Harvard University Reviews in Boston, MA Area

Pros

Great brand, excellent colleagues and access to the best research ideas and projects you can find in the world. Amazing!

Cons

Demanding, crazy work hours, sometimes too bureaucratic with too much administration involved. Prepare to work on weekends. There is no such thing as a life-work balance. Only work.

Pros

Awesome benefit package and lots of perks; lovely setting; world renowned institution; rewards are high if you move up within the organization

Cons

At times, very emotionally charged atmosphere; politics is rife and prominent; high stakes lead to poor choices from middle management; not much upward movement within departments

Advice to Senior Management

Clean out middle management and streamline communication within organization

Pros

- Benefits
- Perks (such as discounts on local things, and ability to use Harvard athletic facilities)
- If you are support staff, you're automatically part of a union

Cons

- As support staff, you can feel insignificant, especially if you are supporting faculty
- No room to grow; if you want an advancement, though, you can apply internally for a different, better position
- Pay not great

Pros

Prestige, some top notch equipment available for use.

Cons

administration issues within departments. No internal source of money for preliminary science or travel available to postdocs.

Pros

An advanced degree in academia from Harvard is without question prestigious, and the resources to focus on just about anything are available. Even if you have a poor time here, that little bump on the resume might open a few doors. Your peers are uniformly intelligent and interesting.

Cons

If you are truly interested in mentorship from a professor, this is not the best place to be. Professor's attitudes range from the arrogant to quite friendly, but almost all of them will not have the time to truly mentor you (with some exceptions). If my entire entering class had attended a lower level institution, I imagine more of us would be going into academia after our degrees.
Finally, those smart peers can be a spectacularly unsupportive environment if you're susceptible to that kind of thing. Again, it's not malice, but everyone feels a little insecure about their standing, and that can undermine a lot of interactions.

Advice to Senior Management

Either redouble an emphasis on mentorship, or if that ship has sailed, start making it an explicit part of post-doc experience.

Pros

People around are generally nice, feel proud to be a member at Harvard.

Cons

Salary and compensation is low compared to the living standard in Boston.

Advice to Senior Management

Raise the salaries of postdocs at Harvard!

Pros

great benefits, particularly health coverage, employer-paid retirement, paid time off, and tuition assistance
stimulating, mission driven environment
in general, colleges and higher education are great places to be

Cons

lack of internal communications is a weakness
recent budget and staffing cuts make for a more stressful environment than in the past

Pros

All students, staff, and faculty are heavily invested in improving education in US and globally. This creates a great sense of community and satisfaction. Many "cutting-edge" ideas on how to improve student access and learning.

Cons

Harvard is very decentralized and HGSE is one of the "poorer" schools, which holds HGSE "back" somewhat. Hopefully the resources will come to enable the school to move forward. The staff size is relatively small given the workload.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep communicating successes both internally and externally, it really keeps folks motivated.
Replace the EdD with a PhD.
Offer distant learning courses.

Pros

GREAT benefits including $40 classes at Harvard Extension school, taught by Harvard and MIT professors. Top pay for administration plus generous contributions to IRAs. Classes offered for professional advancement.

Cons

The higher up the ladder you go the more difficult the people are to work with (this experience only applies to the SEAS division).

Advice to Senior Management

More recognition for a job well done, would be nice.

Pros

prestige of the university opens doors, access to resources

Cons

A lot of people are obsessed with work. No work/life balance