Resources at Harvard | Advising

Harvard is committed to providing whatever guidance or assistance a student may need. Given the University's extraordinary resources, students' needs are met swiftly and fully. Perhaps as a result, Harvard's graduation rate is 97 percent, among the highest in the nation. Similarly high percentages of graduating seniors express their satisfaction, stating that they would attend Harvard if they had to choose a college again.

Freshman Year

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When first-year students arrive in Cambridge, they find a team of advisers ready to help navigate them through their first year at Harvard. An incoming freshman will be assigned several advisers, namely a Freshman Adviser, a Resident Dean of Freshmen, a Proctor, and a Peer Advising Fellow. While these individuals serve as chief resources for academic and non-academic advice, they are by no means a student's only source of information or assistance. No adviser has all of the answers but all can refer students to other sources of information when appropriate.

Freshman Adviser: As a faculty member, administrator or graduate student at the University, this person is someone a student can approach with general questions regarding the curriculum, requirements, course selection, educational goals, career aspirations, summer opportunities, and extracurricular interests.

Resident Dean of Freshmen: The Freshman Dean's Office (FDO) is responsible for the overall well-being of first-year students at Harvard. As a member of the FDO, the Resident Dean of Freshmen is the administrator primarily responsible for overseeing a student's first year on campus. Resident Deans also supervise the Proctors in their respective yards.

Proctor: A Proctor is an administrator or graduate student who lives in the dorm and acts as a resource for personal, residential, social, academic, and other issues. In some cases, the Proctor will also be a student's Freshman Adviser. Each Proctor oversees an entryway of approximately 20-30 students. Along with their fellow Proctors and Peer Advising Fellows, they are also responsible for entryway and dorm-wide social programming.

Peer Advising Fellow: A Peer Fellow is a sophomore, junior, or senior at the College who has been specially selected and trained by the Advising Programs Office to offer advice and assistance throughout a student's first year. Fellows are assigned by dorm, but unlike Proctors, are not residential advisers. As fellow students at the College, Fellows have a unique perspective among the advising team. They can provide suggestions about curricular and extracurricular choices, take an interest in student concerns, and give firsthand advice on the best ways to use the resources at the College. After they help with move-in, the first thing they will do is help a student prepare for his or her first meeting with a Freshman Adviser. Fellows also help the Proctor with entryway study breaks and dorm-wide community events through the course of the year.

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