Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
1
† For more info, visit our website: www.seas.harvard.edu
* Defined by our students and alumni as: “A thriving intellectual community.” “Rich and rigorous.” “Camaraderie mixed in with Newton’s laws,
and Kant mixed in with differential equations.” “An engineering island in a sea of liberal arts disciplines.” “Multidimensional.” “The best of
both worlds.”
A brief guide† for prospective undergraduate students, their parents, and the just plain curious
Harvard
School of Engineering
and Applied Sciences*
1
1
1
† For more info, visit our website: www.seas.harvard.edu
* Defined by our students and alumni as: “A thriving intellectual community.” “Rich and rigorous.” “Camaraderie mixed in with Newton’s laws,
and Kant mixed in with differential equations.” “An engineering island in a sea of liberal arts disciplines.” “Multidimensional.” “The best of
both worlds.”
1
“So–why would anyone
choose to attend Harvard
as an engineer?
“Perhaps because Harvard has a thriving intellectual community
where people from all backgrounds can come together to discuss
issues ranging from politics to structure design.
“Surrounding yourself with others who think as you do and
dream as you do can only help you to grow in directions you
have already turned to on your own.
“To truly stretch the bounds of your mind requires interacting
with people whose interests lie beyond your own and learning
from them what you can.”
—Belle Koven ’06*
0V
* Belle truly put the art into engineering: While at Harvard she served as a
stage manager for on-campus theater productions. She also found the time
to study abroad and to help others through MentorNet, an e-mentoring
program in science and engineering.
2
»
-
how to apply:
Agassiz House
10 Garden Street
(617) 495-1551
www.admissions.college.harvard.edu
www.harvard.edu
For more information about undergraduate
study in engineering and applied sciences
at Harvard:
harvard school of
engineering and applied sciences
Academic Office
Pierce Hall 110
Cambridge, MA 02138
1
“So–why would anyone
choose to attend Harvard
as an engineer?
“Perhaps because Harvard has a thriving intellectual community
where people from all backgrounds can come together to discuss
issues ranging from politics to structure design.
“Surrounding yourself with others who think as you do and
dream as you do can only help you to grow in directions you
have already turned to on your own.
“To truly stretch the bounds of your mind requires interacting
with people whose interests lie beyond your own and learning
from them what you can.”
—Belle Koven ’06*
0V
* Belle truly put the art into engineering: While at Harvard she served as a
stage manager for on-campus theater productions. She also found the time
to study abroad and to help others through MentorNet, an e-mentoring
program in science and engineering.
2
»
-
how to apply:
Agassiz House
10 Garden Street
(617) 495-1551
www.admissions.college.harvard.edu
www.harvard.edu
For more information about undergraduate
study in engineering and applied sciences
at Harvard:
harvard school of
engineering and applied sciences
Academic Office
Pierce Hall 110
Cambridge, MA 02138
Academics:
All-inclusive
The “Harvard experience”—immersion in a multifaceted intellectual setting—is part of what makes learning engineering and applied sciences here
a singular experience.
Because of our emphasis on preparing broad-minded students—whom
we call “renaissance engineers”1—we’ve designed programs and courses
that meet the need of students at multiple levels.
The concentration is open to those who might not have had opportunities for rigorous mathematics or exposure to engineering or computer
science in high school. At the same time, the program caters to those who
dream about taking Math 55 their first year.
Many of our classes are small, thanks to the 5:1 student/faculty ratio.
Professors and administrators are accessible in and outside of class.2 And,
collaborative courses and research with Harvard’s world-class programs in
the life and physical sciences expose students to the bigger picture, too.3
We offer an ab degree option (which is relatively rare among our peers)
as well as an abet-accredited sb (in Engineering Sciences only). Our concentrations promote flexibility and, yes, even fun.4 That means you’ll have
time to indulge your passion for the yo-yo, push the pigskin down the turf
5, investigate the wacky world of quantum science 6, or create the next
great start-up in your dorm room.7
Although you can dig deep into specific areas of research, the goal is to
train future leaders and thinkers in all fields as well as professionals in engineering and applied sciences. 8
Alum Yi Liu ’05 (Engineering Sciences, sb) put it this way: “Harvard emphasizes not just the education of the subject but the education of a person.”
2
1
1 Renaissance engineering is about the future, not the
past: training students who excel in applied science
but also have a broad knowledge of other disciplines and wish to connect advances in engineering
to society’s most challenging problems.
2 A professor from a local university who visited bioengineer Kit Parker’s “Cellular Engineering” to see
whether he might want to create a similar course
confessed that it would simply be too much work to
replicate (even without the after-class BBQ).
3 “I was given the special opportunity to study physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, statistics,
and computer programming, while also gaining
the problem-solving skills of an engineer”—Daniel
Foti ’06. Moreover, our concentrations are ideal for
completing premed requirements.
4 We celebrate National Engineers Week, drop eggs
off buildings, play robot soccer, and offer free candy
at the Academic Office.
5 In 2005, over 50 percent of the students in ES-96, a
team-based design course, were members of either
a JV or a Varsity sport.
6 One of our colleagues in the Physics Department
wrote a book called Warped Passages: Unraveling
the Mysteries of the Hidden Dimensions.
7 Students have found the time to start companies
while earning their degrees (see page 14).
8 Miriam Esteve ’85 is Executive Vice President of
Operations, Technology, and Project Management
at U.S. Trust. Stephanie Wilson ’88 is an astronaut.
Clay Mitchell ’99 runs one of the most technologically sophisticated farms in the world.
3
»Degrees of freedom
applied mathematics
“Math will rock your world.” That sentence
recently appeared on the cover of BusinessWeek magazine. The math rocking the
world is applied mathematics, an area of
study that uses mathematics to understand
how a leaf unfurls, predict when the next
hurricane might hit, and sort through the
information overload of the online era.
Areas of focus include biological sciences,
economics, engineering, and computerscience, among others.
The newly created am-50 course covers all the bases—in fact, the first segment
explores a double-header: statistics and
baseball. Number theory, brain science, and
economics (ideal for future i-bankers and
Einsteins alike) shows up later in the term.
computer science
The answers to today’s big questions—
whether in engineering, physics, biology,
or economics—inevitably have computation at their core. Computer science is of
course about creating code and running
software, but it takes more than clever
keystrokes to go from an idea to an end
product or solution. Areas of focus include
software, graphics, e-commerce, artificial
intelligence, networks, parallel and distributed systems, algorithms, and theory.
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Radhika Nagpal has re-engineered the
proverbial “class on the grass.” She and
her students recently demonstrated a fleet
of Lego Mindstorm robots doing collective
4
construction at an international robot
exhibition. The bots, which use no centralized control, rely on fancy algorithms to
build simple buildings from a blueprint.
engineering sciences (ab or sb)
Engineering is about building bridges—
but in ways you might not expect. Breakthroughs in basic research and innovative
technologies create bridges to every area in
the sciences. In particular, students say that
engineering provides an ideal platform for
exploring topics in biology and medicine.
Areas of focus include biomedical sciences
and engineering, electrical engineering
and computer science, engineering physics,
environmental sciences and engineering,
and mechanical and materials sciences and
engineering.
In es-100, a capstone engineering
design course, Chelsey Simmons ’06
designed a new surgical system in order
to treat patients with osteoporosis who
are undergoing spinal fusion, a common
remedy for back pain. Chelsey is attending
the Stanford School of Engineering for
graduate school.
For the complete scoop on courses, suggested
schedules, and requirements, see http://seas.
harvard.edu/undergradstudy/.
1
5
Renaissance
Engineer*
2
“The experience of living on an
engineering island in a sea of liberal
arts disciplines has reminded me
that the full potential of technology is reached only when a
broad user base is able to understand and utilize all of the
functionality provided by that technology.
“I want to be able to feel like I’m making a difference in the
lives of ordinary people … and my experience as an engineer
at Harvard has helped me to expand my working paradigm
to the point where I’m able to take the needs of that group
into consideration as I dream about the next generation of
innovation.”
—Darren Baker ’06/’08
*Darren is from West Jordan, Utah. Before attending Harvard, he said, “If I had to pick one
word to describe my interests, it would have to be ‘variety.’ My scholastic interests range
from chemistry and computer science to the study of history and foreign languages.”
Research:
Mind-expanding
Opportunities abound for undergraduates to conduct and experience research in engineering, the applied sciences, and related fields at Harvard.
» Listen to dozens of lectures on dozens of topics by the world’s top researchers (and
those who employ them).1
» Get your hands on state-of-the-art equipment in the newly constructed undergraduate bioengineering lab; scope out the small world of nanotechnology by building your
own scanning tunneling microscope; design microchips for use in sensor networks.2
» Participate in faculty labs; take part in term-time or summer research program; 3
work and live in one of the “smartest” cities in the U.S.4
If you desire all the details or have specific aims(e.g., “I’d really like to
work on quantum-cascade lasers, program a smarter computer agent, or
model the atmosphere”)or want to know what our faculty members have
been up to, visit www.seas.harvard.edu/research/.
And there’s more to come. Harvard has announced plans to invest heavily in science and engineering.5 In fact, our change in name from “Division
of” to “School of” Engineering and Applied Sciences is the most visible sign
of this commitment.
On a practical level, this investment means hiring additional faculty members (expected to increase by 50% in engineering alone) and constructing
advanced facilities such as the Laboratory for Integrated Science and Engineering and the Northwest Building, dedicated to interdisciplinary science
and engineering.6
8
2
1 Some past luminaries have included Bill Gates COL
’77 and India’s Kapil Sibal, Minister of Science &
Technology and Ocean Development.
2 William Adams ’06 created a microelectrode array: a
14mm x 14mm “data collector” for cardiac electrophysiological experimentation, built entirely within
the Center for Nanoscale Systems clean room.
3 Harvard offers the Program for Research in Science
and Engineering (PRISE), a 10-week 2 residential
community, and the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), summer opportunities focused
on materials research and nanoscale science and
engineering.
4 That’s what Boston Magazine says. Lots of
universities, lots of people with PhDs, lots of
high-tech companies.
5 “Harvard will need to invest ambitiously in science
scienceengineering
and
and engineering
in theincoming
the coming
yearsyears
and toand
consider
to consider
how
best to how
nourish
bestnew
to nourish
fields while
new fields
sustaining
while
sustaining
its
traditional
its traditional
strengths, many
strengths,
of which
many
lieoffirmly
which
lie firmly
within
thewithin
boundaries
the boundaries
of existingofdepartments.”—
existing departments.”—President’s
President’s
Office, 2006
Office, 2006
6 The first building on Harvard University’s future
Allston campus will be dedicated to interdisciplinary science and stem cell research.
9
»Bugs, bubbles, and soccer bots
geneva trotter ’09 works in Assistant
Professor of Electrical Engineering Rob
Wood’s lab on the design, construction,
and verification of a cockroach-inspired
microrobotic leg mechanism. Geneva arrived with a “leg up”—she loves track and
field and basketball.
Wood is working to develop tiny insectlike flying vehicles weighing in at one gram
or less. His goal is to produce autonomous
(no pilot) low-cost fliers that can cover
a wide area with gliding or active flight.
Using insect-inspired optical-flow motion
detection, large numbers of fliers could
rapidly fan out to scout an area.
anand bala subramaniam ’06, who concentrated in biological sciences and is now
a research fellow in engineering, worked
with Associate Dean and Vicky Joseph Professor, Howard Stone, to create micron-to
millimeter-scale peapod-, doughnut-, and
sausage-shaped bubbles.
To prod them into unconventional
shapes, the team coated ordinary gas
bubbles with a tightly packed layer of tiny
particles and then fused them. Someday
these odd bubbles may be used as carriers for delivering drugs, vitamins, or even
flavors.
For now the work has produced a
Nature paper—with Bala Subramaniam
as the lead author.
The cofounders of the Robotic Futbol Club
of Cambridge (rfc), jeff ma ’07 (Physics) and jie tang ’08 (Computer Science),
recently did some kicking and scheming in
Atlanta and Bremen, Germany.
RoboCup, an international robotic
football competition, offers universitybased teams the chance to build a team of
autonomous robots and compete in headto-head matches.
The Harvard team also opted for
intellectual collaboration rather than
competition: it joined forces with undergrads from mit. (An interesting aside: At
the turn of the 20th century, Harvard
and mit nearly merged.)
10
2
Renaissance
Engineer*
3
“I have a niche, and it was by
immersing myself in other options
that I so easily discovered it.
“All I really want to do is study the limitless beauty of
machines and design ways to harness it. Studying engineering
in a liberal arts setting has shown me that intellectual ability is
multidimensional.
“By offering courses in a wide range of disciplines and
bringing together a group of students who excel in a variety of
areas, Harvard has exposed me to the many flavors of interest
and ability. I’ve not only discovered my own unique combination
of vector components, but learned to appreciate those of my
classmates, too.”
—Anjuli P. Kannan ’09
0W
*Anjuli won a grant from Harvard’s South Asia Initiative to live in India for eight weeks in a
Rajasthan village and help teach computer literacy. She’ll no doubt rely on her experience as
a teaching fellow for “Computer Science 50, Introduction to Computer Science 1.”
Innovation:
Inside and out
Microsoft, Facebook, and a dozen dot-com ideas came to light in the wee,
dark hours. They all blossomed (or didn’t) at Harvard.1
From free mini-MBA seminars 2 to working with faculty members who
have founded their own companies 3 to summer internship opportunities
at companies like Google 4, IBM, Microsoft, and McKinsey Co., engineering and applied sciences students have many avenues for on-the-job training before they graduate.
Right on campus, budding entrepreneurs can get a boost from the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard (TECH) and the emerging Translation Lab. Both initiatives provide courses and one-on-one consulting for students interested in exploring idea generation and technology
transfer.
We also encourage real-world (and off-campus) experiences. In 2007,
three engineering students were awarded Weissman scholarships 5, which
enable participants to live and work across the globe. Moreover, as cultural
literacy has become increasingly critical for science and engineering, we’ve
made it easier for even SB students to have experiences abroad.6
In addition to coming up with the next Great Big Idea, we encourage
you to heed the advice of a Harvard graduate and now faculty member:
“Think of your freedom of choice—of what courses to take, of how to
spend your Sunday afternoons, whatever—as a commodity that is precious
in and of itself.”7
14
3
1 Part of the code for what became Microsoft’s first
commercial program is displayed in Maxwell
Dworkin—a building made possible by a donation
from Steven Ballmer ’77 and Bill Gates COL ’77 and
named for their mothers.
2 In keeping with the real-world emphasis of the
noncredit course, stellar faculty members, as well
as some of Cambridge’s most successful practicing
entrepreneurs from Harvard Business School teach
the seminars.
3 Pulmatrix, a start-up that develops products to
diagnose, treat, prevent, or inhibit the spread of
airborne infectious diseases, grew out of an undergraduate engineering course.
4 In 2004, Google placed the following ad in the Harvard Square subway station: “[first 10-digit prime
found in consecutive digits of e].com”
5 During the summer of 2007, 39 Weissman interns
worked in a wide range of private and public
organizations in business, education, the environment, government, health and medicine, law, media,
public service, science, and urban planning.
6 Courtney O’Brien ’09 (AM) studied in Paris;
Jacqueline Stenson ’08 (ES) studied in Durban,
South Africa; and Christina Ke Xu ’09 (CS) studied
in Kingston, Jamaica.
7 Harry Lewis
Lewis,’68,
Harvard
’74, Harvard
College Professor
College Professor
and Gordon
and
McKay Professor
Gordon
McKay Professor
of Computer
of Computer
Science Science
and former
and
Dean ofDean
former
the College.
of the College.
15
»Drug delivery,
delivery room, classroom
oluwarotimi “rotimi” okunade ’07
spent her summer in Pretoria, South
Africa, with Medicine in Need (mend),
a nonprofit company started by faculty
members and students at Harvard and
aimed at liberating burdened populations
from diseases of poverty through advanced drug and vaccine delivery.
“My work has been to administer a
study at different [tuberculosis] treatment
centers all over South Africa, which is to
justify the entry of such a formulation into
clinical trials there,” she says.
A team composed of undergraduates ezra
rapoport ’06, nick orenstein ’06, david
jakus ’06, and james moran ’05 captured
first place in the Harvard Student Agencies’ Center for Enterprise’s Entrepreneurial Contest.
In their business plan, the team devised
a venture called lono Medical Systems,
dedicated to the design and production of
a wireless device that can employ passive
acoustic measurement techniques to detect
and monitor the heartbeat of a human
fetus in utero.
“This is something which we invented
and feel very connected to,” Orenstein
said. “I never expected to be making
something that could actually help save
people’s lives.”
The Harvard Crimson reported on a novel
class meant to inspire novel ideas:
“Have you ever had a great idea that was
too wild or far-fetched to become reality?
… In es-147, students from many academic disciplines work on idea translation
and ‘artscience,’ attempting to put their
dreams into tangible form.
“McKay Professor of the Practice of
Biomedical Engineering David A. Edwards
focuses on applying his own ideas and
research to real-life problems, and he challenges his students to do the same.”
In fact, in addition to being a serial entrepreneur, Edwards writes novels.
16
3
Renaissance
Engineer*
4
“Engineering in a liberal arts
setting means that there is
camaraderie mixed in with
Newton’s laws, and Kant mixed
in with differential equations.
“The liberal arts requirement here has given me the
opportunity to study a wide variety of subjects including classical
Greek literature, philosophy, linguistics, French, and AfricanAmerican history.
“The engineering education that I am getting in Harvard’s
liberal arts setting is preparing me quite well to face the
challenges of any career I choose.”
—Florence Evina-Ze ’07/’08
0
*Florence, who was on the Harvard track team and Vice President of the Harvard Society
of Black Scientists and Engineers, also spent a summer working in London at a firm that
specializes in research on renewable energy and low carbon technologies.
Things to come:
Unlimited application
Ultimately, acquiring a degree in engineering and applied sciences from Harvard can be both fulfilling and fun (even with all those problem sets).1
The degree is also very practical—which, given the cost of college these
days as well as the cost of living, matters.2
Further, science and engineering increasingly shape our society and
our world.3 Thomas Friedman, author of The World Is Flat4, has said, “I’m
not saying that every politician needs to be an engineer, but it would be
helpful if they had a basic understanding of the forces that are flattening
the world.”
Most important, our curriculum offers excellent preparation, whether
you are intending to practice as an engineer, researcher, or physician; are
planning for a career in business, education, government, law, or medicine;
or have no idea what you want to be when you grow up 5.
“We want our passion for discovery and innovation to attract the curious,
inspire a future generation of globally educated leaders, and help improve
society and the world.”6
To put this into perspective…
primary occupation post harvard
%
computer software, hardware, systems··························23
banking, finance, communications··································11
engineering & science····················································11
education······································································ 8
full-time student·························································· 7
law················································································ 6
consulting····································································· 6
medicine, health care, public health······························ 5
arts, government, politics·············································· 5
other 7 ········································································18
(Data taken from a 2007 alumni survey of graduates from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences)
20
4
1 To get the full picture, e-mail us (ugradadmissions@
seas.harvard.edu) with any questions, and most
important, visit the campus.
2 A 2005 survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers revealed that nine of
the 10 highest average starting salaries go to those
with degrees in engineering and applied sciences.
3 “Engineering and applied sciences are everywhere
and underlie everything, from commerce to quantum physics, and connect every place, from Boston
to Bangladesh”—Venkatesh “Venky” Narayanamurti,
Dean of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
4 A book widely discussed by engineering deans.
5 Steven Ballmer ’77 (Applied Math/Economics), chief
executive officer of Microsoft, successfully blended
technology with management.
6 Taken from the strategic vision document for engineering and applied sciences.
7 Some alumni like to keep everyone guessing.
21
»Banker, baker, cgi-maker
gary schermerhorn ’85 (Computer Science), cfo-coo at Goldman Sachs Tech
Division, paved a path that combined a
foundational approach with a practical one.
“While I wrestled with philosophy or abstract computing theories, I was concerned
that students at other universities were
receiving a more practical, technical education,” he says. “But I gained a much broader
perspective on technology. I can’t say that
it’s only the Harvard approach that has
made me this way, but I would be against
diluting the foundational approach to technical learning to expand the practical.”
Given that surveys predict most individuals
will have several careers during their working lives, not all those who earn technical
degrees will limit themselves to technical
fields—at least in the traditional sense.
joanne chang ’96 (Applied Math/
Economics) went from consulting at
McKinsey to being the pastry chef/owner
of Flour Bakery in Boston (famed for
making its own pop tarts). ken keeler ab
’83 and phd ’90 (both in Applied Math)
switched from equations to comedy,
becoming a writer and producer for The
Simpsons and Futurama.
danielle feinberg ’96 (Computer Science), lead lighting artist at Pixar Animation Studios, found inspiration in class for
her future career.
“It was fall of 1994 in my junior year,”
seh recalls. “I was sitting in Professor
Joe Marks’s computer graphics class. He
showed a couple of the Pixar short films
one day, and I absolutely fell in love with
computer animation. It was like everything
I had ever tried to do, taken 10 million
levels up.”
22
4
»Numbers of note
5:1faculty/student ratio
$37.5 million n sponsored rese
i
400,000 square feet of existing dedicated classrooms, labs,
30 approximate percentage of our faculty members who hold joint appointments in oth
2/3 portion of the laboratory for integrated science and engineering
8, 9 academy
members of our faculty members who belong to the national academy of engineeri
of sciences (respectively); 4 are members of both
5,
1, 4 harvard
college professorships held by our faculty; mcarthur found
guggenheim fellowship holders (respectively)
10 weeks in the undergraduate program for research in science
200,
170, 41 chapters
of engineers without borders (including a group
in which students are working (respectively)
5 robot soccer players built and used by the harvard-mit team in a robocup “small
133
freshman seminars offered, with topics offered in 2006–2007 rang
science of sailing to superconductivity to freud to cyberspace in
400 dollars awarded in a video gaming competition sponsored by the harvard
70 percentage of engineering and applied sciences faculty members who
2 citation impact rank of harvard in the category of engineering and computer science
4.43
mean on a scale of 1-6 (1 being very negative and 6 being very positive)
about the harvard school of engineering and applied sciences
earch conducted by our faculty (as of the end of 2007)
and facilities at hseas
her departments or schools at harvard
(lise) that is underground
ing and to the national
dation ‘genius grant winners;
and engineering (prise) held each summer
from harvard); active ewb projects; countries
league” tournament
ging from a history of germs to the
court
interactive media group
agreed to serve as freshman advisers in 2006–2007
in a 2002 analysis by isi (for 1998–2002 data)
showing how alumni feel
Q&A
how long has harvard done
engineering?
The Lawrence Scientific School, which
housed the University’s first programs
related to engineering and applied sciences,
was founded in 1847.
but don’t all the “real” engineers go
to technical institutes?
That’s like saying all the “real” biology or
history students go to Harvard. Moreover,
engineering is increasingly like one of
the liberal arts in the way it interacts with
other fields (and that assessment came
from an engineer).
what distinguishes harvard’s
academic programs in engineering?
In a word: Harvard. Undergraduates
who pursue engineering and applied
sciences at Harvard are not enrolled in a
separate school or college as they would
be in some other programs. Here, studying engineering is only one aspect of a
student’s experience.
26
what are the engineering
students like?
Like other Harvard students: smart, determined, dedicated, diverse (approximately
35% of concentrators are female and 40%
are minorities or foreign nationals), and
enjoying broad interests. Hear it from
them: “I am glad that I have friends with
a wide variety of interests …”; “I knew I
would concentrate in engineering … [but]
I wanted to attend a college with an active
music program.”
what sort of research have
students done?
Past students have created bio-inspired
machines, built a cycle-plane simulator,
implemented wireless sensor networks, coauthored papers on quantum science and
technology, and investigated the role of materials and processes at the nanoscale that
regulate the earth’s environment. In short,
whatever your research passion, given the
resources at Harvard, you can find a faculty
member who does it and the funding to go
along with it. For complete details see: www.
seas.harvard.edu/research/
does an engineering degree at
harvard fully prepare students for
graduate school and careers?
Past students have attended graduate school
programs at leading universities (including
those with “technology” in their names) in
areas ranging from engineering to law to
business to medicine. Others have taken
jobs right after graduation with leading consulting, engineering, and business firms.
how can i get involved if i do not
concentrate in engineering?
Opportunities include extracurricular activities such as the Harvard College Computer
Society (hcs) and the Harvard College
Engineering Society (hces); competitions,
such as those available through the Harvard
Computing Club (hc3); and campus-wide
groups such as Women in Science at Harvard-Radcliffe (wishr).
what is the size of the program?
Data from 2006–2007: Undergraduates: ~
300 concentrators (over 40% of students
are minorities, including Asian, or foreign
nationals; 35% of students are women).
Graduate students: 346. Faculty members:
73 full-time and about 87 participants in all.
what does the future hold for
engineering at harvard?
In the past decade, the Engineering and
Applied Sciences program has undergone a
spectacular renewal, hiring 40 new faculty members and building a host of new
facilities. “Continued rapid growth in key
areas of engineering and life sciences, in
particular, is not only vital for the competitive position of the University … but also in
maximizing the return on our investment
in buildings and infrastructure—which will
bolster the health of the Faculty as a whole
…” (Faculty of the Arts and Sciences Dean’s
Annual Letter, 2006).
27
28
1
“So–why would anyone
choose to attend Harvard
as an engineer?
“Perhaps because Harvard has a thriving intellectual community
where people from all backgrounds can come together to discuss
issues ranging from politics to structure design.
“Surrounding yourself with others who think as you do and
dream as you do can only help you to grow in directions you
have already turned to on your own.
“To truly stretch the bounds of your mind requires interacting
with people whose interests lie beyond your own and learning
from them what you can.”
—Belle Koven ’06*
0V
*Belle truly put the art into engineering: While at Harvard she served as a
stage manager for on-campus theater productions. She also found the time
to study abroad and to help others through MentorNet, an e-mentoring
program in science and engineering.
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»Learn more
All undergraduates apply and are admitted
through Harvard College. Students do not
need to declare their intended concentration until the sophomore year.
For more information about Harvard
College, financial aid, campus visits, and
how to apply:
harvard college office of
admissions and financial aid
Agassiz House
10 Garden Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
(617) 495-1551
www.admissions.college.harvard.edu
www.harvard.edu
For more information about undergraduate
study in engineering and applied sciences
at Harvard:
harvard school of
engineering and applied sciences
Academic Office
Pierce Hall 110
Cambridge, MA 02138
(617) 495-2833
E-mail: ugradadmissions@seas.harvard.edu
www.seas.harvard.edu
Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
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† For more info, visit our website: www.seas.harvard.edu
* Defined by our students and alumni as: “A thriving intellectual community.” “Rich and rigorous.” “Camaraderie mixed in with Newton’s laws,
and Kant mixed in with differential equations.” “An engineering island in a sea of liberal arts disciplines.” “Multidimensional.” “The best of
both worlds.”
A brief guide† for prospective undergraduate students, their parents, and the just plain curious
Harvard
School of Engineering
and Applied Sciences*
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