In high school, your schedule is basically set for you the moment you register.
Every year, you must take some version of science, math, language arts, and social studies. Given the rather extensive and comprehensive course load, you’re limited in your ability to take classes that you want to take. As such, there aren’t very many elective options in high school.
Thus, coming into college, I had similar expectations; I didn’t necessarily think that I would be given room in my schedule to take courses that I wanted to take. I was so wrong.
There are three parts to the Harvard liberal arts curriculum: the concentration (Harvard's version of a major), the general education requirements, and the electives. The concentration makes up about 50% of the curriculum, and there are about 50 concentrations to choose from. On average, students take 12-16 of their 32 courses in their chosen concentration. At Harvard, you don't declare your concentration until the middle of the second year of school. Because of Harvard's liberal arts focus, you have the opportunity to "shop" for different fields before you declare your concentration and commit to that field.
Watching a music video in class during a lecture about "Consuming Black Culture"
The general education requirements make up about 25% of the curriculum and there are eight categories within these requirements: aesthetic and interpretive understanding, culture and belief, empirical and mathematical reasoning, ethical reasoning, science of living systems, science of the physical universe, societies of the world, and United States in the world. While these requirements may seem restricting, there is a significant amount of choice within each requirement.
Finally, electives make up about 25% of the curriculum – students can choose the remainder of their courses from anything in the course catalog, which has approximately 3,500 courses listed.
As a senior, I have completed most of my concentration and general education requirements, giving me significant room in my schedule to take courses that simply seem interesting to me. This year I am taking two elective courses: AFRAMER 182 (From R & B to Neo Soul: Black Popular Music and Cultural Transformation) and OEB 104 (The Mouse in Science and Society).
Northwest Laboratories Basement, where some of the mice used in research reside
Even without a prior background in the class material for these courses, I decided that I wanted to go a little outside of my comfort zone to explore fields that I may never have the opportunity to study beyond college. I never thought that it would be possible to listen Ray Charles and Kendrick Lamar during lecture, or take a tour of Harvard’s Vivarium in the Biological Labs as part of a classroom assignment. For this, I am truly grateful for Harvard’s Liberal Arts Education.
