Tackle the Core Early, or Else

One piece of advice often given to first-years is to take their Core requirements early. This was a piece of advice I didn't heed.

I figured that putting together a diverse schedule for each semester would be a better idea. I realize now that while there was nothing wrong with my theory on the surface, it is deeply flawed.

I warn first-years that fulfilling the Core is trickier than it seems. Planning to meet requirements is well and good, but don't depend on being able to carry out your plans.

Realize that your desire to take a Moral Reasoning class in your junior year is unreasonable. One option will conflict with another class, the other will not appeal to you one bit. Your third and final option will probably be lotteried.

Wrestle with the Core. Try to count a class with the words "moral reasoning" as a Core. Do not expect to win. Acknowledge that the Core is bigger than you are. Decide that taking a course that doesn't interest you will be "broadening." Or, instead, leave your life to chance and risk pushing one more requirement into senior year.

Realize that your desire to take classes will not be enough to earn you admittance. Realize that just because this is the last time a course will be offered during your tenure at Harvard does not mean you will be allowed to take it.

The Core is a subject often addressed on this page, so forgive me for harping on the topic yet again. But I think it is the target of so many attacks because it deserves so many of them.

To my dismay, I have begun to think that people who criticize the Core are not curmudgeons but realists.

Harvard has one of the brightest population of students in the world. These bright people's families are all paying approximately $30,000 a year (or as much of that figure as they can afford) in tuition, etc. Bright people being what they are, many notice when they do not get what they paid for.

At $30,000 for three options in Moral Reasoning this year, we are being gypped.

When expensive sourcebooks for classes we are lotteried out of are non-returnable, we are being gypped.

When being unlucky can make it impossible to take a class listed in the Courses of Instruction, we are being gypped.

Right now, there is a discussion document on the Core circling its way around the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. I'm sure that document gives many ideas on how to revamp the Core. I can only hope it mentions the practical (as opposed to ideological) problems people have with the Core.

I can only hope that those now examining the Core understand that even if they get the philosophy right, the practical aspects of the new Core will be equally important. I can't worry about whether a course is an "approach to knowledge" when I can't even approach a seat.

I can only hope those who decide where to allocate funds understand that even if there is a good level of course quality, it means almost meaningless without some kind of course quantity.

In a nutshell, here's some advice to first-years and their successors: Take your Cores now--before it's too late.

Valerie J. MacMillan's column appears on alternate Thursdays.