Recent Experiences at Harvard

[Anonymous]

DC will attend Visitas, but it ends 3 days before decisions need to be made. Would love to hear from people about recent experiences at Harvard, especially around campus culture, how collaborative vs competitive students are (both in classes and clubs), and what social life looks like on weekends. Are students happy there? What are the reasons to choose Harvard over another college?

Any insight into internship opportunities and recruiting early on would be really helpful too. DC is outgoing, social, and very athletic, so trying to get a sense of overall fit.

[Anonymous]

Is there a chance that DC may decline Harvard?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC will attend Visitas, but it ends 3 days before decisions need to be made. Would love to hear from people about recent experiences at Harvard, especially around campus culture, how collaborative vs competitive students are (both in classes and clubs), and what social life looks like on weekends. Are students happy there? What are the reasons to choose Harvard over another college?

Any insight into internship opportunities and recruiting early on would be really helpful too. DC is outgoing, social, and very athletic, so trying to get a sense of overall fit.

It's very competitive there. How do you think they all got in? There are fewer opportunities so students have to compete with each other for internships. CS, consulting, and finance are the worst.

It depends on what the alternatives are.

[Anonymous]

Choose elsewhere

[Anonymous]

my son's bestie is there. had a really terrible first term - hated everything about it. but so much of harvard is outside the dorms and classes (for good and bad). now he's involved in one of the major organizations (think crimson or lampoon) and is much happier. he did get into said organization via our nepo/connected high school. so as long as you're coming from similar, should be fine

[Anonymous]

my kid choose yale over harvard after bulldog/visitas revisits. he's super happy at yale and so am I. it was the right decision, but I think kids put way too much into these revisits. they're like tours - a good one doesnt mean a good college experience and vice versa.

if he has anyone from his HS or your social group with an older kid there, I advise trying to either stay over with them or at least having a meal. kids who are juniors and seniors generally really love harvard, but I think it can take a minute. I think for a lot of kids it's "I sacrificed everything to make this happen and here I am, still me". (like the Adam Sandler SNL skit about Italian tours)

But it's a huge accomplishment and I hope they genuinely enjoy their visit

[Anonymous]

Harvard sucks. - MIT grad didn't apply and would never go there.

Specifically why it sucks - social scene sucks. The kids I met were egotistical trust fund babies. Professors in the sciences/engineering were subpar. Then of course you have a rotten culture that allows professors like Larry Summers to continue to be involved because money talks louder than ethics.

Grad school at Harvard is a lot better than undergrad IMO. The only reason to go as an undergrad is for "connections" but the vibe of the people there is just way off IMO.

[Anonymous]

Also - very telling. Ask any cab driver in Boston what they think of Harvard students vs any other college in Boston. That alone will tell you want you need to know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also - very telling. Ask any cab driver in Boston what they think of Harvard students vs any other college in Boston. That alone will tell you want you need to know.

Cab drivers are an excellent, unbiased source of college advice.

[Anonymous]

Clubs/orgs (not just finance ones) are very competitive; many spend a lot of time comping their first year and you have to be ready for a lot of rejections. Summer research/internships also competitive. Profs are top in their field, and it’s pretty neat to be in class with famous profs, but they don’t have much time or interest in mentoring undergrads, though this depends a lot on the size of the department— many humanities departments are small and you can get to know professors. Optional first year seminars are small and pass/fail, one way to get a smaller class experience with a prof. They do have an extensive orientation program (you can choose a theme— arts, community engagement, etc) that helps you meet first years with similar interests. Grading curve policy might be coming fall 2027, it’s still being debated— that might change the current focus on ECs over classes, at least that’s the theory. If enacted it would make it harder to get top GPA for law/med schools. You should read the crimson articles to see the current proposal. Trump funding cuts have greatly reduced entering PhD students, which will eventually reduce number of TAs— it’s unclear how they are going to address this. Currently TAs teach some courses themselves, and there is an army of them leading discussion sections for big classes like EC10; I have no idea what that is going to look like with fewer grad students on campus. Many of these features (other than grading policy) apply to some extent at most elite research universities. Harvard students are probably a bit less focused on classes (profs have taken to taking attendance and including that in the grade) and a bit more focused on resume building than some others, and some T10s have fewer grad students and seem a little more undergrad focused (Dartmouth, Brown, Princeton), but these are all matters of degree. I think Harvard is a good fit for someone who is confident, outgoing and polished, a go-getter, and happy to be in a less intellectual and more pre-professional environment.

[Anonymous]

I love the vibe of Harvard and Cambridge, but several friends have all expressed their regret choosing Harvard for their undergrad experience. They all say they should have chosen a smaller or more undergrad focused university and then went to Harvard to grad school. Socially it can be hard for some.

But in the end, most can't give up the Harvard prestige and name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clubs/orgs (not just finance ones) are very competitive; many spend a lot of time comping their first year and you have to be ready for a lot of rejections. Summer research/internships also competitive. Profs are top in their field, and it’s pretty neat to be in class with famous profs, but they don’t have much time or interest in mentoring undergrads, though this depends a lot on the size of the department— many humanities departments are small and you can get to know professors. Optional first year seminars are small and pass/fail, one way to get a smaller class experience with a prof. They do have an extensive orientation program (you can choose a theme— arts, community engagement, etc) that helps you meet first years with similar interests. Grading curve policy might be coming fall 2027, it’s still being debated— that might change the current focus on ECs over classes, at least that’s the theory. If enacted it would make it harder to get top GPA for law/med schools. You should read the crimson articles to see the current proposal. Trump funding cuts have greatly reduced entering PhD students, which will eventually reduce number of TAs— it’s unclear how they are going to address this. Currently TAs teach some courses themselves, and there is an army of them leading discussion sections for big classes like EC10; I have no idea what that is going to look like with fewer grad students on campus. Many of these features (other than grading policy) apply to some extent at most elite research universities. Harvard students are probably a bit less focused on classes (profs have taken to taking attendance and including that in the grade) and a bit more focused on resume building than some others, and some T10s have fewer grad students and seem a little more undergrad focused (Dartmouth, Brown, Princeton), but these are all matters of degree. I think Harvard is a good fit for someone who is confident, outgoing and polished, a go-getter, and happy to be in a less intellectual and more pre-professional environment.

Dartmouth, Brown, and Princeton are a lot more undergraduate-focused than Harvard.

[Anonymous]

The question for me would be what's the alternative? Harvard vs. what?

[Anonymous]

Congrats and all the Best to your kid. Getting into Harvard is an amazing accomplishment.

[Anonymous]

Not recent-recent, but we hired sitters from Harvard pre-Covid. To succeed, a student needs to be hyper self-directed. We saw so many lost kids. But the sorority girl who was hyper-focused on Lazard and got it seemed happy.