News
The Languages Less Taken
Harvard offers nearly 100 languages, yet undergraduates rarely enroll in courses on most of them.
Harvard College offers courses and tutorials on 98 world languages, with even more available upon special request. From Mandarin Chinese, spoken by 1.1 billion people worldwide, to Old Church Slavonic, a medieval proto-Slavic language only occasionally used in some Orthodox and Eastern-Rite Catholic church services today, undergraduate language offerings span continents and millennia—yet few students […]
To Be, or Not to Be (Pre-Med)
Hear from members of the Harvard community on various ways to solve the pre-med dilemma.
I sat down for a typical lunch at Annenberg. “So, what classes are you taking?” my table-mate asked, a classic conversation starter. “I’m taking a History of Science class, a Gen Ed on heart disease, and LS1a,” I responded, thinking about the work cut out for me later. “OMG, are you also a pre-med?” they […]
Behind the Wheel
How Harvard Undergraduate Automotive Society’s (HUAS) Formula SAE team is cruising toward becoming a powerhouse in collegiate motorsports.
There has never been a more exciting time to be a Harvard engineer. With the recently built $1 billion campus in Allston and its ever-growing student body of engineering, computer science, and applied mathematics concentrators, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) has seen a meteoric rise. The most impressive part […]
Campus Chaos
Dangers on campus raise safety concerns among students.
Tuesday afternoon, students of the College received an email from Lauren Brandt, Associate Dean of Students, regarding increased safety measures on campus. This email came in the wake of a series of events that have jeopardized the safety of many students since their arrival on campus. After reading this email, we are left wondering how […]
Laughter, Gasps, and Scoffs…
Inside the thoughts of Democrats at Harvard as they watch Senator Vance and Governor Walz battle on the debate stage.
On the first night of October, I joined the Harvard Democrats at the Harvard Kennedy School for their watch party of the 2024 Vice Presidential Debate. As the table gathered, the room filled with excitement for the candidate they affectionately called “Coach Walz.” Around twenty-five people lined the room, loud chatter filling the space as […]
Unhoused in Harvard Square
Hearing the stories of people experiencing homelessness in Harvard Square.
The corner of Massachusetts Avenue and JFK Street is a popular spot for toiletries from CVS, matchas from Blank Street, and trips into Boston via the Red Line. However, it’s also a place for around twenty unhoused individuals to rest or to ask passersby for spare change. While most students and Cambridge residents ignore them, […]
Forum
So You Want to Work?
A guide to the professional world’s best kept secrets and job interviews.
So you’re looking for a job? Well then, you’re in the right place. Here at the Harvard Independent, we know that navigating the job market is like trying to date someone in this day and age. Confusing. Miserable. And just when you think you’re on the up, you’re hit with yet another blow. But there’s […]
Discovering Harvard’s Jewish Spaces
Reconnecting with my Jewish heritage through a reflection on Harvard’s offerings.
The past few weeks have been a very important time for the Jewish community, both at Harvard and around the world. The coinciding of the high holiday season—in which the community celebrates Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur among others—and the first anniversary of Oct. 7 provides a prime time to reflect on our campus community. […]
Don’t Give Up on Your Dream Job, Just Wait on It.
Take some time before making your dreams come true.
Sitting in an airport diner, my blockmate and I talk about our hopes and dreams. Over Caesar salads and Diet Cokes, we ask each other the question: “What did you want to be when you grew up?” We laughed about the silly answers we’d once thought we could be, like movie stars and astronauts. As […]
Finance Fever
A look at the undergraduate fixation on finance at Harvard.
Getting into Harvard is no small feat, with just over 3.6% of the 54,008 applicants admitted into the College in the most recent class. However, incredibly low acceptance rates, intense applications, and extreme competitiveness don’t end with the College’s acceptance letter, especially if you want to join a pre-professional finance club. In the first two […]
The Overcommitment Illusion
How my habit of stretching myself too thin has hampered my learning.
The psychological concept of illusory correlations, or perceived relations between two things, intrigues researchers across the field of psychology. The catch is, there is no actual relationship between the two variables. Some external thinking process—perhaps a social phenomenon, highly available stereotype, or rampant bias—creates this relationship out of thin air. This falsified relationship then causes […]
What Harvard Could Learn from Yale
Reflections on a weekend spent in New Haven.
Is Yale better than Harvard? (The last two football games would say so.) This past weekend, I visited one of my friends at Yale to compete in a club squash round-robin on Saturday. However, I also got to experience New Haven, talk to students, take a walk around campus, and go out at night. Before […]
Arts
Stop and Smell the Roses at Brattle Square Florist
Explore the oldest flower shop in Harvard Square, still in the hands of the founding family.
When you step into Brattle Square Florist, not only are you greeted by a vibrant array of flowers, but owner Stephen Zedros welcomes you with a smile. At this remarkable flower shop, fresh-cut flowers coexist with the deep-rooted family history the shop has in Harvard Square. Brattle Square Florist is the oldest flower shop in […]
Cambridge’s New Luxor Cafe
A Mediterranean-inspired hidden gem just outside of the Square.
There are enough coffee shops, restaurants, and stores in Harvard Square that a college student could likely spend all four years between Massachusetts Avenue and Brattle Street and never need to venture further for sustenance. Though I’m certainly a regular at Tatte and Blank Street, this week I decided to wander just outside of the […]
Migration, Unification, and the Art Nation
A review of Harvard Art Museums’ Made in Germany? exhibition.
Lynette Roth, curator at Harvard’s Busch Reisinger Museum which specializes in art from Germany and Northern Europe, would describe her new exhibition Made in Germany? as “pushing back against this idea that the Busch Reisinger is just a museum for German art, but actually looking into its complicated history and taking that as a cue […]
The Hidden Wonders of HAM at Night
Tired of boys, booze, and bonding yet? Try the Harvard Art Museums at Night, a party that attracts art lovers from all over the area.
After walking up the steps from Quincy Street, I pulled open the double-doors to the Harvard Art Museums (HAM) and a wave of music immediately poured over my ears. I wove through the traffic of people as they walked from one exhibition, through the courtyard, to another—some trailing away from the herd to explore adjacent […]
Dissolution of Unrequited Love
I can enjoy newspapers without thinking about you now.
Before the sun rises The sound of bound paper striking the door Summons me to start a fire To procrastinate retrieving what has been delivered Least I risk meeting you And recall how If you were to churn brown sugar Over a gas stove While inhaling the rich, smokey molasses Take a moment to turn […]
Let’s Talk about SWEAT, Baby
Charli XCX and Troye Sivan bring queer joy, feminine rage, and a whole lot of sex to TD Garden.
A sea of lime green and black descended on TD Garden last Saturday for the Boston stop of the SWEAT Tour, co-headlined by artists Charli XCX and Troye Sivan. While the color palette of the crowd was relatively uniform, their outfits were anything but. Fans sported everything from customized t-shirt renditions of the BRAT album […]
Sports
Indy Sportsbook: NHL 2024-25 Predictions
Hot takes for an ice-cold season.
Hat tricks, dirty hits, and the dreaded playoff odds circle: the NHL is back, baby! Hockey returned last week with a bang (okay, technically Buffalo and New Jersey played the weekend before in Prague, but we’re not sure anybody but Bob Dylan knew about that). We here at Indy Sportsbook have prepared some extremely premature […]
Harvard Crimson’s Midseason Update
An update on the current Crimson Sports teams.
Midterms are finally upon us. Despite the academic demands, Harvard Athletics continues to thrive, with student-athletes excelling both in the classroom and on the field. From recent victories to upcoming matchups, here’s a quick roundup of the latest updates in Harvard sports as we hit the midpoint of the semester. Football: The men’s football team’s […]
Sports Spotlight: Ben Abercrombie
A Harvard journey of recovery, football, and lots of Jefe’s.
“I like the competitiveness, and I’ve always been more fiery,” Ben Abercrombie ’25 reflected when discussing his love for football. “I grew up in Hoover, Alabama. Here in Alabama, you basically live and breathe football.” Abercrombie got recruited by Harvard his junior year of high school, he recalled in an interview with the Independent. Though […]
Indy Sportsbook: The End of the Eras Tour
How will Taylor Swift end this part of her legacy?
Cultural icon Taylor Swift has made international headlines since releasing her first album, Taylor Swift, in 2006. Her Eras Tour is the highest-grossing concert series of all time, earning over $1 billion in 2023 alone. The Eras Tour brings “Swifties” through all of her different music-making eras, from Fearless to the recently released Tortured Poets […]
Making the Team
The unique experience of being a Harvard varsity walk-on.
Every individual at Harvard has a different story of how they became a student at this university. Each unique path is part of what makes the Harvard community a special place. Within the student body, there is a very specific subset that chose to modify their experience in an extremely physically demanding way: varsity walk-ons. […]
Indy Sportsbook: UFC 307 Parlay
A (risky) road to riches.
“To do anything at a high level, it has to be total obsession,” legendary Irish boxer Conor McGregor once said. For this reason, we at the Indy Sportsbook have spent over 300 hours concocting a UFC parlay that will retire us from this rat race of life by the end of next week. While we […]