard adds more ways for lower- and middle-income families to pay what they can afford. For all their differences, only one group-wide stereotype that seems to stick: “
Everyone here is pretty smart,” says a freshman. “
Even the athletes I've met are for the most part very clever.”
Harvard’s social life centers on 13 residential houses that students sign into after freshman year, which students love for creating a “
strong sense of community” in smaller campus subsets. They sign in as “blocks” of up to seven friends. However, the “blocking” process can be “
infamous,” according to one sophomore. “
Every year, tears are shed, blame is leveled, and relationships ruined as friends unfortunately discover their friends don’t want to live with them.” But since Harvard doesn’t have a student center or make “
an effort to provide any unified social experiences,” houses have significant social implications, as they form members’ social base, provide places to eat and relax, and host parties throughout the year.
As for socializing, students vary wildly in what they consider to be a good time. For at least one senior bio major, “
social life happens in the library,” although, according to others, even Harvard students have to go somewhere when the library closes. “
Humanities students, who have an easier life academically, just transfer that intensity to extracurriculars,” explains a junior. Most devote a large portion of their free time to a full slate of sports, performing and visual arts groups, pre-professional societies, volunteer opportunities,and other clubs. “
It's more that doing extracurriculars (and occasional schoolwork) is what they enjoy, [not] that they don't have fun,” says one junior.
That's not to say students can't find a party when they want one. “
People party every weekend and during the week as well, depending on how much work they have,” says a junior, and nearby Boston is “
packed with things to do.” Cambridge offers a full array of shops, restaurants, and pubs within walking distance. There are a handful of house-less sororities and fraternities, but the more exclusive party scene happens at Harvard’s finals clubs, “
still functioning dining clubs now more interested in drinking, girls, and interesting combinations of the two,” which are shrouded in secrecy, plagued by accusations of discrimination, and said to be expensive old-boys networks. Dating among the Harvard community was summed up bluntly as "
crap," with no middle ground between cozy long-term couples and drunken hook-ups.
But, despite the myriad experiences students report within Harvard’s ivory tower, the best part isn’t always the four years, but the opportunities that a Harvard degree affords afterwards. “
Dropping the ‘H-bomb’ can be both a satisfying and an awkward experience,” says one sophomore, “
but it is really comforting to know that it will be that much easier to get a job when I graduate.” For that, they learn how to accept both the good and the bad: “
Harvard is quite simply Harvard,” explains a freshman, “
old, bureaucratic, elitist, diverse, one big mix of everything.”
