The Ultimate Harvard First-Year Bucket List

A week before move-in, an upperclassman friend left us with a single piece of advice: “Make the most of freshman year.” In the moment, we brushed her advice off, caught up in the overwhelming whirlwind of settling into college. How would we know what to make the most of before freshman year even began? But by now, between tumultuous classes, inedible Berg food, and an occasional tourist mishap, we are starting to understand what she meant. Freshman year isn’t about perfection; it’s about collecting the small, absurd, and slightly tragic stories that everyone remembers long after. Ditch the traditional four “must-dos” before graduation. Instead, here are our six essential rites of passage: 

Check Off the MIT Party–Then Never Again

In the midst of awkward, cookie-cutter orientation conversations comes the quintessential freshman year experience: the first MIT frat party. Each minute on the T to Kendall/MIT builds anticipation for that first step onto the suspiciously sticky frat basement floor. The overpowering smell of department store cologne samples and the thumping of a frat brother’s SoundCloud remixes amplify the cocktail of excitement and confusion.

Navigating the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd, keeping track of new friends, and sidestepping puddles becomes on par with an unofficial orientation event. By the time you’re trudging back toward the Square, shoes clinging to the pavement and phone at 3%, there’s only one logical destination: Joe’s Pizza.

The fluorescent lights sting your eyes, the line snakes out the door, and you can’t help wondering why you’re there at 1:15 a.m., until the first bite of a greasy, $4 slice helps it all make sense. The warmth, the crunch, the sheer relief: it’s the perfect ending to a night you’ll remember forever, even if you swear you’ll never do it again.

Take a Scooter Hit in Front of Cabot 

After back-to-back classes until 4 p.m., the time has come to go back to your dorm. Your brain is fried, your backpack is leaden, and the walkway leading towards the doors of the Science Center feels like heaven. That’s when it happens. A scooter whizzes by, catching a shoulder, grazing your ankle, sending everything slightly off balance. By the time equilibrium is reestablished, so is perspective: dodging scooters has officially earned a spot on the freshman year bucket list—a small reminder that even near-collisions help contribute to the shared rhythm of Harvard life.

Get Wrecked by Berg’s “Local Catch” Special

Somewhere between braving the lunch line and a late-afternoon Cabot lock-in session, freshmen encounter the HUDS rite of passage: the infamous “local catch.” Swimming in a mystery sauce, the smell hovers somewhere between ocean breeze and cafeteria enigma. Even with optimism and a fork in hand, glad for a break from yet another meal with chicken, the nausea inevitably sets in. By the end of the meal, the untouched “local catch” has forged nothing but a sense of traumatic camaraderie, encapsulating the absurdity of freshman year.

Apply to 20 Consulting Clubs (Spoiler: You Will Get Rejected from All of Them) 

Amid back-to-back mixers at Mexican restaurants in Harvard Square and rushed walks dodging tourist crowds, freshmen try to keep up with every consulting and finance club on campus. Foreign acronyms like HUCG or HFAC pile up faster than the full names can be memorized, case slides appear with impossibly short deadlines, and just when every comp form has been submitted, another one appears. Between awkward icebreaker conversations with upperclassmen, juggling conflicting events, and sending out countless Google Calendar invites, the mayhem becomes nearly palpable.

By the time the rejection emails start rolling in, the frenzy has already bonded the freshman class more than any icebreaker could. Comparing rejection subject lines, laughing over failed case interviews, and collectively giving up on “business casual” become their own rite of passage.

Realize BoardPlus is a Scam

“Harvard students get $65 each semester, loaded onto their ID Card!” PAFs enthusiastically tell freshmen every year during orientation week. The promise of some “extra cash” has freshman students dreaming of matcha runs, late-night snacks, or spontaneous cravings for a molten chocolate cake at Harvard-affiliated cafes. While upperclassmen spend their BoardPlus at the SEC, Law School, or House grills, most first-years are unaware of these opportunities and are limited to soggy sandwiches and stale pastries at Lamont Café or “limited edition strawberry matcha” composed of milk with food coloring.

Play Rodent Roulette in the Yard: Rabbit or Rat?

If it’s near Canaday, it’s a rat.

A week before move-in, we didn’t know what it meant to “make the most” of freshman year. Now, somewhere between Berg fish, frat floors, and 1 a.m. Joe’s slices, we think we’re starting to figure it out.

Elle Huang ’29 (michellehuang@college.harvard.edu) wants a slice of tiramisu from Annenberg.

Hailey Kim ’29 (haileykim@college.harvard.edu) wants a cookie that isn’t from Annenberg.