Why I Chose Harvard Extension to Complete My Undergraduate Degree
I bet that a lot of you think I chose it because it’s Harvard.
You’re only partly right. The name did have an effect on my choice but only tangentially so.
I was intrigued by the idea that a school like Harvard would offer distance education courses for credit and even more suprised that they offered degrees.
But it was much more important for me to find a good fit between what I was trying to achieve and what the school offered. To be successful, I needed to join a school that was targeting students who were like me: working adults with full schedules. For me, Harvard Extension was that school.
I’m often asked why I didn’t choose to attend a local school instead. The best answer that I can give is that they didn’t have a functioning and robust program for distance education combined with a rigorous academic level. Distance education is such a huge factor for me that I’m now biased against any school that hasn’t embraced this method of learning. It saves so much time and solve so many problems for people that I can’t imagine why more schools aren’t taking advantage or expanding their programs.
It isn’t hard to find distance-ed programs. There are plenty of them that are out there. The real challenge is finding a school that doesn’t treat them like an afterthought. That’s why it’s important to focus on the program itself rather than the name on the diploma. In the end, nobody will care where you went to school. They are much more interested in who you turned out to be.
I saw this article in the paper. The choice quote:
When I was 20 an older friend predicted, “Ten years from now, no one will care where you went to school. In fact, no one will ask.” Ridiculous, I thought. She turned out to be right. Where you live between the ages of 18 and 22 won’t define who you are. One day soon, the proud new college decal on your family car’s rear window will start looking a little uncool.
The author is correct. It’s not really that important where you went to school. It’s more important that the school is the right one for you. For me, that happened to be Harvard. Your ideal school match might be different. Don’t get too worked up about it.
Of course, when you’re on campus and looking at all those historic buildings, it’s hard not to allow yourself to believe the fantasy of it all. Just don’t let yourself be fooled. A degree from Harvard won’t change who you are. I have to keep reminding myself of that too.
Now that I’m looking for a graduate program to continue my studies, I’m faced with the same sorts of questions: What place is going to be the best fit for me? Where will I feel most comfortable? Where do I think I’ll be able to learn the most?
I’m torn between continuing on at Harvard Extension and their ALM in IT program and pursuing the Columbia MS in Computer Science option. On paper, the Columbia program is very impressive. I just couldn’t help feeling like the place was just a little bit too cold for me.
I might just be nervous about changing schools at some point. I just felt like I should put it out there so that people don’t think that the choice of where to go to school is always so automatic (i.e. pick the best name). Choosing where you will spend the next several years in intense study isn’t a decision to be taken lightly. Spend some time on it and try to choose wisely. Don’t let anyone else’s opinion drive yours. Make your own choice.
After all, it’s your life.
17 comments
I am seeking to pursue my Under Graduate degree at Harvard University Extension School. After days of researching, I have came across your blog and very glad. It would a life changing support if you can help me with some questions I have. Please feel free and do call me at 214-xxx-xxxx [Ed: number deleted] anytime of the day.
Hello, I also was very grateful for your blog! I feel as though the stress of the GREs, combined with looking for the precise program fit to my needs is overwhelming! I would love to correspond with you if you have the chance, I have left my e-mail
Thanks!
Feel free to ask your questions. I’m happy to give you my help.
I am a Detroiter coming to live in Boston or Cambridge I guess, however, you want to call it. I have basic questions about the life there. The people, the locals and the school dorms or those extremely expensive apts. I really want to go for the connections I know I will make in the long run.
Boston is expensive. Most folks who move there live a bit farther out and take the red line into Cambridge to go to school.
Hi Richard,
Thank you. I agree with you; this decision shouldn’t be taken lightly. I am at a crossroad in my life and am forced to making an important decision. It would be great to briefly talk with you, since I have some questions for you. I have left me email if you would kindly respond.
Thank You Very Much! Good Day!
Tj
I have decided to stay at Ashford University and take a few courses in the Harvard Extension program. I think diversity in an education is important, both the courses taken and the Universities attended, as long as a sensible amount of credits are attained. Eventually I would want to take as many on campus courses as I could which leads me to my question: If I were to do really well and graduate in the Extension program would that help in my chances in becoming a future matriculated (or non second degree earning at first) student in Harvard College?
I did read your essay and I did see that some coursework is reuired on campus for degree seekers and that if we are real nice to the professors we may have additional visits, I figured I would take the line of questioning one step further.
I am 29 years old and newly married, but I still have ambitions.
Jacob,
I seem to remember that there were a few students who were able to gain admittance to the College after taking coursework in a degree program at HES. As I recall, they were not able to transfer any of the work they did at HES into the College. They started off at square one. Even so, examples are exceedingly rare.
HES is designed for adults. Working adults. Sometimes with families. The College is for 18-22 year olds. Everyone at the College lives in the dorms. See the difference? Why would you want to, as a 29 year old, live with a bunch of 18 year olds?
It helps to remember that the HES programs aren’t of the prep school variety. It’s not a mechanism to prepare you to go to some other university, even if that’s what a lot of students do. The degree programs at HES are full and complete degree programs in their own right. The school isn’t really a feeder to the College. It’s a part of the University proper. Read up on the school on Wikipedia and you’ll get a better feel for what I mean.
If you live in the Boston area, I’d have a look at what they have to offer. By far, the best part of HES is gaining access to the libraries and faculty. The opportunity to take Harvard courses with Harvard profs (albeit via distance) is a superb benefit.
If you really want to go to Harvard but don’t want to do HES, do well in undergrad and apply to one of the graduate schools.
Richard,
excellent points. That answers my question. Performing well in both collegiate programs could improve my chances of getting into a graduate program in Harvard College, and even if that did not happen, the program would be very rewarding. Yes you are correct, as a married working adult I would not want to be living in the dorm setting.
Bravo Ric…I love your comments.
The reason I am going to start taking classes at Harvard Spring 2009 is because I just wanted to add more of a flavorable education to my repetoire.
I am a behaviorist by nature and so Harvard’s psychology classes appeal to me. - All the best Richard on your choice of grad school.
I ‘m sure you will pick the best one for you.
Sincerely, Michelle
Richard,
Yours is in its own right is the most honest review of HES that I have read. Kudos to you.
I was enticed into a career on Wall Street midway through college and never finished my degree, after a few years of laboring I decided to pursue my passion and worked hard at a career as a classical vocalist. Now I am married with children and slightly under 40, and feel as through my maturation process that “the jig is up.” I lament never finishing my degree and honestly, the thought of maintaining a travel log of being apart from my family is not very attractive any longer. I would like to pursue a course of study in Govt./Law. I have excelled in the two online courses that I have taken at HES with a perfect record, but still am curious about what weight does the Harvard night school carry qualitatively? The quantitative aspects do not lie- but is the core value of the qualitative course of study (using the overall value and quality of course offerings, professors, and program requirements as factors) equivalent to what the expectations are in the kingdom of the upper echelon, or are we to liken it to a “Harvard Community College”?
Thanks for your blog and all the best.
Jerome,
I’m going to try and answer your questions as best I can.
First, let me tell you that you are absolutely not alone. Don’t for a second feel like you made the wrong choice to follow the path you did. Whatever led you to the life you have now, that’s all history. Keep looking forward. HES is my third try to finish my education. I sometimes feel like I missed the boat and I grow wistful remembering my early college years as a 19-year old. It’s hard sometimes not to be jealous of the youngsters in Harvard Yard who are in one of the best places to get a head start on their lives. Then I remember how unfocused and chaotic my life was and how hard it was to get a clear picture of who I was and who I wanted to be.
I’m all past that now.
Second, studying Government and Law aren’t beyond you even at this stage in your life. If for nothing else, you can pursue a degree and focus on those subjects to see if you really do desire further study. Law schools take in plenty of people in their 30-s and 40-s. Politics is filled with people who got into the game late in life. Government institutions need your life experience. Focus on your strengths.
Finally, as far as HES goes, keep in mind that the program that they offer is largely based on a liberal arts curriculum. As such, it’s going to focus on some mix of the humanities, writing, and critical thinking rather than some of the pre-something programs offered by other schools to prepare students for professional programs like medicine and law. That said, they also (for reasons which should be clear based on their intended audience) offer a range of courses that are primarily focused on teaching a specific career-related skill like programming with a certain tool or performing financial analysis. If you examine the course offerings of the College and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, you’ll note that their offerings are much more theory-based. They teach principles and leave the ultimate acquisition of any specific skill up to the student during their career. The typical HES student is already well-entrenched in a career and is trying to either adapt to the changing requirements of their profession or prepare themselves for a new one. A significant fraction of students are simply trying to complete a degree for which they will see no immediate impact on their career. They simply wanted to complete their degree in a way that didn’t force them to give up their career or impact their family life too greatly.
Some folks will point to this distinction as evidence that the College is superior to HES. They see a school that doesn’t proactively perform admit/deny actions on specific students as somehow lesser, as if something everyone can do (or some school everyone can attend) isn’t worthwhile.
Those people are wrong. If HES degrees were easy to get, then half of Boston would have them by now. Cost certainly isn’t a barrier. Neither is access. The only probable answer is that the program is difficult and uncertain enough that only those who are truly committed can ever complete it. That’s not to say that it’s impossible; nothing could be further from the truth. But a successful student at HES is going to be a unique kind of character: someone who cared enough about their education to do it mostly on their own along a path that isn’t easy to complete by any reasonable standard.
Try not to think of the College as providing access to the upper echelon. Many of the students there were well entrenched in the higher reaches of society before they ever set foot in Cambridge.
I found Harvard to be welcoming but presenting a certain expectation that I would understand what standard was required of me when it came to coursework. That didn’t change while I was taking classes. Instead, I changed to meet the standard.
At HES, if you choose wisely, you can take classes that are offered simultaneously to the College students. You’ll be graded by the same standards and you’ll be competing with the College students for grades. Take that as a challenge. Few people are aware of this important detail. Same class. Same Professor. Same work. Same tests.
Whether or not some potential friend, colleague, mate, or employer will see the value of your experience is almost completely up to them. The best way to ensure that they have a high opinion of Harvard Extension is for them to have a high opinion of you.
Richard-
The profundity of your answer proves to me that indeed Harvard produces qualitative graduates. My biggest challenge that I face is putting together a package that allows me to travel from NYC to Cambridge and back in one day/night, for I am responsible for bringing my children to their respective schools in the am. I am tentative and it is my own prodigious sepulcher that grows with my procrastination. The ” special student status” is indeed attractive as I am keen on taking Moral Reasoning with Sandel. Keep your eyes on the prize and thank you.
Quote– “A degree from Harvard won’t change who you are. ”
Ha– yea right— a degree from Harvard will make a poor man, a rich man– a middle class to an upperclass etc etc etc
Its a fact— 99% of all Harvard grads are working within 3 months of graduation— top jobs at that— when I graduated with my Bachelors, I was unemployed for 8 months until I finally landed a job.
Kevin,
The last time I was at Harvard I met a new Ph.D from MIT who was having a hard time getting a job. He wanted to know if I could help.
If you’re worried about getting a job, then maybe you’re right. Harvard grads are heavily recruited mainly because they confer bragging rights. Another reason is because there are networks of folks in top positions at top firms who extend their personal network by hiring grads from their alma mater.
But the essence of my statement is correct. If you were an immoral, selfish person then Harvard won’t cure you of that. If you were shy and unconfident, a degree from Harvard might help convince you otherwise, but then again, it might provide opportunities to avoid people by concentrating on the minutia of some obscure subject.
I can tell you this: completing a degree…any degree…will convince an employer that you are capable of doing sustained work and seeing a project through to completion. Absent anything else, that’s usually all they have to go on when making a hiring decision.
And I doubt your facts. Quite a few students leave Harvard and go on to graduate school. And not every student who goes to Harvard College gets into Harvard Medical School. One of my colleagues is married to one. Not every graduate of Harvard College gets into Harvard Business School. I know plenty of those. And there are tons that apply and never get into Harvard Law.
Don’t read more into the degree than is there.
Jerome,
Travel between Cambridge and NYC is easily achieved with a combination of Amtrak and the MBTA Red Line. They interconnect at Boston South Station.
My suggestion is that if you need to take courses on campus, try to pick two classes that are on the same evening so you can cut the amount of time you spend in Cambridge down to one night a week. I did that, and I was flying up every week from Washington, DC.
Another suggestion is to see if you can bring the kids along. I don’t know if you have a car, but an entire semester is only 16 weeks. You might find that there are more options than you think for bringing your children along to Cambridge. Ask the HES office for suggestions. Your problem is not unique. Lots of students at HES have children too.
hi…i need to do this course E-100 from harvard extension school.and i have no clue how to go about it..are there any pre-requisites for this course? do let me know if u cld help.thanx
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