FIFTEEN MINUTES
Volume XXXVI, Issue XVI
The Business of Getting In
As the college application process gets increasingly competitive, private consultants promise their clients an edge against their peers. Some are willing to pay thousands in hopes of guaranteeing success, but the actual impact of the services remains unclear.
Editor's Note
Dear Reader, We close out our last regular issue of the year with an excellent scrutiny by HCC and NURC about the college consultant industry. As the college application process gets more competitive year after year, private consultants promise a path forward for their clients. But as HCC and NURC demonstrate, the effectiveness of college consultants is still unclear. So why does the industry continue to proliferate, with a number of Harvard affiliates founding their own firms? Elsewhere, VDR, DGM, and AWS write a retrospection on the Q, amid never-ending grade inflation discourse. AF and AA talk to James Poolner, AICI and AS explore the first-year librarian program, and SEA and ASHA chat with the Coop’s artist-in-residence. MAB, VO, and KT talk to retirees taking Harvard classes, AICI and SC talk to alumni who fill the Harvard band’s ranks from time to time, and HSE and AS sit down with the new Kirkland faculty deans. WNM explores the impacts of Harvard’s dorm architecture on freshman experiences, while SOG, AS, and MBF take us to the Farnsworth reading room and SOG and HGL explore Harvard Library’s Judaica Collection. ASHA pens a levity about lost ballots and other voting mix-ups, and VO, AA, and CMO chat with Harvard’s bird-lovers and bird-watchers. CEB, KC, and OJ head to the antiquarian book fair. In our introspections, AICI writes an introspection on haircuts and identity, while JBR pens an ode to The Crimson’s metro desk. AA writes about being vulnerable, CL explores her relationship with producing and creating, and CX offers some insight into the life of an international super spy. FMLove, MTB + YAK
My Life So Far in Rapunzel’s Tower
It’s like watching your life in the form of a weekly reality TV special: you’re invested, you’re kept up, but a sense of fiction clouds your vision.
To Metro, With Love
Maybe that’s why I felt such a connection with the Wilson Report. It was a reminder that perhaps my work wasn’t fleeting. My mind traced back to the dusty pages covered with stories of real issues that mattered to real people and their lives in Cambridge.
To Q or not to Q?
Tracing the history of Harvard course evaluations — from The Crimson’s early Confidential Guide of College Courses (the “Confi”) to the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE) guide, to its current form, the Q guide — may help us understand what role student feedback can and should play now.
On the Origin of James Poolner
To students, however, Poolner is Harvard’s Program Coordinator for the Integrative Biology and Neuroscience Concentrations, a position he has officially held since 2000. Perhaps most famously, he is also the man behind Life Sciences Announcements, a weekly email blasted to around 500 people.
Students Shelve the First-Year Librarian Program
The First-Year Librarian program seeks to alleviate “library anxiety,” but most first-years on campus seem unaware of the initiative.
“Crusties”: The Harvard Band’s Extraordinary Alumni
It might seem odd to most people to see a raucous band with 18- and 80-year-olds marching alongside one another, but for the Harvard Band, it’s embedded into tradition.
Retiring from Work to School: HILR and a Lifelong Liberal Arts Education
The Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement program currently engages around 500 retired seniors from the Greater Boston area in a peer-learning and teaching model. Participants design and enroll in more than 120 course offerings that span a multitude of topics.
Pollen Price on Nature, Whimsy, and Art
The installment, “For the Love of Nature and Literature,” was curated by The Coop’s artist-in-residence, Pollen Price. She joins our Zoom call from her one-room cabin in an Oregon-based eco-village. Struck by the layers of patterned textiles in the background and Price’s own asymmetrical pink hairstyle, we feel her artistic energy emanating through the screen.
From West Point to Kirkland: The New Kirkland Deans
After former Kirkland faculty dean David J. Deming assumed his new role as College dean in July, Peter J. Huybers and Downing Lu were selected as the interim faculty deans of Kirkland House and moved into their new residence.
Dorm Room Architecture
From hallway doubles to six-person megasuites, the spatial layout of first-year dorms shapes the way students experience community.
My Life So Far in Rapunzel’s Tower
It’s like watching your life in the form of a weekly reality TV special: you’re invested, you’re kept up, but a sense of fiction clouds your vision.
To Metro, With Love
Maybe that’s why I felt such a connection with the Wilson Report. It was a reminder that perhaps my work wasn’t fleeting. My mind traced back to the dusty pages covered with stories of real issues that mattered to real people and their lives in Cambridge.
To Q or not to Q?
Tracing the history of Harvard course evaluations — from The Crimson’s early Confidential Guide of College Courses (the “Confi”) to the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE) guide, to its current form, the Q guide — may help us understand what role student feedback can and should play now.
On the Origin of James Poolner
To students, however, Poolner is Harvard’s Program Coordinator for the Integrative Biology and Neuroscience Concentrations, a position he has officially held since 2000. Perhaps most famously, he is also the man behind Life Sciences Announcements, a weekly email blasted to around 500 people.
Students Shelve the First-Year Librarian Program
The First-Year Librarian program seeks to alleviate “library anxiety,” but most first-years on campus seem unaware of the initiative.
“Crusties”: The Harvard Band’s Extraordinary Alumni
It might seem odd to most people to see a raucous band with 18- and 80-year-olds marching alongside one another, but for the Harvard Band, it’s embedded into tradition.
Retiring from Work to School: HILR and a Lifelong Liberal Arts Education
The Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement program currently engages around 500 retired seniors from the Greater Boston area in a peer-learning and teaching model. Participants design and enroll in more than 120 course offerings that span a multitude of topics.
Pollen Price on Nature, Whimsy, and Art
The installment, “For the Love of Nature and Literature,” was curated by The Coop’s artist-in-residence, Pollen Price. She joins our Zoom call from her one-room cabin in an Oregon-based eco-village. Struck by the layers of patterned textiles in the background and Price’s own asymmetrical pink hairstyle, we feel her artistic energy emanating through the screen.
From West Point to Kirkland: The New Kirkland Deans
After former Kirkland faculty dean David J. Deming assumed his new role as College dean in July, Peter J. Huybers and Downing Lu were selected as the interim faculty deans of Kirkland House and moved into their new residence.
Dorm Room Architecture
From hallway doubles to six-person megasuites, the spatial layout of first-year dorms shapes the way students experience community.
Farnsworth, the Hidden Gem of Lamont
In the shadow of Widener’s dense textbooks and philosophical essays, and Houghton’s Shakespeare folios, this corner of Lamont offers something different – the permission to read for fun.
As Odysseus Went His Many Roundabout Ways, So Too Did My Absentee Ballot
I can’t tell you the exact monsters my ballot has to fight, but if I were a conspiracy theorist I would certainly accuse the Deep State.
Advice to Josh: How to Survive Grade Deflation
Ever since reading the recent report about grade inflation at Harvard, our perpetually confused freshman Josh has been feeling extra anxious. Should he quit all his extracurriculars? Bribe his professors to keep his 4.0? We’ve asked some of FM’s best for their wisdom on how Josh can survive the supposedly impending changes to grading norms at Harvard College.
Field Notes of an International Super Spy
Careful not to let my personal circumstances tamper with my operations, I resolved to fold these feelings away. I kept them in a suitcase, neat and small. I carried it to every home I investigated.
What Was I Made For?
I was and often still am terrible at being vulnerable.
Turning Back the Page at Boston’s Antiquarian Book Fair
Unusual finds are a regular at the 47th Annual Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair, a three-day event showcasing a rare collection of manuscripts, first editions, ephemera, maps, and autographs.
Why Are There Yiddish Napkins in Harvard’s Archives?
The Judaica Collection is in a league of its own, not just in its organizational structure, but in its scope and scale.
Harvard’s Birders Flock Toward Tranquility
“It really is the acquaintanceship with a new world,” says Harvard birder Ashwin H. Sivakumar ’26. “You realize that you share the earth with this vast range of love.”
To Make Myself Up
Like Ipsy’s subscription service, offering a different rotation of rouge every month, I’m reminded that my life has indeed been fickle, and will continue to present many surprises. Yet, I’ve been reminded that inviting variety and recalling my creativity allows me to connect with a younger, arguably more clear-headed version of myself, and channel her imagination.
