<p>For those of you who are attending, or have attended the school, generally how difficult is humanities or social sciences at Harvard?</p>
<p>for instance, if I took 7 ap classes (most of them social science) during my senior year, and got 4.5 to 4.75 Weighted gpa for the first semester grade, would i still have a very difficult time at Harvard?</p>
<p>It’s only as difficult as you make it. You can take all gut courses and choose a concentration with no senior thesis requirement, or you can take challenging courses, an honors track, or take a secondary concentration…</p>
<p>Duality’s absolutely right. Government is generally considered the easiest concentration, while History and Literature, for example, is known to be considerably more difficult. And the difficulty within each concentration greatly depends on the classes you choose (not to mention the extracurriculars you involve yourself in, etc).</p>
<p>The old stereotype of “Once you’re in, it’s easy,” is completely wrong, though. Many, many students have a challenging time here, though most of them challenge themselves intentionally through the courses they choose.</p>
<p>Admiral, said “government is generally considered the easiest concentration.” I dont go there, as I am a senior in HS, so I cant verify this statement. But I wanted to know why this concentration is generally thought of in this manner? And despite this, Harvard still has a top government program for undergrads though, right??</p>
<p>Cali- it is absolutely a top program (and an AB in government from Harvard is very well respected). However, there are hard courses and easier courses, and it’s just possible to graduate with a degree in government while taking many easier courses. A number of the required courses are just plain easier, for various reasons.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to stereotype, though: plenty of government concentrators are very serious about their work, and many choose very difficult courseloads (there are a number of difficult government classes, and some supplement their concentration with honors economics classes, or with history, or whatever). However, it’s just true that in general, the concentration requires less work than most others.</p>
<p>Admiral, thanks for clearing this up. Yes, everything I have heard about the government program at Harvard is phenomenal.</p>