I was surprised when I got here to find that Harvard wasn\u2019t competitive in the crazy, head-to-head race way that I had imagined it would be. Especially being a pre-med, I had pictured an environment where students were unwilling to help each other and would be stealing my lab equipment during class to sabotage a project. Luckily, that certainly wasn\u2019t the case and I\u2019ve found instead that students are more than willing to collaborate, form study groups, and help each other work through difficult concepts. Instead of defining Harvard as \u201ccompetitive,\u201d I would say it\u2019s intense \u2013 students are very driven here and are extremely engaged in the classes they take, which means that everyone is willing to put in the extra time to succeed. It\u2019s really an inspiring academic environment to be immersed in, though, because you constantly feel challenged to push yourself harder.<\/p>\n
Q: What\u2019s your favorite part about living in an upperclassmen House?<\/strong><\/p>\n Definitely my favorite part of the House is the dining hall. It\u2019s the most central space in the House, where everyone meets up to eat meals, grab a snack at \u201cbrain break\u201d late at night (yes, the dining hall staff leaves us cookies!), or meet with classmates to go over a problem set that\u2019s due. It\u2019s also a great place to meet other people in the House, because with the long tables in Dunster, I always find myself sitting next to someone new that I\u2019m excited to introduce myself to. The dining hall definitely embodies the sense of community that students come to love while living in a House.<\/p>\n Q: How do you choose your classes?<\/strong><\/p>\n The process of choosing classes at Harvard is actually one of my favorite parts about our academic system in general. At the start of each semester, the first week of classes is known as \u201cshopping week\u201d. During this week, students are allowed to attend introductory lectures for as many classes as they want, and end up \u201cshopping\u201d about 6-8 potential courses. Rather than registering months ahead of time, Harvard students register for their classes at the end of this shopping week, which means we all have a really good idea about the syllabus, professor, class size, material, etc before we enroll. It ends up resulting in an academic community where students are truly engaged with and excited about the classes they\u2019re taking, because they\u2019ve been hand selected to fit their own specific interests.<\/p>\n Another cool part about course selection is the \u201cQ guide\u201d (which I recently learned was originally the CUE guide, for the \u201cCurriculum for Undergraduate Education) \u2013 we use this system as a way of rating our classes and giving professors feedback. All students are allowed to go online and access the average rating (on a scale of 1-5) for the class overall, the professor, the workload, and the discussion section. Being able to read honest advice and feedback from other students makes course selection a lot easier.<\/p>\n Q: What\u2019s your favorite story from your time at Harvard?<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s difficult to narrow it down to just one story, but I do have a particular favorite from freshman year. I lived in Mower Hall (one of the dorms on the Yard), and Tommy Lee Jones and Al Gore lived across the hall from each other in my entryway (yeah Mower B!) when they were freshmen. Around November of my freshman fall, Al Gore was in town for a book talk\/signing and a whole bunch of us from my entryway decided to go get him to talk to us. We showed up at the event decked out in Mower t-shirts and face paint (as I remember it, we were coming back from an intramural ultimate Frisbee game) and stood in line to talk to him. When we approached the table, Al Gore saw our shirts and completely lit up, and talked to us for a few minutes about how much he\u2019d loved living in Mower as a freshman. It was really incredible to hear how much his time in the dorm had impacted his time at Harvard. Such a cool moment!<\/p>\n
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