Advisors
Feel free to contact our academic and research advisors.
Phone
(617) 495-9417
Harvard University offers the following degrees in Extension Studies:
Associate in Arts
Bachelor of Liberal Arts
Master of Liberal Arts
It is acceptable, therefore, to list the ALM degree on your résumé in the following manner:
Harvard University, Master of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies, Concentration in history
Unacceptable: Harvard University, MA in History
Approximately 10 percent of our graduates apply to PhD programs, law schools, and medical schools.
No. You will have the advantage of testing the waters in rigorous courses taught by Harvard professors, but the degree does not guarantee admission into any other Harvard program.
Two years is the minimum. Three years is the average. The 5-year program was designed to enable working adults to take 1 course per semester (after completing the first 3 required for admission), then spend a year developing the thesis proposal and a final year writing the thesis. Many students take the full 5 years to complete the degree, especially if they have other commitments to manage.
No.
No.
Yes. ALM graduates are Harvard alumni and alumnae, and the program of study is in every way as challenging as that of graduate degree programs in other Harvard schools.
The diploma reads UNIVERSITAS HARVARDIANA; then, after the graduate’s name comes Magistri in Artibus Liberalibus Studiorum Prolatorum (Master of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies).
A maximum of 6 distance or online-option courses may be counted toward the degree. Many fields have no distance education courses offered yet; others have several. Proseminars and seminars are not offered online.
Two semesters of residency at Harvard Extension School or Summer School are required. See Enrollment and Residency for more information.
Once you are admitted to the degree program, go to the first floor at 51 Brattle Street and have your photo taken. You can collect your ID, usually within a week.
The Extension School does not provide student housing. Degree candidates with photo ID cards can check listings at the Harvard Real Estate Housing Office.
Financial aid is available if you are admitted to the ALM program. See the Financial Aid section.
No, but the Harvard Summer School offers courses that may count toward Extension School degrees, including proseminars. The Summer School website is available in February. To determine whether a summer course will fulfill degree requirements, contact a program advisor or use the degree course search.
While you are taking the 3 courses required for admission, to use the libraries you must go to the privileges desk in Widener Library and pay $100 for a special borrower’s card, which will be valid for a semester. While many journals and collections exist as e-resources and are available to all students, other do not and require library access. If you are a science or psychology student, you can use your current course registration form to gain entrance to Cabot Science Library and to Countway Medical School Library where you may read journals and other published materials but not check them out. Additionally, all Extension School students can use Grossman Library, a reserve reading and study library in Sever Hall.
Once you are admitted, you receive Harvard Extension School photo ID cards. These cards provide borrowing privileges at many Harvard University libraries.
No. We consider the thesis to be the most important demonstration of the student’s mastery of the field of study.
Students may work on the proposal and thesis in absentia. However, they will need access to a major research library. It is not necessary to fly back to Cambridge for multiple meetings with the thesis director; transactions can occur through e-mail, telephone conferences, faxes, and regular mail. The thesis director may request that the student meet with him or her in person at least once.
You can certainly begin to think about a thesis topic that interests you, but candidates are not allowed to begin actively working on or to submit the thesis proposal until after they have completed a minimum of 6 ALM courses. A certain amount of coursework is necessary before a candidate will be sufficiently knowledgeable in the field of concentration and have had adequate experience with graduate-level writing and research, at the standard expected here, to successfully commence work on the thesis project. However, you are free to contact your research advisor and ask a few preliminary questions about a possible topic at any time.
The proseminar is designed to give students a solid grounding in the diverse methods appropriate to the development of graduate-level research projects, presented in an academic style appropriate to each particular discipline—skills that can be applied in all of your coursework but that prepare you especially for undertaking the thesis later in your candidacy.
This happens sometimes. But you should enroll in it as soon as possible so that you will be well prepared for the research and writing assignments in your remaining classes and so that you won’t have to delay your application to the ALM program.
No, you can continue to take courses until you raise your grade-point average to the required minimum of 3.0; then you will be eligible to apply. However, if you find that you are having difficulty earning a 3.0 average, you may need to consider whether this is the right program for you.
Yes, but only once more. Students will be denied admission to the program if they fail to earn a grade of B after twice enrolling in the course. Those who remain in the course after the half-tuition refund period ends must count that as 1 of their attempts to pass the proseminar.
No. You are setting yourself up to fail if you proceed with the course, knowing that you’ll miss a number of classes. Attendance in the proseminar is mandatory. There is no substitution for the vital information directly presented each week or the interactive learning experience that derives from peer and instructor discussion. If you know you will miss several classes, you should plan to take the proseminar another semester.
It is not in your best interest to do so. We only track the coursework of admitted degree candidates. Thus, if you choose a course that won’t count toward the degree, no one will know until it is too late. Other advantages, such as a Harvard University ID card, financial aid, career services, and access to libraries and collections, are available only to admitted degree candidates. So it’s important to apply upon completing the 3 required courses.
Yes. You will need to log in to online services with your Extension ID number and PIN. Choose “Degree Programs,” then “Master of Liberal Arts in 19 Fields.” See How to Apply for additional application requirements.
The proseminar appropriate to your chosen field of study (BIOS E-200, SSCI E-100a or E-100b, or HUMA E-100), then 2 other courses that fulfill degree requirements. One of these 2 courses must be in the intended field of concentration. In each of these 3 classes, you must earn a grade of B or higher.
Three classes with a grade of B or higher and a bachelor’s degree, verified by an official transcript, from a regionally accredited college or university.
No.
Yes, if you are in good academic standing in your current field. However, you must meet all of the requirements of the field into which you are switching, and some of your courses may not count toward the degree.
No.
The ALM is a liberal arts degree; hence it was designed to allow students to consider their principal field of study from a somewhat broader perspective, thus enriching and deepening their understanding of the chosen field. Students should carefully consider their academic goals and research interests and use the electives to illuminate these.
Unfortunately, no. Faculty submit their course proposals for a single year at a time; therefore, we cannot know what they wish to teach 2 or 3 years from now. If you see courses offered that you would like to take, don’t delay enrolling in them, for they may not be offered again.
No.
No. You should consider which field you most wish to study, then use your electives to enable you to take an interdisciplinary approach to that field. For example, if you are principally interested in English, you can choose 2 history electives to study the social and political milieu of the writers on whom you wish to focus, and you can always pursue a second ALM degree, as many students do.
No, we can’t. But you can choose a list of courses that interest you and will count toward the degree, then check each instructor’s online syllabus to determine how much reading and how many writing assignments and exams will be required.
Course exceptions—that is, courses outside the field of concentration, which, because of the course content, readings, and writing assignments—might be allowed to count toward the field of concentration. The chief criterion is whether the principal emphasis and method of the course bear a direct relationship to the field of concentration, not a merely tangential or peripheral connection. The fact that the topic of the course is interesting to the student is not a sufficient criterion. (For example, HIST E-1607/W The American Revolution has the word “governments” in the course description; yet the course is principally a history course, not a government course, as the full description and syllabus demonstrate. Therefore, it cannot count as a field course for a government concentrator. However, ENGL E-129 Shakespeare After All: The Later Plays could reasonably count as a field course in both English and dramatic arts by virtue of its being a literature course that focuses on works written for the stage.
No. Taking Extension School courses, or being admitted to the ALM program, does not imply admission to GSAS. GSAS does not accept transfer credit from the Extension School. Students interested in GSAS admission must apply there directly.
Harvard Extension School is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges; however, each university has its own transfer credit policy. Check with the school to which you want to transfer credit.
Nothing in the ALM program rules forbids the pursuit of 2 degrees at the same time—as long as they are not 2 Harvard Extension School degree programs. However, you should be mindful of the fact that all of your ALM deadlines will still be in effect as long as you remain an active candidate in the program, and you will be expected to monitor them. You should also carefully consider the challenges that surround the pursuit of 2 simultaneous degrees: Can you keep up with coursework in 2 separate programs, adhering to the deadlines in both? Can you reasonably expect to complete your thesis while pursuing another degree, maintaining contact with your thesis director and submitting work in a timely way? If you move away from the Cambridge area to pursue another degree and you still lack your ALM field seminar and an additional non-distance course, will you be able to return to Cambridge to complete these courses and to satisfy the 2-semester residency requirement? Bear in mind that all of the ALM program requirements must be fulfilled, regardless of your relocation to another area, if you wish to complete the degree. None of these will be waived.
No. Only courses taken at Harvard Extension School, the Harvard Summer School, or the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences count toward the degree.
In a lecture course, the instructor does most of the lecturing and may or may not include time for class discussion. Such classes may have 35 to 200 students, including graduate students, undergraduates, and noncredit registrants. In a seminar, the students are largely responsible for the content of each class, providing considerable discussion, weekly oral reports, and at the end of the course, more extensive term paper presentations. The instructor’s role is chiefly to guide and comment on the discussion, provide background information, and to make the various assignments. Seminars are smaller courses, usually limited to 15 to 19 students, all of whom will be graduate students. Both seminar and proseminars are limited-enrollment courses, but the proseminar is the introduction to graduate studies required for ALM admission. See Proseminar and Seminars for more information.
Yes, once you are an admitted degree candidate with a GPA of 3.5, you may apply to the Special Student Office, Room 350 at the Holyoke Center, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue, for special student status. See Special Student Status.
Yes, several: