Harvard Extension School Student Forum

Come discuss with other HES students in a new forum who are at Harvard Extension School. Talk about life in and around Cambridge, Boston, classes, school, Harvard University, course reviews, and more. Interested in the best ways to travel to Harvard for your residency requirement? Check out the 'On and Around Campus' category for tips and advice. Want to join a book club with other Harvard Extension School students that read through the Harvard Classics? It's a Harvard education in and of itself. ExtensionStudentForum Forum categories include 'Job Postings & Job Seekers', 'Extension Confidential', 'Professional Graduate Certificates', 'HBX', 'ALB' and 'ALM' discussions. Extension Student Forum is brought to you by The Degree Tracker.

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This forum is exclusively for Harvard University students. The sponsor for this forum is an exciting new web app, The Degree Tracker. Track and plan your Harvard Extension School ALM and ALB degrees or professional graduate certificate. Course ratings, instructor reviews, accomplishment badges, planning, tracking, and other tools to help guide students through their HES journey. TheDegreeTracker is proud to bring you this tool to use to track your degree at Harvard Extension School. If you are a student who has more courses than you can keep track of, and you would like to plan out your degree pathway carefully, then track and plan courses with the Degree Tracker to take control of your education. Including course reviews and course ratings, TheDegreeTracker has the potential to not only guide you through your degree, but to let you help other students who might be wondering about the HES courses that you've taken. The Degree Tracker is glad to provide the Harvard Extension School Student Forum (ESF) to help foster a nurturing environment. This forum for was born in 2015 to create better Harvard Extension School friendships, networking, and information to contribute to a better overall HES experience. Extension students formerly congregated at forums such as philfac and extensionstudent. This website has no affiliation with either the philfac or extensionstudent websites. It has been created and run by 100% completely different leadership. For the extension student who wants a bigger taste of what life with other Harvard Extension students is like, combining the Degree Tracker and the extension student forum can foster that sense of community that others have on campus. Another advantage of participating in an online community over the Harvard campus is that extension students can develop permanent relationships with other extension students that being on a physical campus might not necessarily allow, since online students are great at staying in touch online.

What would you like to see in a forum?

We'd be glad to hear your feedback. It's no piece of cake to graduate with your Bachelor of Liberal Arts or Master of Liberal Arts in a timely fashion, but your Bachelor's or Master's degree plan will only benefit from making use of the Degree Tracker and this exclusive forum for Harvard's marvelous students.

I want to hear personal experiences of Bachelor degree holders from the Extension School

Hello, my name is Kevin, and I will soon become a degree candidate of the ALB program. I hold an associates degree in criminology (from a rather lower-tier university), and realized not completing a BA really does affect job prospects. I am an avid learner, and have always dreamed of completing a degree from a higher institution of learning. This is why I chose the ALB program offered by the Extension School (and also for the transferrable credits).

So this brings me to the topic question, what are your experiences of holding an ALB after graduating?? We already know the quality of the program was very enjoyable and rigorous. But I want to know if holding a "ALB" from "Extension School" affected your job applications and/or graduate program applications.

I am not here to instigate another debate about how people perceive Extension School degrees. I am just seeking some people with realistic experiences about how holding an ALB has affected/not affected your future applications. Thank you.

Comments

  • Before heading back to school via HES, I had a few years of credits completed at a state school, mostly in humanities subjects. HES completely turned my academic career on its head, and I've heard nothing but good things from others in academia.

    I ended up studying biology and having the chance to work with an instructor (now a prof at another university) on a reading/research project. That experience helped me get into masters programs quite easily.

    During interviews (six schools applied to, six accepted), I made a point to emphasize the non-traditional nature of HES. Working while in school will impress folks if you do well. Since I applied to schools in the UK, they were also impressed with the breadth of the liberal arts education. Folks at one university thought I was at HMS b/c of the courses I took and where my recommendations came from (both HMS), but I was quick to correct this.

    I've moved on to a PhD program. I happened to be top of my class in my masters, which helped, but the HES experience surely didn't hurt - again, telling potential supervsiors that I had worked full time while taking classes was a bonus. Now in a program, if I bring HES up to folks they seem intrigued. They'll recognise the Harvard brand, and that seems impresive, but really they care about what you can do at that point.
  • Thanks jaw! I was curious about being accepted into a PhD program from an HES ALM. Anyone have any experience with that?
  • Thanks jaw! I was curious about being accepted into a PhD program from an HES ALM. Anyone have any experience with that?

    I'm working on a PhD right now and I have an ALM in IT (SE concentration). What are you interested in knowing?
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