10 Easiest and Hardest Concentrations at Harvard

Published on January 10, 2017 at 7:24 am by Jay Martin in Lists

School is in session, and it’s time to explore the 10 easiest and hardest concentrations at Harvard. This is important for students and non-academics alike. Because–as Mark Zuckerberg, Matt Damon or Elle Woods, can tell you: it’s not college; it’s Harvard.

“Harvard” long ago transcended its literal meaning of an American university near Boston and has become a symbol, a sign, a rank whose identity makes it into a universal descriptor. Harvard=the best. Not just the best but the best of the best (the Ivy League.)

This is clear from the amount of industry leading Harvard alums. More broadly Harvard has infiltrated our culture as a placeholder of excellence, given the common idiomatic comparison “the Harvard of X”

But does being the BEST mean the most difficult? What is it really like to study at the best college? What are the 10 easiest and hardest concentrations at Harvard?

10 Easiest and Hardest Concentrations at Harvard

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In his 2005 Atlantic article, The Truth About Harvard, alumni Ross Douthat writes:

“Not every class was so easy. Those that were tended to be in history and English, classics and foreign languages, art and philosophy—in other words, in those departments that provide what used to be considered the meat of a liberal arts education. Humanities students generally did the least work, got the highest grades, and cruised academically, letting their studies slide in favor of time-sucking extracurriculars, while their science- and math-minded classmates sometimes had to struggle to reach the B-plus plateau.”

We dove into Harvard’s own course rating system, Q. Originally called The Confidential Guide of College Courses back in 1925, this is a systematized aggregation of student evaluations. We also examined official guides and anecdotal student reported data to find the 10 easiest and hardest concentrations at Harvard. After you finish reading about these concentrations, be sure to check out which are the 10 Easiest College Majors That Will Earn Your Money Back. Perhaps some of these courses are even more worth it than you think!

So, finally – which are the easiest and which are the hardest? Are they STEM courses? Humanities? Phys. Ed? Click on Next to find out.

Part I. The Hardest

1. Social Studies 10 – This first course tends to disprove the above claims that humanities is easy. A two section first year class, this course has, in the past, assigned over 300 pages of reading a week. In your thick stacks of essays, you will explore theoretical scholars like John Stuart Mill, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, Friedrich Nietzsche, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Prepare for some heavy lifting.

2. Physics 16: Mechanics and Special Relativity – While the sciences often leave students holed up in the library poring over their work–this one apparently requires extra effort. “The class is so tough that you’ll have to work with everyone else to turn in problem sets,” claims one student reviewer. Taught by Professor Howard Georgi, who, according to another student, “spent his nights in the Leverett dining hall, helping us with the problem sets, going to bed at 2am!” If the coursework keeps even the Professor up late night–it’s definitely not a cakewalk.

3. Math 55a: Honors Abstract Algebra – This course has been referred to as “the most difficult undergraduate math course in America.” Something to note is that at Harvard, multiple part courses that are intended to be taken in sequence are numbered with letters following the course number. For instance, Math 55a indicates the first semester, whereas Math 55b indicates the second semester. Taught Professor Noam D. Elkies one student writes, “Take his class if you dare!” According to a review in the Harvard Crimson, problem sets can require 25-60 hours a week.

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4. Medieval Latin 110: 12th Century Latin Lit. – The name of this course alone is daunting. This course is notoriously difficult; it fulfills one of the 12 requirements for a concentration track in the Classical Languages and Literatures. As with many tough classes, your recitation sections will play a large role in how you are able to tackle the challenge, but prepare to spend at least 10 hours a week on this one.

5. Chem 30: Organic Chemistry – This is a very tough course from the Chem department and a continuation of Chemistry 20. It explores basic principles and advanced topics in organic chemistry. The description claims that carbonyl chemistry and pericyclic reactions are covered in great detail–which like fictional words to scare people from this class. Also, the lab element of this course is said to be particularly grueling, which also takes part in keeping Organic Chemistry as one of the hardest concentrations at Harvard.

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Part II. The Easiest

1. Visual and Environmental Studies 71: Silent Cinema – As with many film courses, this is a class where you watch movies and talk about them. There is the occasional paper, but even then you get to discuss cinematic classics and perhaps the work of silent comedic legends like Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.

10 Easiest and Hardest Concentrations at Harvard

2. Neurobiology 95hfj: The Sleeping Brain – This sleeper hit is about the operations of the brain during sleep. As the course description states in this seminar, one will broadly explore the neuroscience of sleep, including anatomy and physiology, human disease (parasomnias, narcolepsy, etc.), animal and computation models of human sleep, and neuroimaging. Behavioral and cognitive neuroscience of sleep will be emphasized. Students will learn to critically appraise scientific literature. With only 3 hours of work per week, don’t sleep on this course!

3. Folklore and Mythology 106: Witchcraft and Charm Magic – Students at Harvard lead a charmed life. Two done, three more to go – the third easiest on our list of easiest and hardest concentrations at Harvard is the course that isn’t always offered but luckily it is open this semester, so bring on Spring 2017! Per the course description, this course examines witchcraft (and the “magical world view”) from cross-cultural, historical, and literary perspectives. The class is further specified that “although witches and witchcraft are considered in their non-Western settings, the course focuses on the melding of Christian and pagan views of witchcraft and magic in the European Middle Ages, and the evolving construction of witchcraft ideologies through the witch crazes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to the rise of modern paganism.”

4. East Asian Studies 160: Writing Asian Poetry – Have you ever yearned to let your expressive side out? It seems this highly reviewed course may be the perfect time to do so. This course explores the Korean sijo–and how it is analogous and contrasts with the Japanese haiku. Both forms will be read and examined and students also create portfolios of their own written work. All writing is in English, so no foreign language skills necessary.

5. Psychology 950: Psychology Live! – Taught by Professor Craig Smith, this course involves lectures from many different professors on their main research area. Professor Smith is a fan favorite who students describe as “hilarious” and “a dedicated teacher who care about his students and is passionate about his subject.” He holds extra study sessions and encourages his students to participate in class discussion. A lecture course with a great professor sounds like something to get you psyched up.

That being said, these were the 10 easiest and hardest concentrations at Harvard. Which course will you choose?