At Harvard Extension School

The question often comes up here: Where should a student, who might have earned or might be earning the rest of their bachelor's elsewhere, look to complete undergraduate science courses? Especially with labs, and often with the provision that these should be on the ground, bricks-and-mortar. These science courses could be the standard prerequisites for medical school, or prerequisites for other programs in health professions, or gateways to other opportunities in and around natural science.

Smart people on these boards – especially Jennifer who's been our authority on all this – often point to Harvard Extension School, with its close affiliate Harvard Summer School. HES is a degree-granting school and HSS is a degree-credit-granting school of Harvard University. These are different parts of Harvard University from Harvard College, with their own distinct histories, but I didn't need to tell you that! Thousands of threads across the Internet already make this point very fully.

HES and HSS offer well-regarded undergraduate sequences in general chemistry, organic chemistry, physics and biology with lab, and electives for undergraduate or graduate credit especially in biology. This is alongside an impressive catalog of courses across the liberal arts and several professions. HES offers an organized Health Careers Program for pre-health students; the same underlying courses can be taken with or without enrollment in the HCP.

Over time I looked into these opportunities from HES, and other individual courses and organized programs elsewhere. I really liked what I learned about HES.

It still amazes me that this came together, but it did: I'm writing this from Cambridge, MA, and I start HES General Chemistry I with Dr. Gregg Tucci next week. I have my class response clicker for lecture, lab glasses for lab, textbook, alternate textbooks and reference books. Index cards are piling up; worked problems are starting to.

My plan is to take General Chemistry I and II in Fall 2013 and Spring 2014 and biology, organic chemistry, physics, and potentially science electives into Summer 14 and 14-15.

Interesting Things should happen! I'll try to keep everyone posted as they do.

I want to thank every contributor to DI for adding to this community which has helped, directly and indirectly, me to see this as possible.

 

Thanks Steve! I expect that I'll need to work hard, and that I could use good luck. The content should be challenging. I look forward to this.

 

Whhhhaaaaaaatttttt? WOW! That's fantastic news!!! HUGE envy over here, please post a blow-by-blow so I can live vicariously through your experience. So happy for you!

 

Great Job!

I'll be flying in for my final two classes at HES every week next spring, and might fly in for a mid-term (and to pick up my ID) this October. Enjoy your time on campus.

 

Good luck Jonathan. Maybe someday I'll see you at the Crimson Corner.

 

Thanks, y'all!

 

This is a wonderful school full of good, smart, and hard-working people from diverse backgrounds. Entering week six, I'm happy with myself for apparently holding my own!

Somehow they've put me on the board of the Harvard Extension Pre-Health Society. HEPS runs projects including a weekly study-help hall, social get-togethers and shared activities, a guest speaker series, med school visits up and down New England, connecting students to opportunities like research assistantships and clinical experience, and rounding up volunteers for good causes generally. New this year, HEPS has created a short unofficial guide to pre-health science courses at HES, printed and distributed to students free of charge.

Here I want to share the general point that student groups can be excellent and unique sources of information and insight about programs and schools. They're there to build community and help others, and they're probably full of good people to know. If you're reading this, you probably like finding information about college and university programs. If you're seriously interested in a program, keep student organizations in mind as a resource. If you're in a program, consider reaching out to one or more where you might find a place.

 

Thank you Jonthan. Excellent information, glad that you are sharing it with us around here.
Since you seem to be already getting familiar with the inner workings of the Harvard system: Do you have any recommendations on how to get a research assistantship at Harvard as an outsider? Is there are system in place or is it done on a personal level (i.e. a researcher seeing a good personal fit to a specific project). The reason I am asking is that am currently doing my PhD and would love to find a way spending some time at Harvard. For the sake of the argument, I would even be willing to enroll in one or another HES course if that gave me some preferred access. Just wondering if you have some recommendations in that direction.

 

The second. All this happens on the level of the individual match.

Structurally, taking a HES course doesn't provide preferred access to research positions at Harvard or Harvard affiliates.

There is a big structural flow the other way: Subject to eligibility rules Harvard employees qualify for generous tuition assistance at HES. Also, obviously, impressing a professor – or a fellow student – directly can lead to opportunities directly or indirectly. I can think of one course at Harvard Summer School that builds participation in or alongside current Harvard research integrally into the course, CHEM S-101 Experimental Chemistry. It's not clear to me how close the collaboration with the "real" labs are. Of course this isn't a job, and Summer School term is 7 weeks.

 

Waho,

It is interesting that you asked that question, because I just received a mailing from someone at HES with opening for faculty aid/research assistants. They are offered by a variety of different departments (everything from Physics to Religion). HOWEVER, they seem to be open only to enrolled degree candidates (not just people taking classes) with an undergraduate GPA of 3.0+ or a graduate GPA of 3.5+.

The other option is just applying for a full-time or part-time job at the university.

 

Harvard always has multiple job postings at higher ed jobs dot com, over 100 every time I check.