Find a Course
Harvard Summer School offers hundreds of courses — all you have to do is register. Whether you want fill a skills gap, explore a new subject, or take a course you need with a renowned Harvard faculty member, we have nearly 1,000 courses to help you reach your goals.
Ready to Register?
View steps to register for Harvard Summer School courses, as well as requirements and deadlines.
Explore Career Paths
Harvard Summer School offers two types of courses where you can study a subject of interest while gaining insight from industry professionals on what a career might be like: For-credit undergraduate courses that integrate career exploration into a regular, credit-bearing course, and non-credit courses that introduce students to the landscape of different jobs in a particular field in a less time-intensive format.
Career Pathways
Career Pathway courses are small, for-credit classes designed to help you get a fresh perspective on a field you may want to pursue. In each course, you will explore an academic topic in depth while working on projects that are mirrored in the real world.
Components include:
- In-class guests who will advise students and provide insights on their own career paths
- Self-reflection exercises on skills, interests, and future goals they’ve identified
At the end of a course, students will come away energized about potential career paths, and will have built valuable team-building and leadership skills.
Career Pathways Courses:
- Animal Transgenesis: A Laboratory Primer on Genetics
- Becoming a Brain Scientist: Neuroscience and Psychology Research
- Basic Journalism in the Digital Age
- Tackling Real World Problems Through Chemistry and Chemical Biology
- Introduction to Entrepreneurship
- Problem Solving and Project Design
- Start-Ups from the Perspective of Business and IP Law
Careers in Engineering and Careers in Public Health (Non-Credit)
Careers in Engineering and Careers in Public Health are non-credit courses aimed at helping college students determine a career path, whether it’s committing to a major with a clearer vision of what to do with it, or finding inspiration or guidance in what to do with an already declared major.
Components include:
In-class guests who will advise students and provide insights on their own career paths, resume and interview guidance from Harvard career services, readings and assignments to learn about subfields and determine personal career interests.
Non-credit Careers Courses
Summer Seminars at Harvard Summer School
Summer Seminars at Harvard Summer School give undergraduate students and advanced high school students unique opportunities and personal faculty instruction that’s hard to find on a large campus.
Inspired by Harvard’s renowned freshman seminars that get students acclimated and engaged in campus life, seven-week Summer Seminars give both Harvard and visiting students the unique chance to study with us in a small-group format.
The benefits you’ll enjoy during Summer Seminars include:
Small Class Sizes
Summer Seminars are limited to 15 students each to keep class sizes small and maximize your learning experience. This small class size promotes open and dynamic discussion, peer study groups, in-class presentations, and equal opportunity participation in the classroom.
Close Faculty Interaction
Each Summer Seminar is taught by a Harvard affiliate and offers excellent opportunities for personal guidance and advising. Throughout the seminar, students can consult with and learn from Harvard instructors in a small-group or one-to-one format that lets them dig deep into a subject and build valuable expertise.
Independent Research Opportunities
Learn the researching and writing skills that will let you rise to the top of your undergraduate class or prepare you for graduate school. Your Summer Seminar instructor will give you the frameworks and advice needed to complete a final research project in your area of study.
Summer Seminars are available for undergraduate credits only.
Summer 2023 Seminars
Advice to Young Leaders
Big Ideas, Great Thinkers
Human Evolution
Politics and Governance in the Global South
The Psychology of Cults