GREETINGS FROM THE DEAN OF HARVARD COLLEGE

Dear Students in Harvard College:

Your life at Harvard is woven of many threads: your academic life in classrooms and studios and laboratories, your life as a resident in a freshman dormitory or as a member of a House community, and your involvement in informal or organized extracurricular activities. I want to urge you to make full use of the opportunities and resources that are available to you. Look through the catalog for courses that interest and excite you. For example, if you are a science concentrator, think about taking an elective course in art or music or pursuing a secondary field within the humanities. Take a course that builds on your knowledge of a foreign language or gives you a basic background in some historical subject about which you are curious. These courses can provide intellectual fuel for your entire life. Outside the classroom, join a student organization or a musical group or an activity within your House. These are all part of your educational experience here.

This book is a useful starting point for finding out about how Harvard's resources and opportunities can help you make the best use of your time in Cambridge and achieve the goals you have set for your college career. The Handbook for Students includes information about academic matters, the residential system, and extracurricular activities of all kinds. It describes the values that inform our work together as an academic community, and includes the academic and disciplinary rules that apply to all members of the College. You should familiarize yourselves with the material in Chapters 2 and 4, and should refer to their pages whenever you have a question about progress toward your degree or about regulations governing your life at Harvard.

Harvard works best for people who ask questions and enlist help from others. As you move through the year, use this book and the resources it lists to help you get the advice you need. Turn to your advisers and professors often: your non-resident adviser, peer advising fellow, Resident Dean, and the Head Tutors and Directors of Undergraduate Studies in each of the concentrations are all eager to help, as are the faculty you encounter in seminars and lectures. I am also available to answer questions or to direct you to those who can, and I can be reached by phone or email.

I offer you my very best wishes for a successful year.

Benedict H. Gross
George Vasmer Leverett Professor of Mathematics
Dean of Harvard College
University Hall, First Floor
617-495-1555 or hcdean@fas.harvard.edu.