At 4 p.m. on Oct. 23, an email appeared in every Harvard student’s inbox, stating: Spring 2025 Registration Opens on Nov. 6 at 9 a.m. — Begin preparing for registration now! Operating under a different timeline from past course registrations, Harvard College’s new system has met conflicted responses from students. Many students are unsure of what courses to take for the spring semester, especially those who have only been on campus for a few months.
Overwhelmed by the onslaught of extracurricular activities coupled with concentration requirements, Harvard students sometimes look for courses that will lighten their academic load and spark their intellectual curiosity. These courses are commonly dubbed as “gems,” aptly named for their desirable topics and simplicity. Some might be in one of four categories of General Education courses which all students are required to take to graduate, and others might lay in a specific department. Looking to learn more about which courses are the best “gems” in the College’s Spring 2025 offerings, the Harvard Independent sought out the opinions of students around campus to see if there were some standout courses. To corroborate their commentaries, we then compared their recommendations with comments on Harvard’s course-rating site, also known as QReports.
Science of Stress
A General Education course offered last spring by visiting clinical psychologist at the Stress & Developmental Lab in Cambridge Katie McLaughlin, Science of Stress delved into the neurobiology of mental strain as well as strategies to manage internal tension. Considering McLaughlin’s passion for the subject matter coupled with the manageable workload, Alex Heiss ’26 commented that the class was “especially great for athletes or people with high-intensity life situations.”
While not offered this spring, a great substitute for Science of Stress might be the Gen Ed Psychotherapy and the Modern Self, on account of its captivating lectures and lenient grade curve. The class probes the evolution of psychotherapy modalities, looking at their methods and efficacy as relates to different demographics. Another excellent substitute is Psychology 1021: Stress & Cognition, which dives into the relationship between stress and cognitive capabilities such as learning or memory. One QReports comment said it was “great if you are interested at all in stress in any aspect of life” and another said that it had “a very light workload.”
Landmarks of World Architecture
Looking to fulfill her divisional distribution requirement for the Arts and Humanities, Brecon Welsh ’25 fell in love with Landmarks of World Architecture, offered by the History of Art & Architecture department. Landmarks examines major works of architecture from around the world every week, diving into their historical context, symbolism, and cultural impact.
“I just thought it was really interesting,” Welsh said. “I thought it was a good way to learn about art history and a new subject for someone who was not studying that.” QReports comments underscored its desirability for seniors, with one comment writing: “It’s an excellent elective and is low–stakes especially if you are a senior and are eligible for the midterm drop.”
Humanitarian Response to Conflict and Disasters
Drawn to a smaller class that focuses on life-saving efforts in modern crises, Queen Balina ’26 recommended Global Health and Human Policy 70: Humanitarian Response to Conflict and Disasters. Each week, the class focuses on how different international humanitarian groups such as the Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders have responded to natural disasters, global conflict, and mass migration.
“Every class focuses on some aspect of aid, aid access, civilian-military coordination, or standards for aid, to really learn what it’s like to be working on the ground,” Balina said. “The final involved them sending us to the woods and we simulated being refugees to help train MPH students at the Chan School on how to treat refugees with kindness and compassion in times of crisis.”
The QReports corroborated Balina’s glowing review, with comments such as “Courses like GHHP 70 are the reason why Harvard is the best university in the world,” “Workload is super manageable!” and “Dr VanRooyen and Dr Kayden are some of the best lecturers I’ve had at this school—though the lectures are 2 hours long, I was genuinely never bored during a single lecture.”
Hollywood’s Seventies: The U.S. on Film, 1970-1980
Looking for an entertaining class to compound your concentration requirements? Independent Video Editor Ryan Irving ’27 recommended the seminar class Hist-Lit 90GM: Hollywood’s Seventies, a discussion of American cultural phenomena through the lens of 1970s cinema. History and Literature (“Hist-Lit”) is a Harvard College humanities concentration.
“Every week, we watched a new movie from the 70s, and we had a couple readings about it, and we would just talk about it as a class—everybody was friends, everybody loved talking about the movies,” Irving said.
QReports coupled Irving’s sentiments with an emphasis on Professor Biel’s enthusiasm for the curricula. One respondent wrote, “Professor Biel is the best ever and cares about his students, and this course will make a permanent impact on you, even if you’re not a hist–lit concentrator or humanities student.”
Ballots and Bibles: Why and How Americans Bring Scriptures into Their Politics
Another great offering at Harvard, GENED 1062: Ballots and Bibles, investigated the many invocations of Christian scripture in political rhetoric. While not on the roster for Spring 2025, the course is occasionally offered during the summer semester and may pop up in the future during the fall and spring academic calendars. The class has also had an online option in the past.
“It’s a gateway course, in a way,” Megan Davies ’27 explained. “The course material was super cool…If you’re really trying to get into politics or any religion course here, or just like government or history—it’s a really good way to get involved.”
If you are looking for possible substitutes for this class, there are several options. One might be HDS 2319: Evangelicalism and Political Culture in the United States Since c.1950, which looks at the evolution of the denomination in the American political consciousness and its growing influence on our politicians. Additionally, check out DPI 342: Religion, Politics, and Policy in the United States. Both classes are at the graduate school level, but analyze similar concepts to Ballots and Bibles for those interested.
Want more Gems? HUGEMS.net is the answer.
While the Independent was able to get stellar recommendations here, not every student has the time to question upperclassmen about available courses. That’s why Je Chooi ’26 created Harvard Gems two years ago.
“There’s no centralized repository to what constitutes a gem or not,” Chooi explained. “Nobody maintains a list of that, and it is very unreliable to rely on anecdotes, because what some people might consider a gem, other people might not. I wanted to have a centralized, objective way of answering the question: which Harvard class is a gem?”
The website has different categories based on overall median ratings in QReports such as “Super Gems” or “Hidden Gems.” Specific comments about the courses and average workload are also included. Students can also scroll down to find department-specific gems to find a lighter concentration elective.
When asked about which courses were hits year after year on the website, Chooi noted that Expos 40 is a consistent favorite. “I have kept an archive of all of the gems since I started tracking in Spring 2023—one thing I realized is that Expos 40 was considered a Super Gem back then, which has like a perfect course rating of five, lecture rating of five, and recommendation scores of five.” Even now, Expos 40 is in the top ranks in “terms of quality education, quality teaching, but also in terms of low workload as well,” according to Chooi. Chooi took the course himself. “I had a good time,” he said.
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Regardless of the course topic, interviewees stated that the passion of the lecturers was a key part of enjoying the course. “If you have a professor that’s engaging and has good slides, if you have people in the class that you enjoy taking it with and have an active section, I think those are all good aspects of the class,” Welsh said.
“It is 100% about the person teaching the courses,” added Balina. “If they want the students to leave with some translational knowledge that can help them better look at the world or navigate their post-college space, I think that’s much more important than whatever knowledge is included in the syllabus.”
Irving gave some advice to first-years about the plentitude of classes offered here: “If you are a first-year, even though it’s the second semester and you feel like you need to be choosing stuff—you still are here to explore,” Irving explained. “Take a class in a department that you might not have normally done, but you might have a little bit of interest in. You won’t regret it. Use that time you have to explore, because you don’t have it forever.”
Caroline Stohrer ’28 (carolinestohrer@college.harvard.edu) now wants to revise her Four-Year Plan to include some fun new courses from hugems.net.