Harvard University Top Questions

Some of my professors know my name while others don't. It's up to you to make that relationship and make it strong. Students are competitive but that is fun. Education can be geared towards learning for it's own sake or for jobs. Many students form very strong relationships with professors and spend time with them outside.

I'm an ec. concentrator, so my classes are large lecture courses. I would prefer to have smaller courses with more one-on-one contact with professors.

Most of my professors do not know my name. I really hate problems sets, I test well but there is lots of work outside of classroom. Many students are also very competitive which I am definitely not.

I wouldn't say that there is a close relationship between students and Professors, and some classes are told by Teaching Fellows who are uncommitted to their job:(

Most of my classes are large lecture style classes with minimal interaction with the professor, and there is little class participation. My favorite classes are macroeconomics and psychology. I initiate intellectual conversations out of class because I often feel like there aren't enough of them. The education is geared, rightly so, towards learning for its own sake.

Classes are not as hard as I expected but still quite challenging!

Classes are generally very big and professors don't usually know your name. Students seem to study a lot but they are also very involved outside of classes.

As an art history concentrator, all my concentration professors have known my name and gotten to know me pretty well in the academic setting. The classes I have taken outside of my concentration have been let-downs because the opposite is often true. People don't seem competitive in general, though I have known a few. Too often, people see learning as a means to an end, and thus don't enjoy their time here nearly enough - if I could change one thing about the school, that would be it - people should stress less about jobs (especially seniors) and give themselves a chance to enjoy learning.

Classes are taught by professors who are all top of their field. Even the course assistants are amazing at what they do.

The academics could not be better. The teachers are incredibly learned, the teaching fellows care, the resources and the libraries are of the highest order, and the spectrum of classes is infinite.

class participation very common in HDS

Students are very competitive. Expect to work hard if you are competitive.

my favorite class here is STAT 270. The professor is trying hard to know each of the student in the class and is willing to take advice.

Incredible. I get the "Wow, I'm at Harvard" feeling all the time.

My favorite class is Spanish. My TF is incredible - she is so helpful, really perceptive, and super nice. Students can be competitive, but I think there is an incredible amount of cooperation. Everyone participates in class. Students study a lot. I love being surrounded by other people that are excited about learning.

I'm a science major whose taken a fair share of humanities electives, and there is a very different culture in those two broad fields. Humanities classes (specifically English, History, Government) are very easy in general, but you can get bad TF's that are arbitrary and you can't figure out how to please. As hard as that is for a perfectionist like the typical Harvard student to stomach, that's just something you have to take in stride; everybody gets some hits like that. The good part is that in general you never have to do much work in those classes- the typical Harvard student can procrastinate on papers and still do well. In economics, there is a wide variety between the joke classes and the very hard classes that are like science classes. Science classes are an entirely different world once you get past the intro level. Harvard science students are cut-throat competitive- unless you are a genius or already learned the material before coming, don't expect to get above average, and hence higher than a B, unless you do every practice problem in every book and do every old exam you can get your hands on- and do that before every quiz and every test. Once you learn how to study like that, you can succeed well. But expect to have a miserable life in the process. (There are easy science classes, but those are about as rare as hard humanities ones, and often very gratifying for one's GPA but not for one's learning experience).

There is definitely no shortage of large, apersonal lecture courses at Harvard. However, once you go past that and really start getting involved in your concentration (major), you'll find countless opportunities to get to meet incredible faculty, and work closely with them. Indeed, there are plenty of chances, be it office hours, faculty dinners, or simply chit-chatting with professors. The key is, nothing will be simply handed to you. If you sit by idly, these opportunities will pass you by. You've got to be assertive and make things happen. In terms of difficulty, Harvard courses vary wildly by department. The math, science, and engineering departments are very rigorous, and you definitely should not expect to walk away with a 4.0. However, if you choose to pursue one of the larger humanities concentrations (government or economics), you can breeze through six courses a semester with virtually no chance of getting less than an A.

Unnecessarily stressful environment, but academics are well taught for the most part. However, Too many students per class, and there is a general fear of asking questions.

Some of my professors know my name, but it's true that most of my classes have been large, impersonal lectures. Students study a lot, although it varies rather widely depending on what classes you take. Pre-med classes, for example, are quite competitive. Math and science concentraters spend a lot of time working. But if you take the right Ec or Gov classes, you can sail through without doing all that much work at all. CS is a pretty time-consuming major, but I think Harvard does a solid job at teaching it, especially considering that we're not a tech school.

I love my history professor Donald Owastrwski . My other favorite professor from the classic department is Albert Heinrichs . I study often and spend many hours in Widener library.

most lectures are too big, but the seminars and labs are great. great faculty and available tutors.

Professors are friendly for the most part and like to interact with students. Students are studying all the time, and it makes me feel pressured to study all the time even if it means not getting as much sleep as I would like. Harvard students do have intellectual conversations all the time, and are always up for talking about science, or politics, or the economy. I am a chemistry major. The chemistry department has a lot of focus on organic chemistry and that is what I like about it. Harvard's requirements are pretty flexible I think, which is great because then you can pick courses you are interested in. The education here at Harvard is more academic rather than pre-professional, which is what I like.

Is extremely competitive. But most professors are very friendly and personal if you actively engage them in conversations or actively seeks them out.

I like the academics at Harvard in terms of my professors. I am very close with most of them. The one thing that is hard is the amount of work required.

They are overated

My favorite classes are HS A-21 and GOV 2227. At college class participation could be more encouraged.

acamdeics at harvard really vary by major. in some majors it is easy to feel like you can do everything and it others you have to drop everything to get your work done. i started in ec, had a breeze, felt really on top of school, and switched to comp sci and math, which made things much harder. i think i've really gotten to see both sides of the academic community.

At Graduate School students are not that competitive, which very good for the atmosphere. People do not have to prove anything anymore as they already have a lot of experience

The biggest problem with academics at harvard is probably the overuse of teaching fellows. A lot of the time they don't really know the subject that well. Some professors know my name while the ones from the bigger classes definitely do not. My favorite class is probably Chinese, because the head prof is brilliant and extremely enthusiastic, also, the tf's for that class are very involved and clearly love teaching. I am also in a freshman seminar with two other students, so I've developed a good relationship with that professor. The academic requirements are really hard to get a handle on, especially if you're undecided.

Most classes are really big and you have sections with graduate students but seminars are available made up of small groups of students, even in big classes professors have office hours and are very accessible, intellectual conversations happen all the time, people study hard but also make time to have fun

So far, my coursework has been superb. Though some of the CORE classes are not that challenging and designed to fulfill non-major requirements (poets' math type thing), all of the classes I took, including a Core philosophy class, were interesting and well taught. The physics, math, and economics classes are quite difficult-- for freshman honors mechanics, I probably spent 10-15 hours a week on the problem sets. The Faculty are brilliant, but their pedagogical abilities vary significantly. There is little hand-holding, but with perseverance and some research, it is easy to find a great, great education. On the other hand, it is possible to just limp along, taking not-too-challenging courses; the education is largely what you make of it.

Few professors do, Positive Psychology is my favorite class, MCB is my least favorite, students study every day for around 4 hours average, class participation is very common, Harvard students have some intellectual, students are either very competitive, or not at all, the most unique class has been positive psychology, my major is chemistry and it is a very tight knit community and i know everyone in the department because it is only 40 students large, i never spend time with professors outside of class, Harvard's academic requirements are easy, Harvard's education is geared towards learning for its own sake

Do my professors know my name: Yes and no. Some professors do, others don't. It depends on the type of class. Some classes are taught in large lecture halls and others in small seminar rooms. Personally, I like to take about half of each. All of my seminar class professors know my name (and know a lot more about me than that!), and some of my lecture class professors do too. For big classes, though, it all depends on your initiative. When I go into office hours and make an effort to get to know my professor, he or she will personally stop and say hi to me whenever I walk by in lecture. However, when I am lazy and don't bother going to office hours, I can spend a whole semester without personally talking to the professor. Favorite Class: Social Studies 10 This is the tutorial for my concentration. We meet in really small tutorial groups (I only have seven in mine) and we real all the classic social and political theory (Smith, Hobbes, Marx, Mill, Weber, Freud, etc.). I leave the class every day feeling inspired. It challenges the way I see the world when I can sit in a small classroom, read the world's greatest thinkers and have challenging philosophical discussions with some of the smartest people I've ever met. Least Favorite Class: Social Analysis 10 (also known as Ec. 10). Professor Mankiw might be a big name, but that does not make this a good class. Lectures are huge and Mankiw's lackluster speaking ability does not help. Furthermore, a class of that size needs to be administered carefully, but it seems to be disorganized and disjointed. I often feel lost, and I'm not always sure who to go to for help. Luckily, Harvard has other resources to help me cope. Harvard subsides Ec 10 tutors for $3/hr so I've been able to get outside help and quality instruction in an affordable way. Amount of Studying: Some people study all the time. Some people barely ever study. Most students spend about equal time studying, participating in extracurricular activities, and hanging out with friends. Personally, outside of class I rarely spend more than two hours working on schoolwork. The bulk of my time I spend doing things I'm equally, if not more passionate about like running my own business, attending incredible lecture series, directing plays, etc. Intellectual Conversations: Of course! Not ever second of every day, but frequently and randomly. Sometimes a discussion in class just carries over to the walk home or dinner. Other times, I'm sitting in my room talking to my roommates about what's for breakfast and it randomly morphs into a conversation about politics, art, or the meaning of life. Academic Requirements: I haven't tried, and I only have two more classes to go (I'm a sophomore). Fulfilling them is pretty effortless. Education: It is geared to letting you get whatever you want out of it. If you want to be pre-professional, Harvard has the resources to prepare you for your career. If you decide you want a strong, well-balanced, liberal arts education, Harvard is there to help you choose the right classes have access to the right resources for that too.

Professors won't know your name unless it's a small class or if you go to office hours. If you're premed, be prepared to enter the competition. But you're pretty much guaranteered to get into medical school once you successfully graduate. Harvard is not geared toward getting a job, but the degree might help to open some doors.

Academics here are nothing special. Lots of work, but nothing else notable. Most classes suck.

Oh yah, they know your names. because they are smart people. BUt, they ONLY know your names. students study a little too hard, and classes are a little too quiet. and intellectual conversations outside classes are regarded as far too obnoxious, and ofcourse, students are always super competitive. Math SUCKS at harvard. it is Literally the department for the Top 1 or 2 students in the class and pretty Asian girls. I had a respected professor in math telling me, when I am seeking advising about what courses to take, "why do you keep taking more math if you are not going to be a prof mathematician? it's a waste of your tuition. go explore things, learn an ancient indian dead language or sth" this is the exact words he told me. OK, i know I do not want to be a prof mathematician may be a turn off for you, but I am still a student here. on the other hand, i know for a fact that he is very very nice to little cute asian girls and 1 supposedly great math udnergrad. the department head and people in charge of taking care of undergrad do not do that job at all. if you are an average math student, you don't get any attention. arond 30{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the class are people who want a job in finance, and they geer toward getting a wall street job since freshman year. Learning for its own sake? who does that? no one. take a class becuase you can get an A, never take a class because it is interesting. because first of all, nothign is really interesting here. people make up stories to tell you the great things about their classes to look cool, but interesting classes do not exist. there are hard classes and easy classes. in hard classes, you need to do less work but you need to learn hard, in easy classes, you need to do Tons of work because so many people are competing for the rare few A's, but you don't learn anything.

Professors: Yes ,they can learn your name--they're approachable if a bit intimidating at first...TFs (teaching fellows, almost always grad students) can be great and really helpful people who make a difference in your academic experience here. Favorite class: History 10b (Western History from 1628 to the Present), taught by Niall Ferguson, made me look at history and life in general from a different perspective (literally), asking us to consider things like whether the Allies won in WWII or the Axis Powers lost (yes, there is a difference). Least favorite class: Life Sciences 1b (Genetics), which should NEVER be taken as a Core, especially not when the premeds think it's difficult. Argh. How often do students study? It varies, but most study a couple of hours a day at least. Intellectual discussions do happen outside of class, depending on the group you're with...again, the people are the best part about this place. Competition: it depends on the situation. Everyone (almost) at this school is competitive; it's how we got here. However, there's not really a need to compete unless the class's grading system really calls for it...people tend to help each other more than hurt each other. It's nice to do group projects where everyone will actually do their part. Most unique class I've taken: Probably Anthro 1685. An Anthropologist Looks at Science Fiction. It was fantastic. Major/department: Social Anthropology is a very close and friendly department. I was a Social Studies major before, which is considered the big "intellectual" concentration (major) at Harvard, and the department was impersonal and overly intellectualized for my taste. The Anthro department has been incredibly helpful and I have loved my experience this year so far. Yes, I spend time with some of my professors outside of class. I think that the older you get, the more you communicate with professors (because the less intimidated you become by them--they're just people too, and you do NOT need to have something brilliant to say to talk with them). Harvard's academic requirements are perfectly satisfactory to me. Its advising system is (thank God) improving markedly--that's one problem with this place, because you really are expected to "sink or swim". I think that the education at Harvard helps you to get a job, but that's what things like student organizations and the OCS (Office of Career Services); the Houses do a good job of providing panel discussions etc. as well. The education at Harvard is fantastic and all that I could have hoped for--you do not learn solely "information", but how to approach information and work with it, and that's the most valuable thing that an education can offer.

Classes are getting dumbed down. It's easy to make a B, but in subjective classes, it's really hard to get an A. My favorite class was a literature class by Stephen Greenblatt that followed 3 imaginary ships in the 17th century as a premise for reading literature and articles from a variety of different places, many of which were primary documents. I've been completely turned off of math, due to the poor quality of the professor, the inconsistent quality of the TFs and the uncertainty of the level of difficulty. They weren't engaging, and I didn't feel compelled to enter the math department. I feel that professors are difficult to approach (they are, after all, /Harvard/ professors). Intellectual conversations outside of class take place from time to time. The general level of conversation is higher intellectually. Some groups, like math and physics groups or HRSFA, are much more likely to hold technical or nerdy conversations. It's difficult to perceive a real striving for better education in general.

They know your name if you make the effort to meet them (in big classes - sciences and economics). In smaller classes, they do know your name. Students study a lot, but it's definitely a work hard, play hard environment.

The quality of academics at Harvard is overall very good, but can vary depending on the class. Small classes like language courses or seminars are very intimate and you can develop a close relationship with your professor. In larger courses, though, there is definite alienation between students and the teaching staff. My least favorite class, because of this reason, was LifeSci 1a, which was huge, impersonal, and intimidating. I have loved nearly all of my other classes, especially my Spanish classes (Ca, Cb, 30, and 36), Lit-Art A-92 and ESPP10. They have all been very engaging and I have gotten to know the professors well. In terms of studying, Harvard students do it all the time--it seems to me that they feel guilty when they aren't studying. Competitiveness, however, hasn't been a problem. Students are hard on themselves and push themselves very hard, but not at the expense of other students.

I am in a small department where even the administrators know who I am.

Favorite class - Music 93r and First Nights. Class participation is common. Harvard is the best place for intellectual convo, inside and outside class. Students are competitive in premed classes, but internally. No bitching or catfights. Just intensely competing against self and against the grade curve. Professors come eat at house dining halls sometimes, very accessible. Academic requirement - kinda hard, demanding, more than prepares you for med school. Education geared towards learning more than job, although there are a lot of advising at the OCS for career prep.

Yep. I love language classes. I hate those math classes where the professors just think we're all stupid. Some of them always, most of them before the midterms, all of them in reading period. Of course. Idem. One I'm taking with the "god" of the field. They're nice...sometimes...ok, most of the time. Kind of. They want us to die. Getting a job (I know, it's sad)

The two people who ask questions in lecture can really intimidate the other forty into thinking everyone else is smarter than them.

Classes at the College, in my opinion, are actually pretty bad. 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. Technically, there’s nothing wrong with classes here: the professors here are world-class, the material is interesting and the readings very good. Yet one still expects more out of a premier institution. I’m only on my fourth semester here, but for the most part, when it comes to the meat-and-bones-textbook-and-facts part of my education, I’ve learned little. The material taught (multiplied four or five times over depending on how many classes you’re taking) is thrown at you at a rigorous enough pace that a lot of it doesn’t actually sink in. Classes are not so much an academic pursuit as they are requirements to be checked off in the drive toward a Harvard degree, just as discussion of the material, i.e. in section, is less about reasoned debate than it is about racking up participation points. Furthermore, for people who made it past the most strenuous admissions game in the world, students don’t always possess the intellectual curiosity that marks thoughtfulness and makes for the sophisticated kind of world citizens you want to be surrounded by. The Harvard admissions brochure will tell you there’s a ridiculously high percentage of classes with fifteen students or less. Between seminars, tutorials, sections, language classes, etc., the number is probably true, but misleading. Between Cores and intro courses like Ec10, Justice, and Life Sciences 1b, there are a multitude of classes that enroll anywhere from a hundred to over a thousand students, which makes for a drudging sense of nonidentity and/or feeds an already competitive culture. I’ve seen friends turned off by the fields of study they came to Harvard to pursue because of overcrowded classes, impersonal professors, or competitive classmates—especially in the sciences or economics, where competition exists most. Solutions would include expanding the Core curriculum, offering more fun and popular classes, and giving students more options among intro courses, but Harvard is only beginning to get the ball rolling on this. I say a lot of this because I’ve taken one really good class here and know what a world-class education should be like. In the spring of my freshman year, two of my dormmates and I teamed up to enroll in a lab at the Kennedy School of Government, where our project for the semester involved developing our own non-profit. This was the class that made my Harvard experience, and transforming school from an interesting experience to a place I loved. The class was hands-on and practical, teaching us how to network; everyone there was incredibly inspiring in their personal mission to save the world, the professor and teaching staff truly cared about us and kept themselves updated on our project, and having a chance to work so closely with Harvard friends I respected led to some of my most memorable moments here. So again, there’s nothing actually wrong with academics at Harvard; one just expects it to be better, and it should be.

How close you get to your professors depend on the class size, what class you are taking, and who you are. If you like to talk to professors during their office hours, or if the class size is small, or the class requires that you go to their office hours for homework, then you'll probably know the profs. I don't hesitate in asking my professors to go to my concert. My favorite class this semester is Music 1b, introduction to western music from Beethoven to Present. The professor lectures well, and the material is interesting. Students are quite enthusiastic in general, but sometimes there are people who fall asleep (we do study quite late into the night) occasionally. I feel that Harvard's academic requirements are quite reasonable. I do wish that I can take more electives. I never feel that Harvard teaches the materials that we need to learn to use in jobs, but Harvard teaches (indirectly, sometimes) the way how we can be successful at work.

Professors generally don't know your name unless you frequent their office hours constantly, which most people don't. This is in contrast to Teaching Fellows and Section Leaders who almost always know your name (since sections are taught in 15-30 people groups). My favorite class was Statistics because 1) the material was very interesting and applicable to real-life and 2) the professor genuinely cared about helping his students and held many office hours. My least favorite class was an animation studio class. It required so many hours of mindless drawing and the professor was pretty mean, too. Class participation is common when it affects your grade. If not, it's not uncommon nor common. Students are competitive but they often work with each other because not only is it nice to have a study friend, but it can be very beneficial to your grade. I feel that many students could not get by well if they did not have a good study group. Harvard's academic requirements are not hard; in particular, the requirements for my concentration (Economics) are relatively lax. There are some concentrations, however, that are very, very tough (Physical and Chemical Biology, Physics, etc.). We do have core requirements which can be a bother, though. Nevertheless, the core requirements allow for a full "liberal arts" experience. Education at Harvard is geared toward learning for its own sake. However, after going through its tough curriculum, most jobs will be happy to take you.