“I approached [my Summer School class] with the intention of doing better here” than during the year, says Andy J. Asaro ’06, who adds that the prospect of boosting his grade point average “definitely factored in” to his decision to enroll over the summer.
Asaro is taking English S-180, “Twentieth Century American Poetry,” in order to fulfill a Literature concentration requirement.
Asaro estimates that in his 15-student course, more than half of the students he is competing against are high-schoolers.
“The workload is so light. I do about two hours a week for this class,” says Asaro. Although the other students are no less intelligent, Asaro says that some were less “well-versed in poetry,” making it easier for him to stand out.
Whereas organic chemistry is a specific course that all pre-med students must take, most other Summer School offerings are humanities courses that are not universal requirements—and are filled with high school students.
Jeffrey B. Reardon ’07 is one of the 91 students registered for Psychology S-1, “Introduction to Psychology.” In his 20-person section, all but two of the students are high-schoolers, he says.
Although getting a high grade was not Reardon’s motivating factor in taking the course, he calls the potential to boost his GPA “an added bonus.”
“If I’m competing against high school juniors, I definitely have an advantage,” says Reardon, who is also a Summer School proctor. He calls the 300 total pages of reading outside lecture “the lowest I’ve ever had for a course” at Harvard.
The more than 100 Summer School proctors all have the opportunity to sign up for one course free of charge.
“There well may be a perception that [Harvard College students] can engineer easy courses in the summer,” says Neugeboren, the assistant dean at the Summer School.
But he calls the high-schoolers taking classes alongside College students “academically aggressive.”
“I don’t think the high school students provide that kind of cushion,” Neugeboren adds.
—Staff writer Brendan R. Linn can be reached at blinn@fas.harvard.edu.