Harvard University (HU) Introduction and Academics

Introduction

Tour guides leading visitors around the Harvard campus are quick to mention that the school, founded in 1636, is the oldest college in the United States. In historic Harvard Yard, tour guides explain that Hollis Hall, a red brick structure built in 1763, housed Washington

Videos

Information Summary

Ranks 6th in Massachusetts and 30th overall. See the entire top 2,000 colleges and universities list
Overall Score (about)	98.2
Total Cost On-Campus Attendance	$71,650
Admission Success rate	N/A
ACT / SAT 75%ile scores	35 / 1580
Student Ratio Students-to-Faculty	12 : 1
Retention (full-time / part-time)	99% / N/A
Enrollment Total (all students)	31,566

Academics

Students enjoy a great variety of academic offerings and resources. Pursuing their A.B. or S.B., undergraduate students choose from about 3,500 classes every year and over forty fields of concentration (or majors). Throughout the course of eight semesters, students are required to take and pass thirty-two semester-long courses to graduate. The concentration accounts for roughly half of the course load over the four years. Students major in such fields as engineering, folklore and mythology, computer science, linguistics, economics, history and literature, and biological sciences, to name just a few. Some students design their own concentrations or pursue joint concentrations in two different disciplines.

The Core Curriculum

The remaining half of the curriculum is divided between electives and a new General Education curriculum. With the help of your advisor, you decide when to take General Education courses and which ones to take. Many students take more than are required for their diploma. They are lively and interesting courses and provide an opportunity to explore areas outside of your concentration.

Electives

The last part of the curriculum is composed of electives, which allow students to explore any other interests they might have. For example, some students concentrate in a nonscience discipline and use their electives to complete the premedical requirements. Others become fluent in a foreign language or take studio art classes as electives. Many students use their electives to take classes that will be fun and that will provide them with a different academic experience or choose from a

Most Popular Fields of Study

Gallery

Admissions

Getting into Harvard is extremely competitive. Only seven to ten percent of the applicants in the past few years were admitted, yet more than eighty-five percent of the applicants were academically qualified. The school attracts some of the best students in the world: most admitted students rank in the top ten to fifteen percent of their high school graduating classes.

If you decide to apply, do your best to present yourself to the Admissions Committee with a complete, concise application. Keep this in mind if you are thinking of applying:

Harvard accepts the Common Application and the Universal Application, but does not even have its own institutional form. The Common Application is fairly straightforward: send a transcript, write an essay on a topic of your choice, fill in the biographical information, provide a summary of your extracurricular life, and ask two teachers and a counselor to fill out recommendations.
Harvard does have its own application supplement to be completed in addition to either the Common Application or the Universal Application.
An alumnus interview is also a required component of the application. After you send in your application materials a volunteer from your local area will contact you to arrange the interview.
Students are required to submit either the SAT or ACT with writing and any three of the SAT Subject Tests. Finally, a Secondary School Report and Mid-Year School Report must be filled out by your college advisor or school counselor.
In making its decisions, the Admissions Committee considers all aspects of a person’s candidacy. You will be evaluated on your academic performance and potential, your extracurricular talents, and your personal strengths. First and foremost, the committee wants to be confident that you can handle the coursework. Your high school transcript is important here; take the toughest classes your school offers and that you can do well in. Once it has been determined that you could swing it in their classrooms, the committee will look for what distinguishes you from the thousands of other qualified candidates. Some applicants set themselves apart from the rest of the pool based on their extraordinary academic promise. Others are distinguished because of their well-roundedness or their specific talents beyond the classroom. Personal qualities are important in every decision.

There is no formula through which one is admitted. The committee reads every application with great care and strives to identify and admit those students who will make an impact during their college years and beyond. Be yourself on the application and in the interview and let your strengths, talents, and accomplishments speak for you. You certainly can

Financial Aid

The university is committed to a need-blind admissions process. This means that an applicant

Student Financial Aid Details

Ranks 3999th for the average student loan amount.
Secrets to getting the best scholarships and financial aid in Massachusetts.

Students

Students here are amazing in the diversity of their backgrounds, interests, and perspectives. Students come from all fifty of the United States as well as more than seventy foreign countries, and nearly seventy percent of them come from public high schools. The college is entirely coeducational and has been since 1977, when Harvard and Radcliffe joined forces in a unique partnership (Radcliffe was completely assimilated by Harvard in 1999). Students hail from many different religious, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. It is impossible not to feel energized by the presence of so many different people and ideas.

Residences

The exciting atmosphere of the area surrounding the campus complements the college

Student Enrollment Demographics

Student Graduation Demographics

Athletics

Forty-one varsity athletic teams are on campus, more than any other college or university in the country. If you don

Alumni

The liberal arts curriculum provides students with a base on which to build their futures. Students graduate with a comprehensive understanding of their concentrations, and with an appreciation for other disciplines. In recent years, the most popular concentrations have been economics, government, and biology. This may reflect many students

Faculty

The student body benefits from a great human resource

Additional School Information

Libraries at Harvard

Harvard’s Widener and Pusey Libraries contain millions of volumes on more than 57 miles of bookshelves.
Harvard’s libraries contain more than just books: a set of Harry Houdini’s handcuffs; Charles Dickens’s walking stick and paper knife; T.S. Eliot’s panama hat; a set of George Washington’s pistols.

Harvard University