How to Bridge the Gap

Freshman year is a turbulent time. The sheer number of new opportunities and obligations is, to a degree, overwhelming for everyone. But student testimonies and the student body’s vote to fund a “Freshman Enrichment Program” last year demonstrate that many new students, especially those matriculating from public schools and abroad, feel as though they are entering the college disadvantaged—socially, economically, and academically.

No accepted student should feel inherently unprepared for the first year at Harvard. First-year students often find themselves overburdened with coursework and extracurricular activities and unaware of the College’s resources. A bridge program or enrichment program that aims to make the academic and social transition to college easier is welcome and necessary.

An enrichment program of this sort should not, however, prevent a student from participating in the existing pre-orientation programs—namely the First-Year International Program, the Freshman Arts Program, Fall Clean-Up, the First-Year Outdoor Program, and the First-Year Urban Program. These pre-orientation programs help to ease the social transition to college by forming close communities early in the academic year. In order to be most effective, the Freshmen Enrichment Program should either be available to students before the pre-orientation programs or be integrated into Opening Days programming.

One central challenge of such an enrichment program lies in the difficulty of avoiding stigma. While the primary goal of the enrichment initiative should be to bridge the academic and expectations gap between students from different backgrounds, the organizers should be careful not to let undue connotations of unpreparedness attach to the program. The enrichment program should be inclusive and free, available to any student—regardless of socioeconomic or educational background—who desires an introduction to social life, academic strategies, and on-campus organizations before they step foot in the Yard.

Stigma would be unavoidable if what might someday be called "FEP" were offered as an alternative to FIP, FAP, FCU, FOP, and FUP. Likewise, if the college encouraged certain students to enroll in FEP, or recommended the program based on some sort of evaluation, the program could establish an unhelpful division among students. The best policy is to make the enrichment program available to all students without compromising a student’s ability to participate in other social programs.

If the College addresses issues of stigmatization, FEP could be successful in preparing students for the academic and social scene in college. Freshmen would benefit greatly from seminars and discussions about time management skills accompanied by genuine student testimonies about work-life balance at Harvard. The program should also feature workshops and sessions on writing in various disciplines so as to acquaint students with the rigor of college writing.

In addition, presentations on the extra-curricular resources available to students should occur during FEP, possibly through sessions with the student groups themselves. Programming should also introduce students to Harvard’s social life and the resources available to help navigate it. Such information on campus resources, major social events, and other central aspects of student life would make it easier for all students to adjust to the Harvard community.

Finally, the proposed enrichment program must be able to establish itself among existing initiatives for first-year students. The College should make a comprehensive and compelling pitch to incoming students about the program so that every student understands its benefits and can make an informed decision about whether to attend. A program like FEP is long overdue; the College must ensure that flaws in conception and execution do not hamper its very real potential.