why go to harvard for undergrad..?

Preguntas
Tue, 25 Jul 2006 18:27:49 +0000

In reply to justforgetme’s post, I agree with you that Summers’ departure probably won’t affect its financial aid initiative. I guess my point was that he was fundamental in making it all happen, and the fact that he was essentially ousted to salve the egos of some faculty members really bothers me.

At Pre-frosh Weekend this past spring, each department had an “open house” for students so they could get familiarized with the faculty, requirements, topic, etc. And maybe it was just the one I went to, but I sat in on the Political Science Dept’s open house and no one seemed to know anything about how we would fulfill our department requirements. All of the professors just said that each department was figuring out their own ways to meet the university’s requirements and that they were not sure when they would have everything figured out. (As a side note, I can’t remember the specific vocabulary used because each school is sort of different with their word choices).

As for social life at Harvard, perhaps I’m just a cynic, but they devoted an entire panel session to the topic of social life at Harvard with the “fun czar,” who, by the way, is a recent Harvard alumnus. The entire panel seemed to take great measures to make sure the point was made that there indeed were things to do at Harvard. The “fun czar” made repeated references to drinking throughout the program. Yes, it was for laughs, but I don’t know; it just seemed that they were trying to overcompensate a component of undergraduate life in which they might not be the best at.

Also, I do agree with you that in general, administrative influence in everyday student life isn’t the biggest component, but I’ll have to respectfully disagree. Although you may not have personal contact with administrators very often, their decisions and their leadership do affect you. The physical plant of the university and ways in which it can be used to better serve students is ultimately decided by an administrator. How about academic advising? If the system isn’t working, it’s the administrator’s responsibility. Budget allocations are determined by administrators, which may affect anything from student clubs and organizations to social activities. Also, the capital campaign is indirectly essential to undergraduate life. Not only are capital campaigns done to raise funds, they are also an important indicator of alumni support. Summers’ departure may cause some alumni and backers to become disillusioned with Harvard’s administrators (of course, this is all hypothetical).

I’m sure Harvard will eventually figure things out with regards to curriculum and administration, but the question now seems to be “How long do we have to wait?”

I ended up going to Princeton instead. Of course, everyone has their own reasons. I knew I wanted the quintessential undergraduate experience, and that, to me, was Princeton.