Options. People always say that after college, you have options. At Harvard, however, it seems that students choose to pursue a narrower range of paths than the world offers. At the end of each academic year, Harvard’s Office of Career Services (OCS) asks graduating students to take the Harvard College Senior Survey. The statistics from […]
In its mission statement, Harvard College aims to “educate the […] citizen-leaders of our society” and create “conditions for social transformation” by imbuing its students with the skills and experiences to do just that: lead and transform. For centuries, Harvard has successfully fulfilled this promise, educating everyone from the second President of the United States […]
I do not claim to speak for the entire Christian church, nor even for all Protestants, but I think I am on pretty solid ground in saying that, all in all, Christianity is an anti-murder faith. It’s right there in Exodus 20: “You shall not murder.” While the debate about whether euthanasia and similar acts […]
Growing up, I was taught that sex is something you experience with someone you love. The infamous “talk” my mother gave me, complete with a birds and the bees book, ingrained in my mind that the act of sex was equivocal to the idea of “making love.” I became attached to the concept of sex […]
The Independent’s annual Sex Issue aims to do two things—uncover students’ sexual experiences and then report those experiences back to the student body. Accordingly, this year we wanted to gauge the perceptions of Harvard students as it pertains to “sex appeal.” In other words, we asked students if their peers are hot. The survey began […]
In recent years, meme culture, or the culture surrounding the internet’s breed of comedy, has become analogous to various online subcultures—including gaming, incels, and, most damagingly, the alt-right. This association, while not universal, makes sense: a high degree of cultural cross-pollination is an inherent characteristic of the internet. In true parasitic fashion, the alt-right has […]
After four years of conversations revolving around politics and the man in the White House, the United States is now two months into Joe Biden’s presidency, and conversations about politics at Harvard are seemingly few and far between. It’s not as though there isn’t anything to talk about. The nation is still in the middle […]
On Thursday, March 4th, we woke up to our phones buzzing. As we opened our eyes and rolled over to look at our screens, we saw an email notification with a subject line that read Welcome to Lowell! Elated by the relief of not having been quadded, Grace called her mom to tell her the […]
I dial up Susanne Greelish, co-founder and creative director of GingerGems, a candied ginger brand delivering treats like turmeric, and sesame coated ginger bites, on a Thursday evening to see if I might be able to catch the always-busy woman between tasks. Sure enough, when she answers the phone she is stringing bracelets for her […]
As a winter storm descended upon the central United States, one state proved itself unfit to handle itself amid the low temperatures: Texas. The Lone Star state’s inability to function in the wake of inclement weather is not a fault of its people; rather, it is a product of self-isolation and deregulation.