Opportunities for Secondary and Homeschooled Students
Harvard Extension School is an academically rigorous, open-enrollment program that welcomes learners of all ages. Each year nearly 200 gifted and talented secondary and homeschooled students enroll in Extension School courses to earn credit toward high school graduation, prepare for college, or gain personal enrichment.
The wide range of subjects includes expository writing, foreign languages, math, and biology. Our distance education courses, several of which are Harvard College courses, open the Extension School curriculum to self-disciplined youth from around the world.
The Extension School offers many student services, including the Writing Center, Math Question Center, and Career and Academic Resource Center (CARC), which offers a number of free study-skills workshops.
Some homeschooled students choose to pursue the Associate in Arts degree as an alternative to high school. They may then apply to traditional undergraduate degree programs as a transfer student or a freshman with some college experience. They may also earn an undergraduate degree in the Extension School’s Bachelor of Liberal Arts Program. See the undergraduate program website for more information.
To financially support such students, the Harvard Extension School offers a limited number of Lowell Scholarships, which enable middle and high school students in US schools to take one Extension School course per term for undergraduate credit at reduced tuition rates.
Ten Course Selection Tips
At Harvard Extension School, you are a college student. Your record at the Extension School will become part of your academic history, which you report to any college or university that you attend. You are held to undergraduate grading standards and exposed to undergraduate-level course content. When choosing courses, keep the following course selection tips in mind:
- Choose lower-level, introductory courses. For example, College Algebra, Elementary Spanish, or Introduction to Psychology.
- Read the course descriptions carefully and be aware of prerequisites.
- Read the course syllabus (last year’s or this year’s). Links to course syllabi (if available) are listed with course descriptions under each course title.
- Go to the Harvard Coop and preview the books ordered for the course.
- Read student evaluations (available in Grossman Library and at 51 Brattle Street).
- Review the Dean’s list of 2005–06 Extension School instructors who received letters of commendation for distinguished teaching based on high scores from student evaluations (Download* list.)
- E-mail the instructor if you have questions about course content, level, or prerequisites. Instructor contact information may be found in the course catalogue.
- Shop the course: if the course is not limited enrollment, visit it during the first week of classes to preview the instructor’s lecture style, the format of the course, and the course content.
- Take advantage of student services, such as the Writing Center, Math Question Center, and CARC to help you succeed in your course.
- Be aware of the drop and withdrawal deadlines (listed in the Calendar) so that you may, if need be, drop or withdraw from a course without penalty of a failing grade.