<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>Can we take junior/senior level courses (if course levels/rigors do vary with year) as a freshman in Harvard or any other college,
I mean a typical Quantum mechanics course is for junior/senior year but can I take it as a freshman.
Or, just for example, let us say can we attain graduate lectures even as Juniors/seniors.</p>
<p>How hard might that be?</p>
<p>Thank You.</p>
<p>Depends on how good your preparation is. If you’ve got adequate preparation–and I do know people who’d have had adequate preparation to take quantum as freshmen–I think they won’t stop you. I don’t have any experience with the sciences here, really, though, so I’m not sure the same applies there as applies in the humanities. One of my best friends in my year (sophomore) definitely just took a grad philosophy course, though, so I know people don’t stop you over here in not-so-many-numbers land.</p>
<p>As said above, it isn’t so much an issue of class year as an issue of preparation.</p>
<p>In the sciences, many classes will say something like “requires (this class) or the equivalent.” If you’ve taken the equivalent of that class in high school or elsewhere you sometimes take a placement test, sometimes talk to the instructor, sometimes both. </p>
<p>This happens less often in the humanities and social sciences, and when it does, it isn’t really a strict requirement. Maybe a class will say “required: an introductory course on blahblah” but in my experience, nobody really checks to see if you’ve taken one unless you have a really observant adviser. I skipped 2nd year Arabic based on my summer work but I never had to prove to Harvard that I took Arabic in the summer; I just showed up in 3rd year. This goes well with Harvard’s general philosophy of not holding your hand.</p>