u/DowntownTrust7902

I’m an incoming college freshman going to school in Boston and I’m looking for a really good winter jacket that I can wear almost every day and keep for years. I want something warm and durable enough for Boston winters, but also something a little distinctive aesthetically to help stand out. I was at REI recently and saw an orange Fjällräven jacket that I thought looked really cool, although I don’t remember the actual model, and that’s kind of the direction I’m thinking. I’m willing to spend more upfront for something worth it. Any specific jackets or brands you’d recommend?

I bought the bigger bed option for my room, but how does that work in a suite? Do I need to move in first before i can get them to make my bed bigger?

Hello! I'm an incoming freshman and was wondering in advance what the best bathrooms on campus are for doing the number 2

I got matched into my first year seminar but to take it I would need to push back one of the gateway courses for what I’m trying to study. I was originally planning to study bio, but I have been more interested recently in another field which this seminar is creating a formalized space for me to studying it. I was wondering if FYS are actually that valuable that I should delay a whole gateway course

Can I take CS 1810 freshman spring? I plan to self study all the pre reqs and have quite a bit of coding experience already. I know it’ll prob be difficult but I’m just wondering if it’s possible since I didn’t technically take the pre reqs yet at Harvard.

I had a matcha at the Blank Street in Harvard Square a while back that I loved that was recommended to me by a random girl I asked, and I’ve been trying to recreate it ever since with no luck.

What I remember was that it was iced, vivid green, and it tasted mostly like sweetened milk with just a hint of matcha in the background. I’m pretty sure it was just a Matcha Latte too and not one of the other flavors. It wasn’t blueberry or strawberry shortcake (no layers or swirl), wasn’t pistachio (no nutty taste), and wasn’t as sweet as the day dream matcha. The plain matcha latte with oat milk tastes too watery to me.

I’ve since had a Spanish matcha latte at Kiss of Matcha that tasted pretty similar, and a lot of other matcha lattes have hit similar. Does anyone have a suggestion about what this order was?

I’m an incoming student and was wondering in advance some cool date ideas to take someone at/near Harvard

Hello! I’m an incoming freshman and was wondering: does anyone know anything cool I can get or do to make sure that the en-suite bathroom I’ll share with 3 other suite-mates will be clean?

I’m trying to swap from expos 20 in the spring to the fall cause a course I’m trying to get is only offered in the spring. How many people typically get the swap, and do more people try swapping to the fall sem than the spring sem?

Hello! I’m an incoming freshman that just recently got assigned to a hall without laundry on the highest floor🫩. I just recently got quite a bit of money to afford the laundry plan, and was just wondering: is it worth the amount of time/effort it’ll save me since my first year workload is pretty bad and/or do people see others who have the plan as entitled?

Hello! I was wondering if anyone has bought the MSI PRO MAX 271UPXW12G and what your experience has been with it? I'm looking at it as an alternative to the Dell UltraSharp U2723QE for my dorm room and will mainly use it for productivity (programming, essay writing, YouTube videos, etc)

I keep hearing that Math 25 and 55 cover much of the same content. Is Math 55 really that similar to Math 25? Because if they are similar then why is the workload for Math 55 typically so much more?

Hello! Im an incoming first year undergrad and I was wondering, has anyone been able to take 5 courses in their freshman fall before? I’m really interested in this first year seminar, but I already got 4 gateway courses planned. The course doesn’t look that time consuming, but looks super interesting. I heard you can take 5 if you convince your residential Dean, but idk if that’s real or not.

Can I wait until my senior year to take a language in order to fulfill the language req?

Hello! I’m an incoming student planning to concentrate in Physics and MCB. I was wondering if Physics 15 + Math 25 + LS50 + Expo 20 (spring only) is too daunting of a task.

These are all required courses for my concentrations, but I COULD take Math 22 or LS1 instead. Also, technically, in the spring semester I would have the equivalent of 5 courses. But, the thing is I really want to take LS50 because the topics focusing on computational bio are really appealing to me and the opportunity to conduct novel research as well. Although, I’m open to changing if the LS50 research is overhyped compared to finding a lab to join or a bunch of the marketed extra material it covers are covered in other classes already.

The librarian at my local library is really pretty. I wanna ask her out but I’m worried that it might make things awkward if she rejects me. I don’t even know her lowk, would you be weirded out or in her position? If it depends, how would you ask her out?

My 18th birthday is about six months away, and I’ll be a college student by then. Right now, I’m considering skydiving and getting a small tattoo. What’s the coolest thing you did, or wish you had done, for your 18th birthday?

Bro where is the travel trunk, when is ts gonna be released? I need it for college.

Hey everyone, I’m an incoming student, and I’m trying to get a sense of how people make friends at Harvard.

Is there a kind of “set thing” people do to meet others, like specific events, clubs, dorm activities, parties, dining hall stuff, or traditions that most Harvard students do, so you naturally meet people early on? Or is it more just normal life, where you run into people through classes, roommates, meals, studying, and things like that?

Basically, I’m wondering whether social life feels structured, or if it’s mostly just putting yourself out there and letting friendships happen naturally over time.

I’d love to hear what actually worked for current students or recent grads, especially during freshman year. Thanks!

I’m an incoming freshman at Harvard, and I’m trying to think through my academic direction before I get too locked into a path. I’m mainly interested in physics and biology, but I’m also interested in machine learning, biotech, quantum computing, sustainable energy, space, and basically frontier science/engineering in general.

Right now, I’m considering doing a double major in physics and molecular/cellular biology. My thinking is that biology and physics are both hard to self-teach well because they require a lot of structured background, labs, problem sets, etc. Machine learning seems more self-teachable in comparison, and I assume I would be pushed to learn coding/ML/stats anyway if I end up doing serious research in computational biology or physics.

The alternative is that I could try to do a molecular bio + statistics degree with concurrent master’s in statistics, which would give me more formal training in machine learning and data science, but would probably mean giving up the physics side. Another option would be a concurrent master’s in physics, but that would require a much heavier physics course load and probably taking some Gen Eds during the summer to make everything fit.

The hard part is that I’m not completely sure what I want to do long-term. I might be interested in an MD/PhD, biotech, computational biology, physics research, quantum computing, fusion/sustainable energy, space-related work, or eventually a startup. I know this post is going to sound kind of naive, but I do genuinely want to work on something with a chance of being high-impact: research that changes a field, a biotech company that changes medicine, making quantum computing actually useful, helping with fusion or sustainable energy, contributing to space exploration, or something else that actually affects people’s lives or our understanding of the world in a major way.

I’m not saying I expect to casually do all of that, and I know most people’s interests narrow once they actually start taking classes and doing research. I’m just trying to choose an undergraduate path that gives me the best foundation for ambitious technical work without prematurely specializing in the wrong thing.

My current instinct is that physics + molecular biology would give me a deeper and more unique foundation than statistics alone, and that I can pick up ML through projects. But I’m worried I might be underestimating how important formal stats/ML training is, especially if the future of biotech and science is increasingly computational.

For pretty much anybody older, how would you think about this? Am I completely overthinking this? Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated!