Harvard University is a private research organization that was established in the year 1636 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard is one of the best and most prestigious universities in the world. But, studying the best from the best would just be extravagantly awesome. Harvard has its legacy of being the best for over 375 years and has successfully positioned itself among the best ivy league universities and colleges in the US and globally. It’s also one of the most selective Ivy League universities and the early acceptance rate is around 7% (Class of 2025).
Best Courses to Study at Harvard University for UG & PG
By Parinita Gupta
1. Geology and Geophysics
The geophysics program offered at Harvard has its focus on teaching students the structure, dynamics, and evolution of the Earth and planets. Its research also extends from global to regional scales, and from deep time problems to modern and active processes. These interests involve substantive connections to other groups in the department, mainly in the areas of geochemistry, geology, and climate history. Also, Seismological research projects include mapping the interior of the earth, characterizing the seismic source, and global seismicity.
2. Environmental Sciences
The school offers Environmental science courses with a focus and aim to provide a multi-disciplinary introduction to current problems of the environment. It has been uniquely designed for this purpose. It is founded so that the students are successfully able to form rational judgments concerning many of the complex challenges confronting society today involving the environment, which requires both, an understanding of underlying scientific and technical issues as well as an appreciation for the relevant and updated dimensions of politics, economics, law, and history.
3. Earth and Marine sciences
Harvard offers several outstanding opportunities for students who look forward to pursue studies in Earth and marine sciences.
They have flawlessly incorporated the Earth and marine sciences in their curriculum which focuses on preparing students to address some of the most pressing issues of our time. It helps the students understand the consequences of human activities for the Earth’s atmosphere, the oceans, the solid Earth, and the organisms that live on it. Exploring the extraction and conservation of natural resources is vital to the global economy. It concentrates on mitigating the effects of earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, and severe weather by learning to predict their time and place.
4. Mathematics
The Mathematics grads program at Harvard is specially designed for students who aspire to be research mathematicians and show definite promise in the direction. Once the student has proved that they have a command over the basic concepts of math after qualifying entrance examination, the emphasis is on getting the pupil to the frontiers of the same field by guiding them towards independent reading, advanced courses, and seminars.
The Ph.D. degree is awarded to students who have demonstrated their mastery of the essentialmathematical techniques and their ability to do independent research on their own.
5. Social Policy and Administration
The university offers Ph.D. programs in social policy and administration is offered by Harvard for students aspiring to get into the field. The program is specially designed for students who aim to research and engage in questions of economic and financial inequality, changing family structures, immigration, inequality in neighborhoods and spatial segregation, poverty, race and ethnicity, educational access, quality and inequal distribution of it, political inequalities and participation, and comparative and institutional studies of policy, particularly with in the US and Western Europe.
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6. Liberal arts and Sciences
Harvard is popularly known all over the states as one of the best ivy league liberal arts colleges in the world. It is very well known to be the institute offering the best liberal arts and science courses. Harvard is a liberal arts and sciences college which is well nested or rather best nested as a world-class research university. It believes in giving its students both, the freedom to shape their own course of study, as wells as the resources to see it through.
7. English Language & Literature
The English language and literature programs at Harvard aim to provide its candidates with a broad knowledge of the English language and culture, along with its critical and cultural theory. It also includes several facilities with the tools of scholarship. The course structures include ancient and modern foreign languages, bibliographic procedures, and textual and editorial methods. Their uniquely designed programs in the subject also put a major emphasis on the ability to write flawlessly and to do solid and innovative scholarly or critical work in the specialized field or fields.
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8. Pharmacy & Pharmacology
Harvard offers several pharmacy and pharmacology courses online and it also offers a masters program in pharmacy which aims to enable its students to work and research in the given field and have more sufficient knowledge in the field to come up with new innovations and other scholarly work.
9. Biological Sciences
Harvard offers molecular and cellular biology courses for the aspirants in the field. The program comprises of broad areas of research, study and teaching which are organized along the key areas of Biochemistry, Chemical, and Structural Biology, Cellular, Neuro and Developmental Biology, Genetics, Genomics and Evolutionary Biology, Systems and Computational Biologyand Engineering and Physical Biology. The coursework aims to give students with plentiful knowledge to its students for future research work and studies.
10. Psychology
Harvard offers its psychology students two academic tracks towards the field. The first one simply offers a common school curriculum that focuses more on social psychology, cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, behavioral neuroscience, and perception. Whereas the second track emphasizes the clinical aspect of it and includes clinical scientific studies.
11. Sociology
Harvard has earned itself a position as the world’s leading center for training and mentoring the best sociologists out there in the world. Their department of Sociology offers several programs of study, which include a Ph.D. in Sociology, a Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Policy, and the Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior.
All of it aims to prepare students for scholarly and applied research for learning and teaching sociology. It blends well with the focus on competence in social theory and research methods along with opportunities for the development of each student’s own interest.
12. Medicine
Studying medicine at Harvard is probably a dream come true for some people. The Harvard medical school of study takes pride in having a diverse body of talented students who reflect well at the diversity of patients whom they are going to serve later in their career. Harvard medical school offers the best coursework for all the aspiring doctors out there.
13. History
Harvard offers history major courses which aim to enable the students to study and research the history of politics, government, gender, sexuality, diplomacy, international relations, finance, economics, religion, philosophy, literature, arts, cultural and social changes and exchanges, archaeology, anthropology, science, and technology.
14. Politics
Harvard offers politics and international relations courses at several levels through several platforms. It has organized online learning platforms for courses in the field and also hosts other inhouse UG and PG programs. It aims to prepare its students for future research and learning in the field.
15. Economics
Harvard doesn’t really offer a course concentrated on business, hence economics is the next best option for students to choose, even though economics and business are not and never going to be the same thing, but there could be many reasons for a student to opt for economics. If they are interested in business cycles, stock market, international trade, UG and PG courses at Harvard is the best thing for them to go for.
16. Accounting & Finance
Harvard offers accounting and finance courses to its students through online platforms and has included it in its inhouse curriculums as well. Mostly it focuses on the practical aspect of it rather than a full degree course. It aims to provide students with knowledge in the field and making them capable enough to find new and innovative ways of accounting the finances.
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17. Music
The Harvard university offers musical training programs to its students who have a keen interest in music. It offers a dual degree program in music through new England conservatory and Berklee college of music. These are very competitive dual degree programs which provides its participants with a broad base in liberal arts education along with a specialized training in music.
18. Linguistics
Harvard being a liberal arts college offers the best curriculum for students aspiring to learn about the science behind languages. Students are given an option to choose between 3 tracks of studies in this field. The 3 being
(i) Linguistics;
(ii) Linguistics with Related Field; and
(iii) Linguistics with Mind, Brain, and Behavior (MBB).
How to Get into Harvard for Undergraduate Courses?
Harvard is considered to be the dream school for many students out there. Getting into Harvard is like a dream come true for many, but how can one really get in there when their acceptance rate is only 4.6% out of the total number of applicants that apply for some course or the other each academic year. The acceptance rate is lower than of any other colleges out there and it’s not because Harvard is choosy, its rather because they have to choose the best of the best since the number of applicants are so high.
The acceptance rate already makes people intimidated, however, you must remember that securing your admission in this university is completely up to you and your profile and what you show them has a great influence towards the admissions committee. They tend focus more on your profile and who you are rather than just your high school or SAT grades.
To apply at Harvard, here are a few things to begin with:
- A generic university application
- Complete Harvard’s supplemental essays
- Two SAT subject tests (students who cannot afford are exempted)
- Any AP, IB, or other scores from standardize examinations
- Two letters of recommendation from teachers
- A school report with letter of recommendation from the counselor
- A high school transcript
- USD$75 Application fees or a fee waiver
- A mid-year reports
If you have all of these things listed above, you are good to go and take a shot at applying for Harvard. It surely is a tough shot for everyone out there and you can find plenty of suggestions and information online before you prepare your Harvard application like this one, however, if you are a Harvard aspirant our best wishes are always with you and we hope that you succeed at this.
Related Articles:
How to Get into Ivy League and Elite Colleges for Undergraduate
How to Get into Harvard from India for Undergraduate (after 12th)
How to Get into Ivy League Universities for MS from India
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About Parinita Gupta
Parinita is a full-time banking professional. Additionally, she is also a passionate blogger and digital marketer.
She mostly writes about the Banking & Finance, Technology, and FinTech sector. But, she also enjoys writing on other topics as well.  You can follow her on Twitter.