Freshmen are greeted by a 1000+ page book detailing all the courses they could possibly take (and many that they’ve never heard of) in the fall. Contrast this to even the course selection at the largest and most awesome high schools, and many a freshmen sort of freeze up, freak out at narrowing down what they want to do with their life, major, career and beyond!
While I can’t tell you whether to take that Psych 1 (yes the numbers start low here) class or that freshmen seminar, there are a few basic rules you can follow to make your life easier and narrow down your selection.
Course selection for freshmen should be primarily directed toward concentration exploration and workload/difficulty balance.
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One of the best pieces of advice that freshmen receive is: Do not try to plan out your four-year academic career. This piece of advice will be tucked away in that guidebook that freshmen get, in a section addressing course selection and academics.
The guidebook will then continue in a reassuring tone: Just make sure you’re taking the classes you need to take in order to set yourself up properly for your classes next year.
As I’m looking forward to my junior, senior years and my career plans, I’m realizing just how wise that advice is.
There’s no need to stress yourself out by planning each detail of your life.
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Being clever and one step ahead, the typical Harvard student probably answered many a question in class, asked many a question, and was generally what most would term a “smarty pants.”
However, drop said newly admitted student into a class of 1500+ other really smart newly admitted kids and smarter, older, maybe wiser upperclassmen, and the game changes. Life Sciences 1a fills Sanders Theater, and no one likes that kid who asks the irrelevant make-me-look-smart questions at the end of lecture.
If you’re among smart people and you’re smart yourself, keep your attitude in check to gain respect from your peers.
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Today’s intern training session touched on my company’s philosophy that it is “impossible to turn a weaknesses into a strength.” It seemed counter-intuitive. Why wouldn’t every company want to turn each employee’s weaknesses into strengths?
But, then, in that rare flash of insight I am rarely prone to, realized it was about ROI — Return on Investment.
Rather than having employees spend excessive amounts of time trying to turn a fear of public speaking into a Broadway actor’s stage presence, companies would rather have them reach an acceptable level of public speaking competency. The return on investment for reaching perfection for a weakness just isn’t worth it.
I would argue that the most successful (and happiest) Harvard students are those who leverage those strengths.
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Housing at Harvard is going to be awesome compared to pretty much any other college. Period.
However, because we’re Harvard students, we always find something to complain about. Here are a list of things about the housing situation that would knot your undies once you get on campus.
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E-Recruiting is one of those phrases you hear tossed by upperclassmen as a freshmen. They bemoan it, love it, hate it, need it. And as a freshmen, you’re not quite sure what to make of it. But, once you hit sophomore year, that word “e-recruiting” is on everyone’s lips.
Some start early and fast — attending the recruiting sessions for SENIORS as sophomores during the first week or so of September. Others realize belatedly that deadlines start as early as mid-reading period for the first semester!
Here are a few tips for surviving e-recruiting (as it pertains for those searching for internships).
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Ah, Facebook. It encapsulates both the joy and despair of a college student’s existence. It can gobble up your soul while you’re composing that perfect wall post to your (maybe he / she likes me) crush.
I remember my prefrosh weekend. The weather sucked, and I was a sad prefrosh quad-ed in Cabot without other prefrosh roommates. The weekend was alright, nothing extraordinary. I was more tired of being rained upon than anything, but it was the freshmen concert that ended up clinching my decision. There was such vitality and a quality of pre-professionalism that I knew that Harvard was where I wanted to be.
Commentary: The Curse of the Class of 2009
Tags: career, college, Commentary, economics, freshmen, jobs, surviving, WSJ
WSJ’s: The Curse of the Class of 2009
Ouch. As Class of 2010, this news stings as well. I imagine that this year’s on campus recruiting class will go ape-shit to land the dwindling number of sexy consulting and finance jobs and internships.
That being said, I’m worried about how this would affect the academic decisions of those in the younger years of college. Does this mean fewer Classics concentrators and more Economics concentrators? Does this mean that the pre-business clubs and organizations will see an influx of weary-eyed freshmen already plotting their post-graduation job courses?
I hope that freshmen will remain freshmen, but that might be too much to hope for. Any thoughts?
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