One of the special things about Harvard College is their Peer Advising Fellows program, and I’ve been lucky to experience it on both sides!

Peer Advising Fellows (PAFs) are upperclassmen mentors that are apart of the freshmen advising system. Freshmen live in dorms centered around Harvard Yale. Each dorm is broken down into entryways (either floor-based or based off of a central staircase). Each of these entryways have a proctor who lives there and serves as a residential adviser. Each entryway also have PAFs! The number of PAFs depend on the size of the entryway as each PAF is assigned to a group of 8 to 10 freshmen. Other aspects of the freshmen advising system include academic advisers and Yard Deans which oversee groups of dorms together.

Students can become PAFs starting their sophomore year. I personally did not apply until my junior spring! The application process is fairly intense as the job does require a large commitment. We then have a training session right before freshmen arrive on campus. One of our first jobs is to help with Orientation Week. This includes everything from helping move in to the dorms to talking about Harvard lingo during entryway meetings. I found this experience quite special for myself as it felt like a full circle since this is my senior year!

The main thing that PAFs do is more informal advising. For one, we do about monthly one on one meetings with freshmen! PAFs can eat in the freshmen-only dining hall Annenberg and we can also bring freshmen to eat in our House dining halls. PAFs are also given a small fund by the Advising Program Office to treat freshmen to coffee or ice-cream!

The other main thing we do is help the proctor run weekly entryway study breaks! These are events that occur somewhere in the entryway that provide free food and time for entryway bonding! I am PAF-ing in Pennypacker for the 2nd floor this year, and we’ve had some really fun study breaks. Some of the ones that stand out in my mind are a Halloween Murder Mystery Riddle event with candy and fruit, fried dough and an information session on how to register to vote, game night and pizza, pumpkin carving and a homemade apple pie (which was a fun study break for myself) and playing the game Mafia!

Most of the conversations we have with freshmen is centered around classes and life on campus! As upperclassmen, we’ve had experienced in classes and extracurriculars so it’s helpful for us to pass on information that we’ve learned from actually being in classes or clubs (or having friends who are). I think time management skills and understanding your own priorities is one of the most important things we can pass on. College is often the first time students are in complete control of their life - what classes they take, what clubs they join, when they go to bed, what they eat, etc. You have to learn what works best for you. Are you someone who can skip lecture and then actually watch the video later? Or do you need to actually be in the classroom to hold yourself accountable? You have to learn how to start work before it's due otherwise you'll have a lot of stressful all-nighters so should you use a paper planner? Google Calendar? Just keep track in your head (hint this almost never works)?  It's important to always reevaluate things and make sure you are still doing things that actually add to your life, not doing it just for the sake of doing something.

It really is manageable, and there are a lot of people around to help students, including us PAFs!. Classes are really made for you to be able to succeed, it just might mean taking advantage of Office Hours, asking for help, buckling down to study, and even seeking out services like peer tutoring! I also like stressing to my freshmen that grading is also different. For most people, high school was fairly easy, and they are used to seeing very high grades. Here at Harvard, professors don’t see a perfect test as one that students should be able to get a 100% on. Exams are a time for them to challenge students and expand on topics discussed, so a lot of times they are expecting averages closer to 80 (of course this differs between classes). This goes back to priorities which I mentioned earlier. College is a time for you to stop being just a student but also think about your other identities which might show up in clubs, jobs, and friends. It’s just as valid to spend less time on one certain homework assignment to be there for a friend in need if that is something that is important to you!

PAFs are a great resource to talk through these times of decisions when it comes to balancing different aspects of life at Harvard. But I also think I’ve gotten a lot out of PAF-ing as well. For one, it’s an incredible community of PAFs! I’ve met so many more amazing people through the program, and we all really look out for each other as well. Another thing is being able to learn more about Harvard and the resources available so not only can I pass the information along to freshmen but also use it myself! Lastly, having conversations with freshmen forces me to reflect on my own experiences, think about things from other perspectives, and remember to not take my life here at Harvard for granted! (and we have a lot of fun at study breaks ourselves!)