Harvard University Top Questions

Students don't usually leave their dorms open. Athletic events are not too popular. If I'm awake at 2am on a tuesday, I"m probably studying.

The dating scene sucks, but everyone knows that and seems to accept the hook-up or married culture. I think a very low percentage of people party compared to other schools, and those who do party restrict themselves to the weekend.

I am on the marathon team and I conduct systems biology research.

I have a group of close, real friends. Other than that, I keep to myself. I do not enjoy the "going out" scene here, but that's okay because I get more than enough of that when I am home. What I like about Harvard is that it doesn't matter what you do. You can go out, you can stay in; people generally respect your preferences.

If I am awake 2am Tuesday, the only possibility is that I am studying in Lamont..or waiting for the shuttle bus to take me back home.

Activities are overwhelming. Starting a club is very easy.

actually, the academic load is too heavy for grad students to participate in any extracurricular. it's almost impossible for me to participate in a sport team with regular practice schedule, though i'm dying to join them.

See stereotypes.

I love Harvard activities. Sometimes the parties aren't great...but they are what you make them. People are very friendly. Cambridge is always there and Boston is easily accesible.

As a science student who didn't really get out much freshman year, getting into an upper-class house was a god-send. I met a great group of friends and got really close to them. The dozen or so of us eat pretty much every meal together and even though we don't have much time to go out and do stuff, we often study in the same room so we can talk and socialize when looking up from our work. However, it is easy to get complacent in that clique and fail to branch out; now, I think we've grown a little weary each other and although we'll look back on our years fondly at graduation, it is probably a good thing that we only have one more year here.

After freshman year, Harvard students are sorted into 12 upperclassmen houses. There is a strong since of house identity here, as expressed in intramurals and formals. Boston is a relatively small city that is packed with things to do - the MFA and New England Aquarium are great attractions, as well as Fenway and the Prudential Center. There is no Greek system, but there are finals clubs. While they get a bad rap for being selective and discriminatory, they are anything but. The people there are very friendly and fun to hang out with on a Friday/Saturday night. Unfortunately, all clubs in Boston are 21+.

Social life can be good here but needs improving. At least its a good thing that the presence of frats is negligible.

Most popular clubs? I don't really know. I guess a lot of people work at the Crimson newspaper, but it's not, like, SUPER-popular. No frats. There ARE finals clubs, but those are kind of stupid. Since it's a city campus, there're restaurants open even late, which is fantastic. In general, living so close to Boston is really, really great.

I am a member of the Harvard Democratic Club.

Wide Range, one of the reasons why I chose to come here. great traditions, altho most have been tamed.

There is nothing very interesting to me, and I am too busy to get involved.

The are clubs/organizations of anything you can and cannot possibly think of. If you can think of anything, it probably exists at Harvard. Social life is good during freshman year and they go to parties a lot, but later on people get settled down a bit and are much more busy so they will party much less.

I met my closest friends through my freshman dorm. They are now my roommates.

finals clubs are not so cool

MUNs are just great and the people very open.

activities are much more time consuming than you would expect, and the social life is what you make it. if you come into thinking that you will have crazy parties you might be dissapointed.

I do not participate much in the social life, as my private life is more important to me.

The sailing team has a pretty active social scene. They have parties just about every thursday, and everyone on the team goes, and it's really fun. Some students leave their doors open, but, being on the first floor right next to the main door to the dorm, we usually lock ours.

Political groups are really active, athletic events like football get good attendance but other sports teams aren't as popular, the housing system is fantastic since you can choose who to live with and the house fosters a great sense of community ,sororities/frats aren't very popular and are almost looked down on, finals clubs are obnoxious but throw good parties, dating does not happen here(you either hook up or are in a relationship, no middle ground)

I am politically conservative. The campus overall is very liberal and quite secular. However, there is a pretty good spirit of debate, and it is not the case that most classes are over political, or that conservative students feel threatened or lack administration support. There is some, but not too much, radicalism on campus. By and large, people are liberal personally, but way to busy to protest and march about. Now, I am probably not qualified to talk about social life, but here goes. A lot of kids complain about the party scene. I did not go to any parties (I do not like crowds) so I do not really know. There are parties and things going on most weekends, but I have heard they are lame. There is less of a culture of partying here than at some other schools, but it is available if that is what you are into. I had a great time socially hanging out with friends, going to concerts and plays, watching movies, and traveling with some clubs and student organizations. The university does not make much of an effort to provide any unified social experiences-- we do not even have a student center. I think this makes Harvard feel less like a community. I am in a relationship, but I think there is less of a culture of dating and more random hooking up than might be desirable.

AAA, Eastbound, The African American Drumming Group thingy, I am in the HRO: it is very selective and people in there are nice to you only if you are in HRO, many people in there are scary and too serious about life but you just avoid them, its a very tradition based club with a serious alumni support, students never leave their doors open, athletic events are not popular except for harvard yale, guest speakers are popular, theater is popular, dating scene is very very active, parties are not important

Popular Groups: Crimson, Harvard Student Agencies, Football Team, Crew Team, Basketball team, Lampoon, Hasty Pudding, Harvard Radcliffe Drama Club, A Capella groups Group I'm involved in: I'm involved in the Harvard College in Asia Program. We organized a conference for 60 students from New Delhi, Singapore, Dubai, Seoul, Hong Kong, and Tokyo to come to Harvard and learn about American life. In return, these students are hosting us at their universities over our spring break. I'm going to Singapore where I'll get to meet with top government officials, attend classes at another university, and visit an island beach resort. Best of all it's all paid for by Harvard. Dorms and Doors: Freshmen year we all left our doors open. It was our policy that people could walk in and out whenever they wanted. I made some of my best friends this year. Many students, however, live in suite housing which means groups of between 2 and 10 students live in suites with common rooms and off-shooting bedrooms. In this arrangement, most students leave their bedroom doors open, but keep the entrance to their suite closed. Athletic events: Some students go regularly, most don't. However, everybody goes to some. Nobody would miss the Harvard/Yale Football Game which is known to be the best day of the year. Guest Speakers: I don't think there's ever been a week when I haven't gone to see a guest speaker. There are dozens here every day. I have trouble choosing which ones to go to. Harvard brings in so many incredible people. Dating: Almost all of my friends have had some sort of relationship since they got here. Some have lasted, others haven't. There are also a hook-up scene of people not really looking for relationships. Personally, I'm in the crowd of people still in long-distance relationships from high school which is also fairly common. Closest Friends: My closest friends came from my freshman dorm as well as my extracurricular activities. Strangely, I don't think I've ever met a friend in a class. Awake at 2 on a Tuesday: I'm rarely awake at that hour (if I am, it is probably because I am fooling around on the internet). I need 8 hours of sleep or I can't function. I've never pulled a college all-nighter or anything like that. It really isn't all that common here. Traditions: Head of the Charles-- Biggest college crew race in the country. Always on a beautiful fall day. Everyone sits out on the banks of the Charles, eats lots of food, and cheers Harvard on. Harvard/Yale Game-- Biggest event of the year. Huge tailgate followed by game. Everyone is very spirited, and it is the only time everyone is wearing Harvard colors and publicly dissing other schools (i.e. Yale or The Evil Empire). Primal Scream-- The night before final exams begin hundreds of students storm the Yard naked. Thousands watch. Housing Day-- The day that Freshman are assigned their upperclass houses. Blocking groups (groups of eight friends) stay up all night waiting debating about the best and worse houses. My friends and I bought ice cream, and pizza, and watched three movies. By 7 in the morning, we were trying very hard to stay awake, just when we heard the expected knock on our door. In the morning, an upperclass student hand-delivers and sealed envelope to each blocking group. Inside is the name of the house each group will live in for the next three years. No matter what, everyone is always ecstatic about their placement. Groups then storm the freshmen dining hall to find upperclass students from their new house. When I found my new house, I was showered with all sorts of gifts-- a t-shirt bearing my house's name, a chocolate bunny (the house mascot), pens, pencils, candy, and more. Everyone was screaming. In the evening, students are taken back to their house to welcoming parties where they meet their new community and the other students they'll be living with for the next three years. Parties: There are always parties for people to go to. Some people go every weekend. Many people go occasionally. Some never go. It is always an option, but never a requirement. Fraternities and Sororities: I hear we have a few. I couldn't name any of them. They really aren't part of the culture here. Last Weekend: Friday: Went into Boston Went out to dinner to celebrate my friend's birthday Saw a play at the Lyric Theater Went to bar to get pina coladas Saturday: Went out for Mexican food with friends from freshman year Hung out after at Starbucks Went to a hip hop dance show on-campus A Saturday Night Without Drinking: Plays Movies Dinner Comedy Shows Coffee Bubble Tea Lecture Series Pottery Studio Dancing Hanging out with friends in your common room I rarely drink on Saturday nights. It isn't because I don't like drinking or can't get alcohol, it is just that there is so much else I am doing it doesn't really cross my mind. Off Campus: I use Cambridge every day to hang out in coffee shops, casually shop, eat dinner with friends, watch street artists, go to movies, and more. Occasionally, I go into Boston to go shopping, out to dinner, skating, to plays, art museums, or just walk around.

Cultural groups are generally quite popular, such as the South Asian Association, Chinese Students Association. Food always attracts people.

There's a bunch of cultural groups committed to making the ruling class more colorful. Parties here are unbearable with very few exceptions.

Studnet groups are for resume building ONLY. name one person doing/running an organization 100{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} becuase he cares about what he is doing, i will pay you 1000$. dorms doors are constantly locked. i don't even know my nbs. athletcs- i don't really know, but they are popular. speakers- perfect, you can go around listening to intersting talks from intersting people all the time, they are actually interesting. dating- pretty easy if you can find girls that qualifies as girls. girls are hard to find though, you can find lotz of Hilary Clintons, only some of them are more stupid and uglier and with worse personalities than Hilary. party- all the time tuesday night- prob drinking beer talking with myh rooommate because we just ordered pizza. we talk about everything from girls to bible. weekend- sleep and sleep, play poker, beer, and how can you not drink?

Popular groups/organizations/clubs/teams: I think it's really to each their own. People tend to get involved in their own Houses (House Committees), and athletics (especially crew) are pretty popular. Other than that, people tend to join things that will make their resumes look good, as well as things they enjoy. Group I'm involved with: The Harvard University Choir is the only salaried music group (that I know of) on campus; we sing every Sunday in The Memorial Church and do other special performances as well throughout the year. Athletic events: I don't really know. Harvard-Yale is the only thing lots of students care about. Guest speakers: pretty popular. Often the IOP (institute of politics at the Kennedy School of Government) Forum has to lottery tickets to speaker events, which can include world leaders (I saw Queen Rania of Jordan). Theater: for those who are interested, there is a great theater scene here, both for audience and performers. Dating scene: hook-ups or "almost married", in the words of my friend. Not too good, unfortunately. How did I meet my closest friends? In the freshman dining hall. Like I meet everyone (in the dining halls, that is). On 2 am on a Tuesday, if I were awake (unlikely) I would probably be either writing a paper due the next day, on YouTube because I'm not really tired, or talking to friends. Traditions/events each year: depends on the House. University-wide events include Commencement (of course), Harvard-Yale, Freshman Parents Weekend, Junior Parents Weekend, and more. Partying: People party every weekend and during the week as well, depending on how much work they have. Houses host Stein Clubs (beer and pizza parties) weekly. Fraternities/sororities: I think we have one or two of each; they don't have their own residences and primarily are service organizations, from what I understand. The "frats" are called finals clubs and are elite male clubs that tend to be severely sexist and disrespectful towards women. What did I do last weekend? Went to a conference for my job/organization and did lots of homework. I'm going to a performance and a huge afterparty this weekend. Saturday night/no drinking: party without drinking (haha), go into Boston, rent a movie, hang out with friends, go to BerryLine or Herrell's or another ice cream/tea/etc. shop, etc. What do I do off campus? Usually I go into Boston or go walking with friends.

There's lots of dancing and music. The IOP is the big political center and PBHA is the hub for community service. Smaller groups are largely discovered by word of mouth. A number of people play IM or varsity sports, but it's a small group. The athletes stand out as almost separate from the rest of the student body, while the IM sports players are scattered, with most people only playing a few games, or a season, or intermittently. Theater is fantastic and common, guest speakers are always coming and going for variousl groups, there are few fraternities/sororities, such that they're activity is peripheral to the social scene here. Off campus, I generally will be going to a restaurant or out shopping or to a museum or such.

HRO (orchestra) is completely wild, not your average nerdy musicians. HRO afterparty involves heavy drinking (HRO punch = 1/2 vodka and 1/2 sugar), lots of dances and grinding. Awake at 2am on Tuesday or any other night, I'm working on my pset or cramming for midterms (btw are not MIDterms, I have 2-3 "midterms" per class). Saturday nights - going to concerts. Classical concerts, dance concerts, choir concerts, Chinese banquet, there are million things to do on the weekends. Off-campus, working with MIHNUET - performing music in nursing homes and hospitals around Boston.

Latino groups, community service groups. In HIMC we play videogames. NO. Don't know, never go. I heard of them, don't go neither. Do we have theater? Harvard girls are more difficult to understand that regular girls (and regular girls are already impossible to understand, so...) Roommate. Finishing a paper. Freshman week, Housing day, Commencement. I've heard that frequently. We don't have. Study for a midterm. Finishing another paper. I don't recall leaving campus.

There are many people here with active social lives. I have never been one of them.

The last time I saw the number, the count of student organizations on campus was above four hundred. There is seriously something here to interest everyone, and something exists to respond to every student need. There are groups that teach you how to be successful (Women in Business), political organizations (Institute of Politics, Dems and GOP), a cappella groups, dancing troupes, volunteer missions (PBHA), pre-professional clubs, advocacy groups, ethnic organizations, publications, etc. (I’m sure I’m leaving a hell of a lot of things out). A professor of mine once compared students here to those of a rival institution (let’s call it Winceston) by saying that while we were intellectually similar, Harvard students were involved with so many more activities and found so much more to do in our spare time. College is the time to meet new people and try unfamiliar things out, and a lot of students take this to heart. This weekend I attended a Cultural Rhythms dance show, where performers representing traditions all over the world shared dance, music, and food with the school. Not only was the breadth of the show impressive, but many of the performers were not actually from the culture they were presenting, having only picked it up for fun while at Harvard. Parties here widely vary in shape and size, from private gatherings to Happy Hours to dining-hall extravaganzas. People throw parties because they feel like it, clubs and sports teams throw parties all the time, small (and not so small) groups of friends get together to drink, and the College subsidizes the large, official parties that are excuses for students to mass-gyrate in different dining halls. Socializing is also where finals clubs and sororities come in (fraternities and female finals clubs also exist, though they’re slightly less-well-known). Greek life at Harvard is popular, but restrained, since the House system means people don’t actually live with their sorority sisters, etc. And partying in finals clubs is said to be classier and more fun than hanging out at larger parties, but it comes with political connotations given the elitist and sexist nature of said clubs. For those neither interested in partying nor drinking, there are theatrical/musical/dance performances happening just about every weekend, for affordable prices and in support of student groups. Boston is always a short T ride away for those willing to commute. And some of my most fun weekends have been spent just sitting around our common room, watching a movie, playing a game, or just laughing with roommates. The story of the dating scene is probably encapsulated by, “what dating scene?” This is not to say that people don’t have significant others—many do (2/4 of my suite, for example). Love lives on campus, however, tend to only encompass the “marrieds”—longstanding couples who spend a good deal of their time together—or the “hook ups”—people who meet each other at parties, hook up, and don’t really bother to see each other again. Between these two categories and the fact that Harvard students often have their mind on other things, people don’t really date (i.e. get together occasionally and see how things work out) around here. Lastly, I feel that any mention of social traditions should include a uniquely Harvardian one—blocking. The freshman-year concept of choosing the seven people guaranteed to share your House for the next three years is an infamous—and unnecessary—one. Every year, tears are shed, blame is leveled, and relationships ruined as friends unfortunately discover that their friends don’t want to live with them. Just about every blocking group has some harrowing story of the drama that went down before blockmates were picked. Blocking forces freshmen to constantly gauge and re-gauge their friendships as they hope that those they like, like them back. Freshman year is enough of an adjustment, and Harvard students are often already overstressed. While giving students the choice of who they want to live with is commendable, I feel that the Yale system of housing (where Houses are assigned before college starts, and everyone in your freshman dorm is also in your House) is the superior one. Many students block with freshman-year dormmates anyway, and being spared such an inevitably-offensive-but-necessarily-strategic choice would be beneficial to a lot of Harvardians.

I am in the Mozart Society Orchestra, and we put on concerts about 4 times a year, playing mostly middle/late classical music for small orchestras. I like classical music, and I go to hear the Boston Symphony pretty often. There are quite a lot of events on campus, such as music shows, or cultural shows, or always something going on on a saturday night. Most likely several events at the same time. We do have pretty famous speakers, Daniel Barenboim, the conductor/pianist, and I am sure many others that I don't know. Tuesday night at 2am, most definitely sleeping. I go to bed pretty early, 1am at the latest. But right before that, my math problem set.

I'm involved in this really low key game development group that I love. It's perfect for people who like programming and game development. The events at Harvard are pretty popular -- especially the ones that are well-advertised. The most popular groups/organizations are the ethnic ones (Asian American Association, etc.), Women in Business, and the Harvard Crimson. Fraternities and sororities are not allowed technically but a few do exist. Instead, we have Finals Clubs...but most people don't participate in these, only a select few. An event that happens each year is Primal Scream -- in which about 20 or so students strip naked and run through Harvard Yard. Everyone can participate but don't ask me about the details -- I'd never do it! You can do a lot on Saturday Night -- play games with friends (poker, Wii, PS2) or, my favorite, go to Boston to go shopping! There are also lots of great places to eat. Unfortunately, Harvard Square is lacking in good Japanese food but has a good assortment of Indian, Thai, and Mexican food. Boston is famous for great food. If I'm awake at 2am, unfortunately, I'm probably trying to do my Problem Set or doing some other sort of work. I wish this wasn't the case, but it's true -- most students have to study and work very hard.