Enrollment and Residency
Enrollment
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Prospective candidates cannot count toward the ALM more than 3 courses taken before they have earned a bachelor’s degree. ALB candidates must receive approval from the undergraduate program by submitting an e-mail request to alb@dcemail.harvard.edu prior to registration.
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Prospective candidates are not allowed to enroll in the program with the aim of completing all requirements within 1 calendar year, nor may they receive credit for more than 4 courses per term.
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In some fields for which the graduate offerings may be available only intermittently (such as Celtic languages and literatures; foreign literature, language, and culture; history of science; and linguistics), students should not expect to complete the degree in less than 3 years after admission.
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A student cannot be enrolled as a candidate in more than 1 Harvard Extension School degree program at the same time.
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ALM credit is not awarded for any course that duplicates the subject matter of a previous course taken at the Extension School for which undergraduate or graduate credit has already been received, either for the purpose of satisfying a degree requirement or to be counted in the grade-point average. The only exception to this policy is for the literature and creative writing concentration. In this field, courses can be repeated if they are designated with an r.
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If a student needs to repeat a required course because he or she earned a grade below the minimum, the student must submit entirely new coursework.
Residency
Students are expected to spend at least 2 semesters in residence, during which they take the proseminar, the field seminar, and at least 1 other on-campus-only course at Harvard Extension School or Summer School. Proseminars are offered at the Summer School; field seminars typically are not. No more than 6 online or online-option courses may be counted toward the degree.
We strongly advise students to begin the research for the thesis proposal and thesis while here as well, since access to the libraries, museum collections, and labs at Harvard is 1 of the primary advantages of pursuing the ALM degree.
Summer School study abroad programs do not count toward the residency requirement, although students may count a maximum of 8 credits from a study abroad program toward other ALM degree requirements.
Five-year limit
Students are expected to complete all requirements for the degree, including the thesis, within 5 years after the date of completion of the third ALM course. If the application is delayed, the 5-year limit is determined by the number of requirements yet to be fulfilled. Students unable to complete the degree within the 5-year limit are retired from the program.