Harvard Extension School

[cookderosa]

A couple of additions since this thread will hopefully help students thinking about HES.

Over the summer housing is offered, but dorms at Harvard are not up to par with the reputation of the school, or even other College dorms. My room had extensive peeling of the paint, moldy showers, broken furniture etc. (Adams House).

The summer term is almost entirely populated by high school students present for the summer program (SSP). They will seperate college aged students into the houses, while the SSP are in the yard dorms. Also last summer they designated one house to be 24 years +. All meals are in the main freshman dining hall, which is beautiful, but one will feel incredibly old surrounded by 16 year olds.

Summer sessions for 09 will be 7 weeks. For 08 they were 8 weeks; Harvard is changing to a standard academic year so who knows about '10 and beyond.

Reading load is a bit rough over the summer, but doable with time left to be touristy.

Speaking of touristy - most of the college age and older students over the summer are international, which was a good thing in my opinion.

Many of the summer teachers are not in fact Harvard faculty, but rather visiting faculty (though for degree req. they will count a s Harvard faculty). As to be imagined some are better than others.

Overall its a bit pricey, but I greatly enjoyed the summer and would advise anyone interested to go for it.

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THANK YOU so much for posting that information!!!! I'm a little intimidated at the idea of summer session, it's good to "know" someone who's been there.
Would you be so kind as to share some of your classroom experiences too? I'd love to have a nice thread here for anyone considering the program.