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• Evaluation of the Thesis

The Faculty Adviser is ultimately responsible for finding readers for the thesis. Students are encouraged, however, to pass on any suggestions for readers they may have to the Faculty Adviser.

Two readers are assigned to each thesis. Grading is based on the system below. If the readings return with widely disparate grades, e.g. a summa and a cum , the opinion of a third reader is sought.

The final thesis grade is the average of the two readers' grades. Summa is given only rarely, because it means that, in the reader's judgment, the thesis is extraordinarily original, powerfully argued, beautifully written, in short --- remarkable.

Theses in the " magna " range have one or more truly outstanding qualities. They take on interesting and challenging subjects and handle them with skill and independence. The prose should be excellent.

A " cum " means that very good work has been done and reasonable expectations for handling the subject have been met. A " cum " should not represent merely the satisfactory completion of a task.

A student does not automatically receive a cum minus merely because he or she has written a thesis. A grade of "not worthy of honors" is reserved for those circumstances where the thesis is hastily and carelessly constructed, a mere summary of existing material, or is poorly thought through.

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Whenever we give feedback, it inevitably reflects our priorities and expectations about the assignment. In other words, we're using a rubric to choose which elements (e.g., right/wrong answer, work shown, thesis analysis, style, etc.) receive more or less feedback and what counts as a "good thesis" or a "less good thesis." When we evaluate student work, that is, we always have a rubric. The question is how consciously we’re applying it, whether we’re transparent with students about what it is, whether it’s aligned with what students are learning in our course, and whether we’re applying it consistently. The more we’re doing all of the following, the more consistent and equitable our feedback and grading will be:

Being conscious of your rubric ideally means having one written out, with explicit criteria and concrete features that describe more/less successful versions of each criterion. If you don't have a rubric written out, you can use this assignment prompt decoder for TFs & TAs to determine which elements and criteria should be the focus of your rubric.

Being transparent with students about your rubric means sharing it with them ahead of time and making sure they understand it. This assignment prompt decoder for students is designed to facilitate this discussion between students and instructors.

Aligning your rubric with your course means articulating the relationship between “this” assignment and the ones that scaffold up and build from it, which ideally involves giving students the chance to practice different elements of the assignment and get formative feedback before they’re asked to submit material that will be graded. For more ideas and advice on how this looks, see the " Formative Assignments " page at Gen Ed Writes.

Applying your rubric consistently means using a stable vocabulary when making your comments and keeping your feedback focused on the criteria in your rubric.

How to Build a Rubric

Rubrics and assignment prompts are two sides of a coin. If you’ve already created a prompt, you should have all of the information you need to make a rubric. Of course, it doesn’t always work out that way, and that itself turns out to be an advantage of making rubrics: it’s a great way to test whether your prompt is in fact communicating to students everything they need to know about the assignment they’ll be doing.

So what do students need to know? In general, assignment prompts boil down to a small number of common elements :

• Evidence and Analysis
• Style and Conventions
• Specific Guidelines
• Advice on Process

If an assignment prompt is clearly addressing each of these elements, then students know what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, and when/how/for whom they’re doing it. From the standpoint of a rubric, we can see how these elements correspond to the criteria for feedback:

All of these criteria can be weighed and given feedback, and they’re all things that students can be taught and given opportunities to practice. That makes them good criteria for a rubric, and that in turn is why they belong in every assignment prompt.

Which leaves “purpose” and “advice on process.” These elements are, in a sense, the heart and engine of any assignment, but their role in a rubric will differ from assignment to assignment. Here are a couple of ways to think about each.

On the one hand, “purpose” is the rationale for how the other elements are working in an assignment, and so feedback on them adds up to feedback on the skills students are learning vis-a-vis the overall purpose. In that sense, separately grading whether students have achieved an assignment’s “purpose” can be tricky.

On the other hand, metacognitive components such as journals or cover letters or artist statements are a great way for students to tie work on their assignment to the broader (often future-oriented) reasons why they’ve been doing the assignment. Making this kind of component a small part of the overall grade, e.g., 5% and/or part of “specific guidelines,” can allow it to be a nudge toward a meaningful self-reflection for students on what they’ve been learning and how it might build toward other assignments or experiences.

Advice on process

As with “purpose,” “advice on process” often amounts to helping students break down an assignment into the elements they’ll get feedback on. In that sense, feedback on those steps is often more informal or aimed at giving students practice with skills or components that will be parts of the bigger assignment.

For those reasons, though, the kind of feedback we give students on smaller steps has its own (even if ungraded) rubric. For example, if a prompt asks students to  propose a research question as part of the bigger project, they might get feedback on whether it can be answered by evidence, or whether it has a feasible scope, or who the audience for its findings might be. All of those criteria, in turn, could—and ideally would—later be part of the rubric for the graded project itself. Or perhaps students are submitting earlier, smaller components of an assignment for separate grades; or are expected to submit separate components all together at the end as a portfolio, perhaps together with a cover letter or artist statement .

Using Rubrics Effectively

In the same way that rubrics can facilitate the design phase of assignment, they can also facilitate the teaching and feedback phases, including of course grading. Here are a few ways this can work in a course:

Discuss the rubric ahead of time with your teaching team. Getting on the same page about what students will be doing and how different parts of the assignment fit together is, in effect, laying out what needs to happen in class and in section, both in terms of what students need to learn and practice, and how the coming days or weeks should be sequenced.

Share the rubric with your students ahead of time. For the same reason it's ideal for course heads to discuss rubrics with their teaching team, it’s ideal for the teaching team to discuss the rubric with students. Not only does the rubric lay out the different skills students will learn during an assignment and which skills are more or less important for that assignment,  it means that the formative feedback they get along the way is more legible as getting practice on elements of the “bigger assignment.” To be sure, this can’t always happen. Rubrics aren’t always up and running at the beginning of an assignment, and sometimes they emerge more inductively during the feedback and grading process, as instructors take stock of what students have actually submitted. In both cases, later is better than never—there’s no need to make the perfect the enemy of the good. Circulating a rubric at the time you return student work can still be a valuable tool to help students see the relationship between the learning objectives and goals of the assignment and the feedback and grade they’ve received.

Discuss the rubric with your teaching team during the grading process. If your assignment has a rubric, it’s important to make sure that everyone who will be grading is able to use the rubric consistently. Most rubrics aren’t exhaustive—see the note above on rubrics that are “too specific”—and a great way to see how different graders are handling “real-life” scenarios for an assignment is to have the entire team grade a few samples (including examples that seem more representative of an “A” or a “B”) and compare everyone’s approaches. We suggest scheduling a grade-norming session for your teaching staff.

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Harvard University Theses, Dissertations, and Prize Papers

The Harvard University Archives ’ collection of theses, dissertations, and prize papers document the wide range of academic research undertaken by Harvard students over the course of the University’s history.

Beyond their value as pieces of original research, these collections document the history of American higher education, chronicling both the growth of Harvard as a major research institution as well as the development of numerous academic fields. They are also an important source of biographical information, offering insight into the academic careers of the authors.

Spanning from the ‘theses and quaestiones’ of the 17th and 18th centuries to the current yearly output of student research, they include both the first Harvard Ph.D. dissertation (by William Byerly, Ph.D . 1873) and the dissertation of the first woman to earn a doctorate from Harvard ( Lorna Myrtle Hodgkinson , Ed.D. 1922).

Other highlights include:

• The collection of Mathematical theses, 1782-1839
• The 1895 Ph.D. dissertation of W.E.B. Du Bois, The suppression of the African slave trade in the United States, 1638-1871
• Ph.D. dissertations of astronomer Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (Ph.D. 1925) and physicist John Hasbrouck Van Vleck (Ph.D. 1922)
• Undergraduate honors theses of novelist John Updike (A.B. 1954), filmmaker Terrence Malick (A.B. 1966),  and U.S. poet laureate Tracy Smith (A.B. 1994)
• Undergraduate prize papers and dissertations of philosophers Ralph Waldo Emerson (A.B. 1821), George Santayana (Ph.D. 1889), and W.V. Quine (Ph.D. 1932)
• Undergraduate honors theses of U.S. President John F. Kennedy (A.B. 1940) and Chief Justice John Roberts (A.B. 1976)

What does a prize-winning thesis look like?

If you're a Harvard undergraduate writing your own thesis, it can be helpful to review recent prize-winning theses. The Harvard University Archives has made available for digital lending all of the Thomas Hoopes Prize winners from the 2019-2021 academic years.

Accessing These Materials

How to access materials at the Harvard University Archives

How to find and request dissertations, in person or virtually

How to find and request undergraduate honors theses

How to find and request Thomas Temple Hoopes Prize papers

How to find and request Bowdoin Prize papers

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Related Collections

Harvard faculty personal and professional archives, harvard student life collections: arts, sports, politics and social life, access materials at the harvard university archives.

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Senior Thesis & Undergraduate Research

Every year, approximately 45%-55% of senior History concentrators choose to cap their Harvard careers by writing a senior honors thesis.

The senior thesis tutorial is a two-semester sequence  comprising Hist 99a and Hist 99b . While the overwhelming majority of students who start a thesis choose to complete it, our process allows students to drop the thesis at the end of the fall semester after History 99a (in which case they are not eligible for departmental honors).

The senior thesis in History is a year-long project involving considerable primary- and secondary-source research and a good deal of writing; finished theses are expected to be between 60 and 130 pages in length , and to make an original contribution to historical knowledge.

The department’s senior thesis program is one of the strongest in Harvard College. In recent years, one quarter or more of our thesis writers have received  Hoopes Prizes , which is well over the College average.

History 99 Syllabus 2022–2023

History 99: Senior Thesis Writers’ Tutorial Wednesdays, 6–7 and 7-8 PM Robinson Conference Room

Click here to view the History 99 syllabus for this year.

A Sampling of Past History Thesis Titles

For a list of thesis titles from the past five years, please click here .

Senior Thesis Conference

The History Department's annual Senior Thesis Writer's Conference is an opportunity for thesis writers to present their projects as members of three-to-four person panels moderated by a faculty member or advanced graduate student, to an audience of other faculty and graduate students. Their aim is to get the critical and constructive feedback they need to clarify their arguments, refine their methods, and ultimately transform their research projects into theses.

Like our faculty, our student presenters are conscious of their reliance on other disciplines in almost every aspect of their work. This conference supplies opportunities to engage in cross-disciplinary dialogues. Audience members also learn from these dedicated and talented young scholars even as they teach them new ways of conceiving and pursuing their projects.

For more information about the conference or the Department's thesis program as a whole, please write to the  Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies in History, or visit the Senior Thesis Writers Conference and History 99a website. The  Conference is open to all active members of the Harvard community.

All seniors writing theses receive as part of the History 99a and 99b seminar materials a Timetable for Thesis Writers which lists approximate deadlines for staying current with work on this large-scale project. (For current copies of these documents, please click here .) Many thesis writers will submit work in advance of the deadlines listed on the timetable, following schedules worked out with their individual advisers. Several of the deadlines listed on the timetable must be met:

• Students who wish to enroll in History 99 must attend the first meeting of the seminar on Wednesday, September 5th at 6:00 pm in the Robinson Lower Library.
• By the beginning of the fall reading period, students must submit substantial proof of research to both their adviser and the 99 History instructors. This usually takes the form of a chapter or two of the thesis (20–30 pages).
• Theses are due to the History Undergraduate Office (Robinson 101) on Thursday, March 10, 2022  before 5:00 pm. Theses that are handed in late will be penalized.

Thesis Readings

Each History thesis is read by at least two impartial members of the Board of Tutors, assigned by the Department. The Board of Tutors consists of (1) all department faculty in residence and (2) all graduate students teaching History 97 and/or a Research Seminar, as well as those advising senior theses. If History is the secondary field of a joint concentration, there is only one History reader. Each reader assigns an evaluation to the thesis (highest honors, highest honors minus, high honors plus, high honors, high honors minus, honors plus, honors, or no distinction), and writes a report detailing the special strengths and weaknesses of the thesis.  Theses by students with a highest honors-level concentration GPA and one highest-level reading will automatically be assigned three readers. Additionally, a thesis by any student may be sent to a third reader when the first two evaluations are three or more distinctions apart (e.g., one high honors plus and one honors plus).

Department Standards for the Thesis Program

Seniors who wish to write a thesis must meet certain prerequisites:

• a ‘B+’ average in the concentration;
• a ‘B+’ average on a 20-page research seminar paper
• the recommendation of their Research Seminar tutor(s).

Students who do not meet the above standards may petition the  History Undergraduate Office for admission to the senior thesis; successful petitions must include a detailed thesis proposal, and will be evaluated at the discretion of the Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies (Asst. DUS).

The Awarding of Departmental Honors in History

THE AWARDING OF DEPARTMENTAL HONORS IN HISTORY

 Nominations for departmental honors are made by the Board of Examiners at the degree meeting each spring.  In making its nominations, the Board first takes two elements into account:  the average of course grades in History and thesis readings.  All students who may be eligible for a recommendation of highest honors will then be given an oral examination by the Board of Examiners; performance on this exam will be considered in determining the final recommendation.  The standing of those students at the border of two different degrees may also be determined through an oral examination administered by the Board of Examiners.

To be considered eligible for highest honors in history, a student will ordinarily have a grade point average greater than or equal to 3.85 in courses taken for departmental credit, and have received at least two highest -level thesis readings.  In addition, the student must convince the Board of Examiners of their qualifications for the highest recommendation through their performance on the oral examination.  Whether any particular student falling into this numerical range receives highest honors in history will be determined in part by the performance on the oral examination. 

To be considered eligible for high honors in history, a student will ordinarily have a grade point average greater than or equal to 3.7, and will ordinarily have received two high -level readings on the thesis. 

To be considered eligible for honors in history, a student will ordinarily have a grade point average greater than or equal to 3.3, and will ordinarily have received two honors -level readings on the thesis. 

Please note that the Department recommends students’ English honors (highest, high, honors, no honors) and sends these recommendations to the College which determines students’ Latin honors based on total GPA.  Please visit:   https://handbook.fas.harvard.edu/book/requirements-honors-degrees    for more information on how the College awards Latin honors (summa cum laude, magna cum laude, cum laude, no honors).  In addition, you should consult with your Resident Dean.  Any degree candidate who does not receive the A.B. degree with honors in History will be considered by the FAS for the degree of cum laude.  

Departmental Support

Students who do decide to enter the thesis program benefit from a great deal of departmental support. The Department encourages its thesis writers to consider the possibility of devoting the summer prior to their senior year to thesis research, whether on campus or around the world. Each year a large number of rising seniors find funding for summer thesis research. The Undergraduate Office holds a meeting to advise students on how to write a successful fellowship proposal. In addition, we maintain a  listing of organizations that have supported concentrators’ thesis research.

The Department also supports its senior thesis writers through two semesters of a Senior Thesis Seminar, History 99a and 99b , which provide a useful framework for thesis writers as they work through the intermittent difficulties that all thesis students inevitably encounter. For many seniors, their thesis will turn out to be the best piece of writing done while at Harvard. It will also be the longest and most complicated. Consequently, the seminars will focus much attention on the unique challenges of writing an extended, multi-chapter work. History 99a and 99b also provide a common forum in which seniors can share with thesis-writing colleagues their feedback, successes, frustrations, interests, and techniques. This kind of collegiality and exchange of ideas is at the heart of the academic seminar, and it can be the most rewarding aspect of the seminar series.

Students must enroll in the Thesis Seminars in order to write a thesis by obtaining approval from the Asst. DUS  on their study cards.

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Writing a thesis, department schedule of thesis preparation .

The thesis writer and adviser should agree on a working schedule which will adequately conform to the calendar of thesis requirements established by the Senior Honors Adviser. Each of these written requirements should be submitted to the Tutorial Office for review by the Senior Honors Adviser. Paradigms for each of the written requirements are held on file in the Tutorial Office, for consultation.  An updated schedule of departmental dates and deadlines relative to the thesis will be available at the beginning of each Fall Term.  All writers of the senior thesis shall enroll in an HAA 99 for course (and requirement) credit - joint concentrators will enroll in the 99 course of their primary concentration.

Beginning in 2006-07, every concentrator writing a thesis will enroll in the senior thesis seminar in the fall of the senior year. Overseen by the Senior Honors Adviser, the senior thesis seminar will meet several times during the semester for a two-hour session devoted to facilitating the preparation and writing of a thesis. These sessions will cover such topics as compiling a bibliography, using archives, and constructing an effective argument. Late in the semester, each participant will deliver a twenty-minute presentation on his or her thesis topic, illustrated with slides or digitally projected images. All departmental faculty and students will be invited to these presentations. By the end of the semester, each participant in the seminar will submit a complete first draft of the thesis, complete with illustrations.

Application for Pulitzer and Abramson Travel Grants: Early March. See above under Prizes for details on grant and application.

Announcement of Pulitzer and Abramson Grant Awards Mid-March: By letter to the recipients.

Adviser's Review: Early March. Ideally, you should present the full, finished and finalized draft of your text to your adviser for a final review before formal submission to the Department.

Thesis Submission: Mid-March - a week before Spring Break. You must submit your thesis in the afternoon at a Thesis Reception. In exchange for your finely crafted magnum opus you will receive a glass of champagne and our heartiest congratulations. Please do attend this afternoon because a thesis submitted late is usually not accepted.

Reader's Response: after Early May. Senior Honors Theses are read and critiqued by Members of the Faculty and the Museum at the request of the Senior Honors Adviser. Readers' identities no longer remain anonymous.

Faculty Meeting on Honors: Early May. Department Faculty meet to vote on final honors recommendations, after which thesis writers will receive by letter from the Senior Honors Adviser notification of their thesis grade and recommendation for honors. Writers will also receive at this time the written responses of their readers. Students should speak with their Allston Burr Senior Tutor for anticipated final honors decision of the College.

Grading of the Senior Thesis

Theses are read and critiqued by faculty members applying a higher standard than expected for work written in courses or tutorials. Faculty do make use of the full range of grades, and students should consider that any honors grade is a distinction of merit. If you have any questions, please contact the Senior Honors Adviser, the Director of Undergraduate Studies, or the Undergraduate Coordinator at 495-2310.

SUMMA CUM LAUDE: A summa thesis is a work of "highest honor." It is a contribution to knowledge, though it need not be an important contribution. It reveals a promise of high intellectual attainments both in selection of problems and facts for consideration and in the manner in which conclusions are drawn from these facts. A summa thesis includes, potentially at least, the makings of a publishable article. The writer's use of sources and data is judicious. The thesis is well written and proofread. The arguments are concise and logically organized, and the allocation of space appropriate. A summa is not equivalent to just any A, but the sort given by instructors who reserve them for exceptional merit. A summa minus is a near miss at a summa and is also equivalent to an A of unusual quality.

MAGNA CUM LAUDE: A magna level thesis is a work worthy of "great honor." It clearly demonstrates the capacity for a high level of achievement, is carried through carefully, and represents substantial industry. A magna plus thesis achieves a similar level of quality to a summa in some respects, though it falls short in others; it is equivalent to the usual type of A. A magna thesis is equivalent to an A-. For a magna minus, the results achieved may not be quite a successful due to an unhappy choice of topic or approach; it is also equivalent to an A-.

CUM LAUDE: As is appropriate for a grade "with honors," a cum level thesis shows serious thought and effort in its general approach, if not in every detail. A cum plus is equivalent to a B+, a cum to a B, and a cum minus to a B-. The cum thesis does not merely represent the satisfactory completion of a task. It is, however, to be differentiated from the magna in the difficulty of the subject handled, the substantial nature of the project, and the success with which the subject is digested. Recall that, as students putting extraordinary effort into a thesis most frequently receive a magna, theses of a solid but not exceptional quality deserve a grade in the cum range. When expressed in numerical equivalents, the interval between a magna minus and a cum minus is double that between the other intervals on the grading scale.

NO DISTINCTION: Not all theses automatically deserve honors. Nevertheless, a grade of no distinction (C, D, or E) should be reserved only for those circumstances when the thesis is hastily constructed, a mere summary of existing material, or is poorly thought through. The high standards which are applied in critique of theses must clearly be violated for a thesis to merit a grade of no distinction.

Examples of Past Theses 

Senior Honors Theses which are written by students who graduate Summa or Magna are deposited in the University Archives in Pusey Library. Copies of theses which are awarded the Hoopes Prize are held in Lamont. Students are urged to consult past theses as much can be gained in exploring precedent or seeking inspiration.

Discontinuance of a Thesis 

The process of writing the thesis is a serious commitment of time and energy for both the writer and the adviser. In some cases, however, it might be agreed that the thesis should be discontinued at mid-year. The Senior Tutorial HAA 99 may be divided with credit through a procedure in which the student must submit a written paper presenting the project and research to that point.

Guidelines for Writers and Advisers of Senior Theses  

Senior Concentrators wishing to graduate with honors in the Department must write a senior thesis and carry academic standing of Group II or better, with a minimum GPA of 3.00 in concentration grades. In deciding whether one wishes to fulfill the honors requirements the student should consider his/her academic interests, commitment to independent research and other deadlines and obligations during the thesis year. Many students find the task of researching and writing a substantial piece of critical scholarship interesting and rewarding, but others find the senior thesis can become a frustrating and unwieldy burden. Some students prefer the freedom to savor extra-curricular pursuits during their last year at the College unhampered by the encroaching demands of thesis preparation. In general, it may be remarked that students are unlikely to do well in the honors program who are not already committed to this process of scholarship, and proven practiced writers; the senior thesis is not the place to acquire basic skills in writing and research. In considering the Department's honors requirements, it should be remembered that students with honors grades overall may graduate with University Honors (Cum Laude) even if they do not receive Honors in History of Art and Architecture.

Academic Requirements 

The writing and evaluation of the thesis is a year long process, during which the writer meets at scheduled intervals with his/her adviser, to formulate, develop, and ultimately refine their thesis work. The Department has also instituted a "thesis writing seminar" which writers will participate in through the fall term. The thesis is due just before spring break, and is then sent to its readers for their judgment and critique. The final thesis grade and recommendation for honors is determined at a faculty meeting in mid-May. Students working towards a March degree will follow a schedule to finish the thesis in early December.

The Department encourages seniors to think broadly and explore a problem of interest. The thesis topic does not necessarily have to be within the writer's declared major field, except when required for a joint concentration, in which case, the topic must address an issue shared by both concentrations. The thesis should demonstrate an ability to pose a meaningful question, present a well-reasoned and structured argument, and marshal appropriate evidence. The student should apply a clear methodology and be aware of the assumptions behind the argument, the possible deficiencies of the sources and data used, and the implications of the conclusions. The various parts of the thesis should cohere in an integrated argument; the thesis should not be a series of loosely connected short essays. A primary expectation of the thesis is that it is a work of independent scholarship, directed and crafted by the student, with the thesis adviser serving in a capacity of "indirect overseeing of the project".

There is no set pattern for an acceptable thesis. The writer should demonstrate familiarity with scholarly methods in the use of sources, but this should not be the sole criterion for evaluation. Of equal if not greater importance is the development of the central argument and the significance of the interpretation. A thesis may be research on a little-studied problem or a perceptive reassessment of a familiar question. A well-pondered and well-presented interpretive essay may be as good a thesis as a miniature dissertation.

Skill in exposition is a primary objective, and pristine editing is expected.  The department encourages writers to keep to a very short page count, so as to craft a clear, concise paper, and further edit it to an exemplary presentation. In general, a History of Art and Architecture thesis will have a text ranging from 40 to 80 pages, dependent upon the topic. Students are encouraged to explore the resources available to thesis writers at the Writing Center and the Bureau of Study Counsel.

The writer must indicate the source of material drawn from others' work, whether quoted or summarized. Violations of this rule are considered serious and should be brought to the attention of the Director of Undergraduate Studies immediately.

Senior Honors Adviser 

The process of taking honors and writing the thesis in this Department is overseen for all concentrators by the Senior Honors Adviser. The Senior Honors Adviser leads the Fall Term thesis-writing seminar, and directs the meetings for departmental approval once theses have been submitted.  The department Tutorial Office holds examples of the written requirements (Thesis proposal and prospectus) and of the Pulitzer, and Abramson Grant application which students might wish to consult as paradigms.

Thesis Adviser 

Students must seek a thesis adviser who is a full faculty member of the History of Art and Architecture Department or museum curator holding a teaching appointment in this department. The adviser ought to serve as a critic of your synthesized ideas and writings, rather than as a director of your work. The adviser should be chosen with consideration more to compatibility in overseeing the process of the work than to being an expert in the field. Prospective advisers should be approached as soon as you have identified a thesis topic. You should be prepared to show examples of your written work to your prospective adviser. Your verbal agreement with your adviser should be communicated promptly to the Senior Honors Adviser. If you have trouble identifying an appropriate adviser, please consult with the Senior Honors Adviser before the deadline for the Thesis Proposal.

Graduate students in the Department of History of Art and Architecture do not advise Senior Theses.

Thesis Readers 

As voted by majority consensus of department faculty, a new procedure for the reading and grading of senior theses will go into effect. Each thesis will have two readers chosen by the Department, ideally, but not exclusively,one from within the student's area of interest, and the thesis adviser. All readers will be asked to submit written comments and grades, which will be factored equally to produce the final grade of the thesis. Individual grades are not released and the readers no longer remain anonymous, and there exists a procedure by which a writer may request, via the Senior Adviser, to speak with a reader provided that reader is willing to discuss the work in further detail or expound on the written critique.

Grade Report and Honors Recommendation 

At the end of each term, Fall and Spring, the student's progress in the Senior Tutorial (HAA 99) will be graded SAT or UNSAT. At the end of the Department's Honors Review process the Senior Honors Adviser calculates a recommendation for Honors based on the factored grades of the thesis and the student's grades in concentration coursework. This recommendation is presented to the faculty at their meeting in May for review. A faculty vote is taken and this decision is passed as an honors recommendation to the Registrar of the College. The decision of Final Honors to be granted on the degree is made by the Registrar based on departmental recommendation and grades. Students should consult with their Allston Burr Senior Tutor to determine what final honors might be anticipated at Commencement.

The needs of the Department for fair deliberation dictate that there may be no report of decisions regarding the thesis until after the Faculty has considered and voted upon each recommendation for honors. After honors recommendations have been voted by the faculty, students will be notified of the department's recommendation to the College and will receive an ungraded copy of each evaluation of their thesis (the needs of the Department for fair deliberation dictates that there may be no report of decisions regarding the thesis until after the Departmental Honors Meeting). The comments in these evaluations should provide the student with a clear explanation of the strengths and weaknesses of the thesis, bearing in mind the difficulties of the field and the type of thesis submitted, and evaluating what was accomplished in terms of what was undertaken, given the student's limitation of time and experience.

Proposal for Senior Thesis Design Projects, Honors Consideration

The History of Art and Architecture concentration asks Harvard College students to select an Area of Emphasis for fulfillment of their degree - either Design Studies or History + Theory. The History + Theory Area of Emphasis has traditionally required the completion of a senior thesis paper and presentation as a product of two requirements in order for the student to be eligible for honors consideration: 1/ completion of course HAA 99a Senior Thesis Tutorial and 2/ discussion of a thesis topic to be studied in said course supported through advisement by History of Art and Architecture faculty over the fall and spring semesters of senior year.

The Design Studies Area of Emphasis orients students toward making-based design courses wherein students develop design experiments engaging disciplinary issues, often incorporative of both historical and contemporary architectural precedents. The primary courses currently offered that address thinking through making include: HAA 179x Tectonics Lab (fall), HAA 92r Design Speculations (fall), HAA 96a Transformations (spring), and HAA 96Bb Connections (spring). An increasing number of Harvard College students who have selected the Design Studies Area of Emphasis are interested in extending their architectural design focus to their conclusive senior year work via ‘creative thesis’ projects. These creative thesis projects would include a hybrid of written text and visual and physical design materials originally produced by the student.

This proposal outlines a draft course requirement guideline and set of final submission requirements for a senior thesis design project that aims to support the design and making-based methodologies as thesis research on a topic of interest while simultaneously paralleling the well-conceived course requirements of the traditional thesis paper and presentation within HAA. This proposal offers that through the requirements outlined here, this senior thesis design project could be eligible for honors consideration for any student pursuing this final thesis option.

Senior Thesis Design Project / Course Requirements for Honors Consideration

Senior Year – fall term

1/ HAA 92r Design Speculations Seminar – required (see fall 2019 HAA 92r syllabus for details)

• course prerequisite: completion of either HAA 96a Transformations or HAA 96b Connections studios
• this course requires students secure a pair of faculty advisor - one from Harvard History of Art and Architecture (HAA) faculty and one from the Harvard GSD to support their research work within the course; course faculty advisor(s) would serve as advising faculty for senior thesis design project
• Megan Panzano, GSD Arch Studies Director, and Jennifer Roberts, HAA DUS, would both help make faculty advisor connections for students pursuing this path

2/ HAA 99a Senior Thesis Tutorial (fall) – strongly suggested to be taken in parallel with HAA 92r above

3/ Presentation of design work to History of Art and Architecture and select GSD faculty as part of HAA Thesis Colloquium (fall) – required

• to be coordinated with senior thesis tutorial presentations usually made to faculty in December of senior year fall term

Senior Year – spring term

1/ Advisement meetings with individual faculty advisors to guide production of design work (architectural analytical drawings and/or physical models) and edits to digital presentation made in fall term to HAA

2/ Submission of final senior thesis design project digital presentation inclusive of photographs of physical models, high resolution originally-produced design drawings as a PDF and descriptive written text to accompany images in presentation*

Senior Thesis Design Project / Submission Requirements for Honors Consideration

Final Project Requirements: A single multi-page PDF file labeled with student’s full last name and first initial and should be submitted containing the following elements:*

• Assemble a visual bibliography of references for your ongoing research project. The references included should be sorted into categories of your own authoring in relation to the research. Each reference should be appropriately cited using the Chicago Manual of Style for recording citations (refer to The Chicago Manual of Style ), and each reference should also include an affiliated image. This bibliography should include a brief annotation, which should comprise a description of the rationale/intention behind sorted categories of research references. This description should be approximately 200 words.
• Discourse , the development of a proposition for the role and significance of architecture relative to the project topic of interest, and
• Context , the relationship of the project topic of study to broader surroundings which include but are not limited to the discipline of architecture, cultural contexts, technical developments and/or typologies.
• The manifesto should take into account the intended audience for the project and use language and modes of communication that reflect this audience in the written text.
• A visual drawing or info-graphic that describes your process of design research on your topic. This will include the criteria for evaluating the project, the steps planned to be taken in examining the topic, and when/where along the process of working it may be necessary to stop and assess outputs and findings.
• High resolution drawings, animations, and/or diagrams and photographs of physical models (if applicable) that have been produced through research. These should be assembled in single-page layouts of slides to follow preceding elements listed here.

 *submission deadlines would parallel HAA thesis paper draft and final submission schedule

Thesis grading

Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the Public Programs Office at (617) 496-2414 or [email protected] .

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Student Highlight: Afiya Rahman awarded 2024 Alwaleed Bin Talal Undergraduate Thesis Prize in Islamic Studies 

• Publication date June 5, 2024

After reviewing many excellent submissions, the Selection Committee has chosen  Afiya Rahman  ’24 (Social Studies and South Asian Studies)as the winner of the 2024 Alwaleed Bin Talal Undergraduate Thesis Prize in Islamic Studies for her thesis entitled, “ We Are Children of Genocide: Charting Transnational Solidarity and Racial Politics in the Bangladeshi Diaspora .”

Afiya conducts an impressive and original historical and ethnographic study of Bengali Muslim and Black communities in London and New York. She reflects on the ways in which the Bangladeshi diaspora aligned its protest against police violence with that of Black communities in the aftermath of the murder of 20-year-old Syed Arif Faisal by police in Cambridge, MA in January 2023. Afiya explores how historical tensions within Bangladeshi identity intersect with the socioeconomic and racial landscape of Western nations, how transnational connections and the geographies of empire factor into that identity, and how these configurations lead to political consciousness and mobilization.

https://islamicstudies.harvard.edu/news/2024-alwaleed-bin-talal-undergraduate-thesis-prize-announcement

• Presidential Search
• Editor's Pick

‘Generational Intellect’: Meet Attorney General Merrick Garland ’74

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland ’74 entered Harvard on the pre-med track, and — together with his freshman year roommate Earl P. Steinberg ’74 — began taking the requisite courses to become a doctor.

“I saw it as the best way to help people directly,” Garland, a former Crimson Editorial editor, wrote in an emailed statement to The Crimson. “Unfortunately, my academic passion did not match my academic ability – chemistry foiled my plan for a career in medicine.”

Steinberg suggested that Garland — whom he had known since kindergarten, and would room with throughout their time at Harvard — consider going into law.

“I told him that, look, if he asked me, he ought to go into law,” he said. “I don't think he went into law because I suggested it, but because he’s such a logical thinker, and he writes exceptionally well.”

Garland’s academic skill was well established by his peers. In interviews with 11 of his friends, former classmates, and professors, he was repeatedly characterized as a man who struck others for his deep intellect — but also for his honesty and dependability, and for seeming to get along with everyone.

‘Once in a Generation’

Garland’s academic strength was hailed by those who knew him. His friends painted a glowing portrait of his “generational intellect” and talent while at the College — someone who everyone seemed to know he was going to go places in life.

“In sophomore year we lived in a quad in Quincy House and the phone rings, one day, and I answered it, and it was some professor from the Law School,” Steinberg said. The professor, who taught a law school seminar that Garland was enrolled in, was calling to deliver a grade.

“He said, ‘I was going to give it an A plus, but it really is the best paper I have ever read by an undergraduate,’” Steinberg said.

According to William J. “Jim” Adams ’69, a former instructor of Garlan’s, “Merrick Garland was the kind of student, who from a faculty member’s perspective — and certainly my perspective — comes along only once in a generation.”

“He’s the kind of student who makes you believe that being a teacher is absolutely the most satisfying of all possible careers,” Adams said.

Garland, who concentrated in Social Studies and wrote a thesis titled “Industrial reorganization in Britain; an interpretation of government/industry relations in the 1960’s,” would be inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and graduate summa cum laude.

‘A Guy That You Really Couldn’t Dislike’

Those who knew Garland also remembered him for his agreeable demeanor, with some noting that at a particularly politically charged time — in a particularly political House — Garland did not wade deep into controversy.

“Quincy House was the center of so much progressive activity,” said Norman “Norm” W. Gorin ’74. Quincy, Gorin said, was known for being the “political” house, full of government and economics majors — a hotbed of progressive activism during an era of historic student protests against the Vietnam War.

But as controversy around the Vietnam War continued and then waned in the early ’70s, Garland largely stayed out of the ideological disputes prevailing on campus.

“I sometimes thought he kind of went out of his way not to be controversial. He just sort of shied away from a lot of the disputes that might have happened around the table those days,” Jonathan M. Stein ’74 said.

The young Garland would serve as the Quincy House representative to Harvard’s Committee on House and Undergraduate Life. CHUL representatives found themselves in a particularly fraught time, as the University attempted to navigate its relationship with Radcliffe College and grapple with the future of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, which had been eliminated on campus in 1969.

Garland would be a vocal participant — and peacemaker — on the committee.

“While he was engaged in the moment, he was never one to be taken away with passion,” said Roger W. Ferguson Jr. ’73, a friend of Garland’s.

“He was a very affable guy,” Stein said. “A guy who you really couldn't dislike. I mean, everybody liked Merrick.”

Garland’s peers from his time as an undergraduate also added he was — and still is — “authentic”.

“Merrick has never forgotten where he came from,” said Greg A. Rosenbaum ’74, another friend of Garland’s. Rosenbaum pointed to both Garland’s confirmation hearings, where he “was impassioned about his family history and his life growing up,” and how he made time to host high school debate champions at the Department of Justice.

“He still took time out of his busy day to meet with and honor these urban high school policy debaters because it reflected on where he came from,” Rosenbaum said.

Ferguson, who would later overlap with Garland on Harvard’s Board of Overseers — the University’s second-highest governing body — said Garland “is what he appears to be.”

“I’ve known him for 50 years,” Ferguson said. “He’s sort of always been that way.”

‘Very Honest, Very Effective, Very Efficient’

After leaving Harvard — he would get his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1977 after graduating from the College — Garland’s career has taken him from the halls of the Supreme Court to the Department of Justice, where he serves as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer.

As a newly-minted lawyer, Garland practiced as a private attorney before pursuing a career in the Justice Department. As principal associate deputy attorney general, Garland oversaw the prosecution of the Oklahoma City bombing case, where his senior thesis tutor Peter Gourevitch said he first appreciated his former student’s public service.

“I noticed his public fame, I think, when he was assigned to investigate the Oklahoma bombing,” he said. “The stories said that he was seen as very honest, very effective, very efficient, and very fair.”

He would then serve as a chief judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. During his time as a judge, President Barack Obama appointed him to the Supreme Court to fill the seat of the recently-deceased justice Antonin Scalia. Senate Republicans, though, obstructed his nomination, filling the seat instead with Neil Gorsuch, another HLS alum.

Thomas F. Brockmeyer ’74 – one of Garland’s Quincy House friends — said he found the situation “upsetting personally.”

“It just infuriated me — because of all the people that I thought would have belonged on the Supreme Court, and would have done a great job on it, he would certainly be at the top of the list,” Brockmeyer said.

Upon Joe Biden’s election in 2020, Biden tapped Garland to serve as Attorney General, and Garland agreed.

Garland wrote to The Crimson that his career in public service has allowed him to uphold and protect democracy.

“The promise at the foundation of our democracy is that the law will treat all of us alike,” Garland wrote. “Working to fulfill that promise, specifically by upholding the rule of law and helping to ensure the equal protection of law, has been the focus of my entire professional life.”

Despite his schedule and illustrious career, Garland has also remained involved with his alma mater. Along with a stint on the Board of Overseers — Garland would serve a year as president of the board, too — he returned to campus to give a Commencement speech at the make-up ceremony for the Classes of 2020 and 2021.

“The way I thought about it for myself was that someone who had no more right to a place at Harvard than thousands of others had an obligation to repay that piece of good fortune through service to others,” Garland wrote.

“I believe that all of us who ended up at Harvard were lucky in some way, and because of that, we have an obligation to give back by devoting some part of our lives to public service,” he added.

—Staff writer Sally E. Edwards can be reached at [email protected] . Follow her on X @sallyedwards04 or on Threads @sally_edwards06 .

—Staff writer Jack R. Trapanick can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @jackrtrapanick .

Hi, AI: Our Thesis on AI Voice Agents

Olivia Moore and Anish Acharya

• Hacker News

View this report on Gamma.

Now is the time to reinvent the phone call. Thanks to gen AI, no human will ever again have to make a call. Humans will spend time on the phone only when a call has value to them.

For businesses, this may mean: (1) time and labor cost savings from human callers; (2) potential to re-allocate resources towards increased revenue generation; and (3) reduced risk with more compliant and consistent customer experiences.

For consumers, voice agents can provide access to human-grade services without the need to pay or “match with” an actual human. Currently, this includes therapists, coaches, and companions — in the future, this is likely to encompass a much broader range of experiences built around voice. Like most other consumer software, the “winners” will be unpredictable!

Phone calls are an API to the world — and AI takes this to the next level.

Where We See Opportunity

There is massive opportunity at each layer — infra players, consumer interfaces, and enterprise agents. For B2C and B2B voice agents, we have a few hypotheses around the most exciting emergent products:

If you are building here, reach out to [email protected] and [email protected].

The Stack: How Do You Build a Voice Agent?

New, multi-modal models like GPT-4o may change the structure of the stack by “running” several of these layers concurrently via one model. This may reduce latency and cost, and power more natural conversational interfaces — as many agents haven’t been able to reach true human-like quality with the composed stack below.

To function, voice agents need to ingest human speech (ASR), process this input with an LLM and return an output, and then speak back to the human (TTS). 

For some companies/approaches, the LLM or a series of LLMs handles the conversational flow and emotionality. In other cases, there are unique engines to add emotion, manage interruptions, etc. “Full stack” voice providers offer this all in one place.

Consumer (B2C) and enterprise (B2B) apps sit on top of this stack. Even using third party providers, apps (typically) plug in a custom LLM — which often also serves as the conversational engine. 

Full Stack vs. Self-Assembled

Voice agent founders can choose between spinning up an agent on a full stack platform (ex. Retell , Vapi , Bland ) or assembling the stack themselves. In making this decision, there are a few key vectors:

These are some of the leading players across each stack level now. This is not a comprehensive market map, but represents the names most commonly raised by voice agent founders. We expect this stack to change significantly as multi-modal models emerge.

If you’re working on a voice agent infrastructure company, reach out to Jennifer Li ([email protected]) and Yoko Li ([email protected]) on our team.

B2B Agents: Our Thesis

We are transitioning from 1.0 AI voice (phone tree) →  2.0 wave of AI voice (LLM-based). 2.0 companies have been emerging in the last 6 months or so. 1.0 companies may be more accurate now, but the 2.0 approach should be much more scalable and accurate in the long term.

There is unlikely to be one horizontal model or platform that works across all types of enterprise voice agents. There are a few key differences across verticals: (1) call types, tones, and structures; (2) integrations and processes; and (3) GTM and “killer features.”

This is likely to mean an explosion of vertical agents that are highly opinionated in the UI. This requires founding teams with deep domain expertise or interest. Labor is the #1 cost center for many businesses — TAM is large for companies that “get it right.”

The most near-term opportunities may be in industries that live and die by phone appointments, have significant labor shortages, and have low call complexity. As agents become more sophisticated, they will be able to tackle more complex calls. 

B2B Agents: Evolution

We’ve seen three primary waves of tech in the B2B voice agent space:

Many voice agent companies are taking a vertical-specific approach for a specific industry (ex. auto services) or a specific type of task (ex. appointment scheduling). This is for a few reasons: 

• Execution difficulty. The quality bar is high to entrust calls to an AI — and the conversational flow (plus the backend workflow on the customer’s side) can quickly become complex/specific. Companies that build for the “edge cases” in these verticals have a better chance of success (ex. unique vocabulary a general model will misunderstand).
• Regulations and licenses. Some voice agent companies face special restrictions, certifications needed, etc. A classic example of this is healthcare (ex. HIPAA compliance), though this is also cropping up in categories like sales where there are AI cold calling regulations on a national level.
• Integrations. Nailing the user experience (both for the business and the consumer) in some categories may require a long tail of integrations — or specialized integrations that aren’t worthwhile to build unless you are attempting to serve that specific use case. 
• Wedge into other software. Voice is a natural entry into core customer actions like bookings, renewals, quotes, etc. In some cases, this will be a wedge into a broader vertical SaaS platform for these businesses — especially if the customer set still largely operates offline. 

B2B Agents: Where We See Opportunity

Llm based — but not necessarily 100% automated from day one..

The “strong form” of an AI voice agent will be an entirely LLM-driven conversation, not an interactive voice response (IVR) or phone tree approach. However, because LLMs are not 100% reliable all the way through, there is likely to be some (temporary) “human in the loop” for more sensitive/larger transactions. This also makes vertical-specific workflows particularly important, as they can maximize the probability of success while minimizing human interference with fewer edge cases.

Tuning custom models vs. prompting LLM approach.

B2B voice agents will need to navigate specialized (or vertical-specific) conversations for which a general LLM is likely insufficient. Many companies are tuning per customer models (using a few hundred or low thousands of data points) and will likely extrapolate this back to a company-wide base model. The custom tuning may even continue for enterprise clients. Note: Some companies may tune a “general” model (to be used across clients) for their specific use case(s), and then prompt on a per-customer basis. 

Technical teams with domain expertise.

Given their complexity, some prior AI background will be helpful — if not necessary — for spinning up and scaling high quality B2B voice agents. However, understanding how to package the product and wedge into the vertical is likely to be equally important — requiring either domain expertise or strong interest. You don’t need a PhD in AI to build and launch an enterprise voice agent!

Sharp POV on integrations + ecosystem. 

Similar to the above, buyers in each vertical have a few specific features or integrations that they are typically looking to see before they will make a purchase. In fact, this may be the proof point that elevates the product from “useful” to “magic” in their assessment. This is another reason why it makes sense to start fairly verticalized.

Either “enterprise grade” or strong product-led growth (PLG) motion.

For verticals with significant revenue concentration in the top companies/providers, voice agent companies may start with enterprises and eventually “trickle down” to SMBs with a self-serve product. SMB customers are desperate for solutions here and are willing to test a variety of options — but may not provide the scale/quality of data that allows a startup to tune the model to enterprise caliber.

B2C Agents: Our Thesis

In B2B, voice agents largely replace existing phone calls to complete a specific task. For consumer agents, the user has to choose to continue to engage, which is challenging, as voice is not always convenient to interact with. This means the product bar is “higher.”

The first and most obvious application of consumer voice agents is taking expensive or inaccessible human services, and replacing the supplier with an AI. This includes therapy, coaching, tutoring, and more — anything dialogue-based that can be completed virtually.

However, we believe the true magic in B2C voice agents is likely yet to come! We’re looking for products that use the power of voice to enable new kinds of “conversations” that didn’t exist before. This may reinvent the form factor of existing services, or create entirely new ones.

For products that nail the UX, voice agents provide an opportunity to engage consumers at a level never before seen in software — truly mimicking the human connection. This may manifest in the agent as the product , or voice as a mode of a broader product.

B2C Agents: Evolution

So far, the dominant consumer AI voice agents are from large companies, like ChatGPT Voice and Inflection’s Pi app. There are a few reasons consumer voice has been slower to emerge:

• Large companies already have consumer distribution and best-in-class models in terms of accuracy, latency, etc. Voice is not easy to deliver at scale.   This is especially true given the recent launch of GPT-4o.
• B2B voice agents are “plugging in” AI to an existing process — while B2C voice agents require users to adopt a new behavior. This can be slower/require a more magical product.
• Consumers have been negatively conditioned around voice AI due to experiences with products like Siri, so are not necessarily inspired to try new apps.
• Broad-based products are generally able to deliver on the basic use cases of voice AI — tutoring, companionship, etc. B2C voice startups are just starting to tackle use cases or create experiences that ChatGPT, Pi, etc. would not handle.

B2C Agents: Where We See Opportunity

Strong pov on why voice is necessary..

We are excited about products and founders that are opinionated on how voice brings unique value to the product — not just “voice for the sake of voice.” In many cases, a voice interface is actually a net negative versus a text interface, as it’s more inconvenient to consume and extract information from. 

Strong POV on why real time voice is necessary.

While voice is difficult to consume, real time voice is even more difficult (vs. async voice messages). We are excited about founders that have a perspective on why their product needs to be built around live conversations — perhaps it’s for human-like companionship, a practice environment, etc.

Non-skeuomorphic to pre-AI “product.”

We suspect that the strong-form products will not be a direct translation of a previously human to human conversation, where the AI voice agent simply plugs in for the human provider. First, it’s difficult to live up to that standard — but more importantly, there is an opportunity to deliver the same value better (more efficiently, more joyfully) using AI. 

Verticalized to the extent where model quality doesn’t = winner

The leading general consumer AI products (ChatGPT, Pi, Claude) have high quality voice modes. They can meaningfully engage in many types of conversations and interactions. And, they will likely win on latency and conversational flow in the near term as they host their own models and stack. 

We are excited to see startups succeed either by tailoring or tuning for a specific type of conversation, or building a UI that provides more context and value to the voice agent experience — ex. tracking progress over time, or steering the conversation/experience in an opinionated way.

If you’re building an AI voice agent, reach out to [email protected] and [email protected] — we’d love to hear from you.

Olivia Moore is a partner on the consumer tech team at Andreessen Horowitz, where she focuses on investing in AI.

Anish Acharya Anish Acharya is an entrepreneur and general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. At a16z, he focuses on consumer investing, including AI-native products and companies that will help usher in a new era of abundance.

• How AI Will Usher in an Era of Abundance Anish Acharya
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The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. In addition, this content may include third-party advertisements; a16z has not reviewed such advertisements and does not endorse any advertising content contained therein.

This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly as well as unannounced investments in publicly traded digital assets) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/ .

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‘I’m just so grateful’: Student earns $1.9 million in scholarships, acceptance into Harvard

EUFAULA, Ala. ( WTVY /Gray News) - An Alabama high school student’s hard work has paid off.

Trinity Gant says it was kind of a juggling act during her high school years as she always had a lot on her plate.

“I was really almost in every club,” she said. “I had stuff to do almost every day of the week.”

And she was still able to graduate with a 4.16 grade point average.

However, despite her stellar grades, Gant said she had difficulty getting into a few of her college selections.

“I was getting rejected, waitlisted left and right,” she said. “It was kind of disheartening.”

According to Gant, she got rejected from Duke University, placed on a wait for the University of Georgia, and wasn’t offered a full ride to Howard University.

But fate had something else in mind.

Not long after receiving the disheartening news from those colleges, Gant said an acceptance letter from Harvard University came her way.

“I called my mom, and I told her I got into Harvard!” she said.

Gant said her Harvard tuition will be fully covered and she also received a scholarship from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, totaling $1.9 million in scholarship money.

“Everything counts,” she said. “There’s also going to be opportunities for me to study abroad. I’m just so grateful for all that I got.”

Gant said she is ready to take on Massachusetts, but leaving her mom will be her biggest challenge yet.

“Living in a single-parent household, she’s done everything for us,” she said. “She’s my biggest motivator. I hope every sacrifice she’s made for me; I can make up for when I go to school.”

Gant plans to concentrate her studies on human developmental regenerative biology.

Copyright 2024 WTVY via ray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

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