Culture & Fit: Harvard Psych Research Student Life
I’ve always loved school. I studied English at Harvard and was more than happy to spend my time attending classes, reading novels, and writing about literary theory. But there’s another side to the Harvard experience that many students choose to focus on: research. To get the inside scoop on what it’s like to live the student life in the lab, I sat down with my friend PJ, who spent all four of his undergraduate years working as a research assistant in the Harvard psychology department.
Beyond the Book
Funny thing about PJ: he hates school. I know that sounds odd coming from a Harvard student. But PJ is the kind of person who loves working with his hands and talking to real people; nothing is more intolerable to him than sitting through long lectures and reading textbooks. Before enrolling at Harvard, he made sure he’d be able to supplement his psychology classes with real-life lab research. Fortunately for him, many Harvard faculty members are open to taking on particularly bright undergraduates as research assistants.
“I was surprised by how much research is done, and how easy it was to find a research opportunity,” PJ said. “Being someone who does not love classes but does love learning through work, I was excited to learn how easy it was to have 90% of your course credit work be research and only 10% classes.”
Collaboration and community
PJ is exaggerating, of course; he still had to take the required psychology and general education courses to graduate. But he was able to earn course credit for his research assistant work every semester- far more than is typical. He made it happen by finding supportive faculty who approved his credit proposals and made space for the work he loved: “Your workload can be shifted a little when you have rapport with your professor. For example, you might be able to do less work for them during finals week, as long as you make up those hours the week before or after.” With that flexibility, careful planning around required courses, and some strategic elective choices, he was able to tailor his academic path to his strengths and interests.
“Research was a really nice supplement to classes,” PJ said. “Often, I took a class and loved a specific section of it. I wanted to know more, but we had already covered most of the major published papers on the subject in class. So, I reached out to professors researching the topic and asked to work on their project for a semester or a year. Because there's so much research being done at Harvard, there was nearly always someone who was working in an adjacent area and would take a research assistant. I got to learn about all of the nuances of the subject and even advance the field, going far beyond what the class taught. Using research in this way really let me learn anything I was curious about to depths that classes couldn’t.”
Research post-Undergrad
After proving himself as a research assistant, PJ’s work extended into the summers, when he continued full-time for pay instead of credit. “It was a lot of fun, and it’s always cool when you can get paid for having fun,” he told me. He spent the last two years and summers of college in the same lab, working on a study that’s not yet published but is already making waves in the psychology field.
His favorite part of it all? The people. “It’s really special, the relationship you develop with professors and graduate students when you do research with them. These people have the same passions as you, but are steps ahead in their careers and provide great guidance on how to grow as a researcher and as a person. They are also just great people. I have stayed close friends with many of them, and have an open invitation to come back to work in the lab if I ever want to get a PhD or Master’s in psychology.”
Despite his love of psychology research, PJ chose to attend law school after graduation. The real-life experience, critical thinking skills, and close faculty relationships he built through research became a core part of his law school application. Admissions officers didn’t mind that he hadn’t majored in Government or joined Model UN- his demonstrated commitment to research proved he could collaborate effectively, execute complex tasks, and practically apply knowledge that most undergraduates only understood in theory.
Don’t let PJ’s humility fool you—research isn’t the easy way out at Harvard. Alongside his daily lab work, PJ studied for the LSAT, worked as a journalist, and pulled all-nighters to get A’s. If anything, it takes more conscious effort to build a schedule where research becomes a meaningful part of your everyday life. Spending your days in the lab isn’t for everyone, and certainly not the path that more bookish students like me need to follow. But if you’re a curious and creative thinker, a reliable teammate, and committed to putting in long hours for a field that you are genuinely passionate about, undergraduate research might be an opportunity you should look into.
