Matthew R. Tobin
Latest Articles
Your Concentration Will Change How You Think
An academic discipline is not only a topic of study, it is also an approach to that topic.
Worried About the Grade Cap? Study More.
If all this talk of studying sounds unappealing, it’s okay to realize that grades aren’t the single most important thing to you. For most people, they probably shouldn’t be.
Harvard Students Need Summer School
During the summer, students would be on a mostly empty campus, likely with no extracurricular programming. There, they would be free to focus on their academics — and maybe even have some free time left over for once in their lives.
To the Class of 2030: Please Pick Harvard. Or Don’t.
If all the factors that really matter come from within you, then they’re constants. And if that’s the case, then you might as well pick based on the superficial minutiae.
Let This HUA Election Be the Last
After two years in the HUA — and now, one year out — I will finally say that this year’s co-presidential election should be the last.
Dissent: Give the HUA a Chance
Yes, the HUA is in need of deep, substantive reform to consistently uphold its ideal. But abolishing the HUA, without an alternative, sets student interests back.
The Economics Department Needs To Raise Its Standards
The issue with Economics is not just that some students can take easier courses. The concentration also fails to teach students the array of theories in the field, instead offering them a limited perspective.
Grade Deflation Will Be Good For Us. Trust Me.
Since grade deflation is going to happen, we might as well embrace it and reapproach academics, not for a grade, but for its own sake.
Get Some Morals, Harvard
There is too much daylight between the current courses and an explicitly “moral” requirement. The fact that “moral” can be a scary word is the very reason why it is necessary. It is loaded with a value judgment of a person and their actions, and that’s a judgment we must learn to make one way or another.
Plagiarize or Perish
One might argue that academic dishonesty occurs everywhere, not just at success-obsessed places like Harvard. However, the problem is not about whether Harvard’s misconduct is unique; the problem is that it exists, let alone at this extent.