"One thing I think that should be changed is that I think it should be more standardized advising across the different houses," she says. "That's something that people are working on right now, in making it more uniform across the different houses."

Mora says there should be more consistency between houses in terms of deadlines such as handing in letters of recommendation.

Michelson agrees that lack of uniformity in the Harvard system is a key weakness and says she tries to ease the problems to coordinate the advising throughout the university.

Uniform house letters written for students would also create a greater degree of uniformity, according to Mora.

"Students won't feel that [in] going to a different house, they'll be at a certain disadvantage," she says. "It'll also be better because you'll feel like you're doing something that's also being done in [other houses]."

Mora says another problem with the system is the advisors' having to write all the letters for the students.

"Writing the Dean's letters is a big time commitment," she says.

Unlike other schools, Mora says Harvard does not hire a full-time staff to write those letters.

Mora says she believes the ideal system would be to have the advisors provide an office staff with the information for the letters and then have a full-time staff write the letter.

Another option would be to have advisors provide counseling to students and then have an office staff write the letters.

Mora says the problem is especially noticeable in Adams because the two resident tutors in the house are responsible for either writing or editing the letters of about 100 pre-med students in the house.

"It's a lot because you have to make sure everybody's letter is up to the same quality," she says.

Compared to Other Schools

Despite the glitches in the system, students and advisors agree that advising at Harvard is much better than that at other schools.

"I think in general the advising system at Harvard is great," Mora says. "I think many other colleges and universities do not have such systems."