My name is Becca and I’m a Harvard College ’08 grad who ran the prefrosh.net website and Yahoo groups for four years while I was at H. As a ’10 you might have been on them or been familiar with them; basically, it was a group of upperclassmen ‘moderators’ answering real-time questions from Harvard prefrosh through a Yahoo group, and then archiving the Q&As into a Wiki database website. Unfortunately since I graduated the website closed, but the co-founders and I have always maintained hopes that someone would continue on with it some day because it was so incredibly valuable for prefrosh as a source of guidance and advice.

I have looked through your blog and find it to be informative, insightful, tech-savvy and well thought out. Yours is exactly the kind of information we used to have on prefrosh.net, and I wondered if you would be interested in collaborating on projects. The prefrosh.net site as of last year has been taken down due to its being out of date, and we need current students to help us revise all the articles to keep up with new administrative policies and changes (like the new calendar reform, new advising programs, new budget cuts of this spring, etc.). Then maybe we could make the site go live again. It’s very useful because it would basically collate much of your blog information in searchable Wiki form. You would of course receive credit and could serve as acting Executive Moderator of the website, while still linking it to your current blog.

Let me know if you’re interested, and even if you are not we should chat anyway. Prefrosh resources did so much for me when I was looking forward to my freshman year at Harvard, and I think we both share a passion to continue helping the future generations in any way we can.

Best,
Becca ’08

It definitely depends on the country, but it also depends on what type of job you want in that other country.

If you want to tutor English in China, it’s not really mandatory to know any Chinese.

But, if you want a challenging job that you might have in the US (or in a country with your mother tongue), then you become more and more limited if you’re language skills are not up to par.

For instance, if you can’t read academic papers or newspaper level of writing, then you’re not going to be a research analyst.

If the business language of that foreign country is not English, then chances are you’re not going to be on the sales team and you can’t help draft documents or presentations.

If all your coworkers and bosses predominantly use the host country’s language…well, then obviously, you need some way of communicating with them.

On the other hand, if your role is interacting with say US employees stationed in that country, then you’ll be fine performing whatever business tasks required except for maybe directly interacting with the local team.

Sorry for getting back to you so late, but Boston is a culture shock according to some people I know from the West Coast (Cali). Things are much faster, more brisk.

People are definitely NOT antisocial. People are doing things with other people left and right, joining clubs, volunteering etc. etc. There is some sense that the social life per se has been dampened, but if you allow yourself to have a social life, you will in fact have a social life.

As for arrogance, there’s definitely a sense in certain concentrations of hyper competition. A lot of the pre-med filled concentrations and the economics/business inclined concentrations can be much more competitive. On the other hand, a lot of other concentrations are much more relaxed with students who are much more chill about academics and careers.

If you’re seeking advice, you should look up rather than across. In other words, reach out to upperclassmen. They’re full of advice and because they’re not really in direct competition with underclassmen ever, very very very willing to help out. There’s a lot of support that foster this type of interaction too. The Peer Advising Fellows program for freshmen for instance is a good way to get to know upperclassmen. Even if said upperclassmen is not in an area you’re interested in, ask, and chances are they know a friend who’s willing to help answer your questions.

Once you hit the Houses, there are also House Tutors and other sort of academic advisers who can help steer you towards guidance and advice.

And of course, end of the day, if you have good friends, good friends will obviously be willing to help one another out. For instance, I exchange career related strategies (haha) with a few of my close friends even though they are in competition with me sort of.

Ever since I was accepted about two months ago I have been fretting about what the hell I am going to do in Harvard, which is 2,000 miles and an entire world away from my little town (population 1,000) where I grew up. The classes, the professors, the expectations, the extracurriculars, the workload, the other students (every single one of them is going to be smarter than me, I tell you), the Everything was really getting to me. And then I found this site, shining through the cloud of melancholy that had been gathering above my head like a beacon from God. Or Jesus, at least. Accepting the mindset that you have devised and inscribed into these articles will make my life immeasurably easier, and I thank you for that, plus the time and effort you put into this site. I can tell it’s written with love.

I hope I meet you on campus next fall. Look for the scared little freshman girl with the craziest curly hair, probably wrangled up with a ponytail.