08-02-2014, 03:06 PM
I graduate from HES with an ALM in Information Technology this past May. For a bit of background, my BA is in Government from Georgetown.
Regarding your relationship with the the larger university, until you get admitted into a degree program you are just someone taking classes. You have no real standing in the university (aside from a cool @fas.harvard.edu email address). Once you become admitted, you are a full member of the university, just like the other schools. I was on campus in my final semester (last spring). The only thing that I saw different was that there was some debate as to whether admitted full time ALM candidates were eligible for graduate housing. I heard two different things from two different university administrators.
Regarding how you are treated on campus, I was treated absolutely splendidly. In fact, on some occasions it was other Harvard employees and students that had to remind me of all of the privileges that I had as a student. I made friends with folks from HC, GSAS, HKS, HSGE, and HLS. I never saw many HBS people, primarily because their campus is not with the main campus.
Regarding studying Government at Harvard. Keep in mind that there are (aside from HES) departments in TWO separate schools that offer study in the field of government. You already know about HKS, but do not forget about the Government department in the FAS (Faculty of Arts and Sciences). The FAS government department runs the undergraduate government major as well as the PhD in government program. HKS and FAS have completely different faculty, although students of one school can also take courses from another school, and sometime HKS faculty teach in FAS. HES seems to get the vast majority of their government professors from both FAS and HKS.
If I were to offer any criticism of doing an ALM at HES, it would be the distance learning format. The DL format does not lend itself to class discussion that can be so valuable in non-technical courses. HOWEVER, my undergrad (Georgetown) was considered to be very strong in the government/international relations field, and the VAST majority of my classes (with the notable exception of the political theory courses) were lectures with minimal discussion. I probably could have gotten about as much from the classes themselves in a DL format as I did in person.
The HUGE benefit to being on campus at a school like Harvard if you are majoring in government (IMHO) is attending the lectures/presentations/discussions put on by world leaders/influencers that occur in the evenings. Those are in abundance at Harvard, and if you are an admitted degree candidate you can attend (assuming you are on campus). For that reason, you MIGHT want to consider doing a semester on campus.
One additional note, several people use the HES ALM as a stepping stone to a PhD program somewhere. I know one girl who did the ALM in International Relations and used that to get a fully funded spot in a PhD program at the University of Wisconsin. At commencement this past May, the student who performed the graduate student address was graduating from HKS with an MPP. He actually did his undergrad at HES and went straight into HKS after getting his ALB.
If you have any other questions, let me know.
Regarding your relationship with the the larger university, until you get admitted into a degree program you are just someone taking classes. You have no real standing in the university (aside from a cool @fas.harvard.edu email address). Once you become admitted, you are a full member of the university, just like the other schools. I was on campus in my final semester (last spring). The only thing that I saw different was that there was some debate as to whether admitted full time ALM candidates were eligible for graduate housing. I heard two different things from two different university administrators.
Regarding how you are treated on campus, I was treated absolutely splendidly. In fact, on some occasions it was other Harvard employees and students that had to remind me of all of the privileges that I had as a student. I made friends with folks from HC, GSAS, HKS, HSGE, and HLS. I never saw many HBS people, primarily because their campus is not with the main campus.
Regarding studying Government at Harvard. Keep in mind that there are (aside from HES) departments in TWO separate schools that offer study in the field of government. You already know about HKS, but do not forget about the Government department in the FAS (Faculty of Arts and Sciences). The FAS government department runs the undergraduate government major as well as the PhD in government program. HKS and FAS have completely different faculty, although students of one school can also take courses from another school, and sometime HKS faculty teach in FAS. HES seems to get the vast majority of their government professors from both FAS and HKS.
If I were to offer any criticism of doing an ALM at HES, it would be the distance learning format. The DL format does not lend itself to class discussion that can be so valuable in non-technical courses. HOWEVER, my undergrad (Georgetown) was considered to be very strong in the government/international relations field, and the VAST majority of my classes (with the notable exception of the political theory courses) were lectures with minimal discussion. I probably could have gotten about as much from the classes themselves in a DL format as I did in person.
The HUGE benefit to being on campus at a school like Harvard if you are majoring in government (IMHO) is attending the lectures/presentations/discussions put on by world leaders/influencers that occur in the evenings. Those are in abundance at Harvard, and if you are an admitted degree candidate you can attend (assuming you are on campus). For that reason, you MIGHT want to consider doing a semester on campus.
One additional note, several people use the HES ALM as a stepping stone to a PhD program somewhere. I know one girl who did the ALM in International Relations and used that to get a fully funded spot in a PhD program at the University of Wisconsin. At commencement this past May, the student who performed the graduate student address was graduating from HKS with an MPP. He actually did his undergrad at HES and went straight into HKS after getting his ALB.
If you have any other questions, let me know.