Harvard University Top Questions

Harvard is Perfect regarding these questions. studnets are very very well mixed. people are not racist, not sexist, and people do not really talk about money.

I think that Harvard is an incredibly diverse and respectful place; I have several very close friends who are LGBT (most of my core group, actually) and am in the lowest end of the socioeconomic spectrum, though my friends fall from the low end to the high end. I feel that after freshman year, diversity becomes a familiar backdrop for students' lives and something that they learn to appreciate and will miss after graduation. I think that someone who is not open-minded about diversity would have a problem with being at Harvard. Anyone else (even poor students, of which I am one) would probably be fine. Also, someone who is not willing to "go it alone" (you have friends to support you, but ultimately you are responsible for your own education in the fullest sense of the word) would be better off going elsewhere. Clothing: Students tend to dress slightly better here than, say, on the West Coast, but that's a function of Boston/city living and not of Harvard's supposed pretentiousness. Interaction: different types of students definitely interact daily, although your core group(s) of friends may be more similar to you. Four tables of students in the dining hall: (1) Blocking group and pseudo-blockmates (those who have been "adopted" into the core group of best friends/roommates). Loud and laughing about some ridiculous joke that may or may not be an "only at Harvard" (i.e. overly intellectual and still funny) one. One is probably sitting with his or her laptop intently working while firing back comments on the conversation; another is probably drinking her 5th cup of tea/other caffeine for the day. A third will have a huge stack of books and a fourth will be relaxing without homework for the afternoon. (2) Random student organization meeting, probably with Nochs Pizza. (3) A group of several students, none actually with the others, independently studying while a pair at the end has a conversation. (4)??? The dining hall's pretty varied... Where are most Harvard students from? I have no idea. Mostly the US, and mostly larger cities, I think, but there is a large international population. Financial backgrounds: Middle class and up, with a few from the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum. Politically aware/active? Extremely (not all, but most). Left/right/center? I'd say pretty evenly split, but not really sure. Future earnings: No, not really. People are more concerned with grades and activities now and what their first job will be. I don't think they openly discuss earnings, but of course they hope for high-paying jobs so they can live wherever they want.

The campus is incredibly diverse. That was the first thing that struck me about Harvard when I arrived. There is no typical Harvard student; the body is like one giant high school with a more complete spectrum of people, all a considerable notch higher in terms of education than the average person. Most students are liberal, most have been active in community service at some point, a lot play sports, many will try totally new things. Oddly enough, Harvard students DO NOT look nerdy on the whole. There's a small subsection, of course, but for the most part, they're confident and good-looking young men and women.

The student body is very varied.

lots of religious groups, dominantly Christian, but has Hillel and other groups too. Students wear anything from sweats to suits. Students for all backgrounds, lots of international students. Feels like all the TFs and Research Grad students are foreign and have a heavy accent. Students are all varied; some are very very political, participating in dems and republican races, Student council, and some could care less. Econ students always talk about money - iBanking and recruiting are HUGE for frosh to seniors, summer or career.

I love my religious group, they are my best friends. As an international, I can say that a lot of int. students would feel lost if it were not because we can rely on other int. students. The culture shock is striking. Clothes (jk). Normal clothes, and sometimes stupid "Harvard" t'shirts/jackets (don't worry boy, we know you go to Harvard). Sometimes. Latinos, black americans, people (including possible Lat/Bl.Am.) with their laptops, and other people (including Lat./Bl.Am) who want to eat. MA, NY, CA, TX. I'll say financial aid people. Don't know, I don't understand politics. Ditto. Not really (we know we might eventually be rich)

People here seem fairly normal, and you can talk to people regularly for weeks before discovering in an offhand way that they're grand-prize winners at international science competitions, or world-famous concert pianists, or children of presidential candidates, or just in some other way ten miles smarter than you.

The student body is both the best and worst thing about Harvard. The variety of people that can be found here is literally breathtaking; as a Harvard student, my fellow classmates are pretty much the most amazing people I’ve ever met. Harvard students as a whole are incredibly intelligent, talented, passionate, and dedicated. They’re good at identifying what they want and zeroing in on that goal until they get it. They are the most active people imaginable, tireless in their academics and extra-curriculars, constantly tapping Harvard’s resources and making the absolute most out of everything they’re handed. The student body includes Olympians, royals, children of prominent politicians, published authors, nationally-recognized scholars, Time Magazine honorees, etc. These are people who have patented inventions, started websites worth millions, played violin internationally, broken records, so forth. And the best thing about them is that they’re all completely normal. No one brags about who they are or what they’ve done; it’s not until you happen to sit down with someone and ask them what they do for fun that you discover “I play a little soccer” means they’ve actually won multiple international titles. More than anything else, Harvard students are incredibly unique, and none of them are even remotely like the rest. As is often said, there is no “average Harvard student.” This can make for some really interesting conversations (as you begin to learn who a person is and where they’re coming from), but it also means that it’s hard to find niches, or groups of people like yourself on campus, and everyone at one time or another feels slightly out of place. People’s interests are myriad—a single sit-down with a friend can broach everything from politics to religion to technology to economics. The University as a whole is a pretty liberal place, and while there are always open-minded people ready to listen and learn, conservatives do talk about how persecuted being in that particular minority can feel. Students hail from everywhere from Swaziland to Nepal, and there’s someone to call every one of the fifty states home, but a surprising amount of people are from California, New York, and Massachusetts. The average Harvard student comes from a six-figure-income home, but no one really cares how rich or poor anyone in particular is (famous cases are a little bit of an exception). One of the best things about Harvard is how democratizing it is: everyone lives in the House system, so you can’t judge a person by how swank their pad is. The T takes you everywhere you want to go, rendering a car (and judgment of how nice it is, or if a person can afford one) more or less completely unnecessary. Everyone has the same meal plan, everyone is entitled to the same classes, etc. That being said, people who all went to the same prep school in Connecticut do tend to hang out, just as minorities kind of gravitate toward each other. Once in awhile, the students here can make Harvard miserable. One of the things I hated most about high school was how people seldom participated in activities they actually liked, and instead gauged everything they did by whether or not it would get them into college. I had hoped Harvard would be different—unfortunately, it’s a lot of the same. For the most part, students join extra-curriculars because they’re genuinely interested and find them a lot of fun. The classes people take, the concentrations they declare, and the processes they go through (e.g. e-recruiting), however, are too often only in pursuit of top graduate schools or six-figure-salary jobs. Neither competition nor peer pressure are ever too hard to find: if everyone’s doing e-recruiting, you feel like less of an achiever if you’re not vying for the same. On a campus where the world-renowned musician is also a math genius who edits for the Crimson and volunteers at the homeless shelter, it can be hard to feel adequate, and there is always pressure to turn that Harvard degree into fame and/or success. As a result, students can become myopic and get caught up in the “Harvard bubble”—overly concerned about the next paper or p-set due, and oblivious to the things that really matter or the bigger issues impacting people around the world. Most unfortunately for the students themselves, many of them don’t realize that they are suffering from the same dissatisfactions as everyone else, and consequently make situations worse in thinking they’re alone.

There are such big varieties in Harvard's student body, it's hard to generalize. These questions are rather too general for me to answer.

There are so many groups on campus that no student would feel out of place at Harvard. It can be hard to find the group that fits you, however, so make sure to sign up for list-serves (email lists) and attend lots of introductory meetings. Most students dress casually to class -- t-shirt and jeans are the norm. Different types of students do interact and are very open to each other, but for some reason the blacks always find the blacks, the asians always find the asians, etc. I feel that there can be a cultural barrier that is impossible to breach, where ever you are. Students are definitely politically aware and it is easy to get involved with a group of your political stances. Students rarely talk about how much they will earn in one day or their grades and SAT scores. I've heard that we're just not supposed to talk about our scores with each other.