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Harvard University

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Lots of hype with no solid substance - Software Engineer Harvard University Employee Review

3.0
Mar 11, 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
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Pros

Interested in new technology Generous benefits Public Transportation accessible Name recognition Available Harvard Business School seminars Free Harvard Press publications Great campus

Cons

Absolute uneven performance standards. Senior IT leadership trains at Babson, not Harvard and it shows. Over reliance on contractors to foster change and promote current industry trends. Victim of contractor churn and burn and not learning lesson over time about how it hurts Low morale

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5.0
Jun 25, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

A PhD is always very advisor/PI dependent, but I had a great experience with room to learn, grow, and explore interesting research questions. As with any PhD program you’ll work pretty hard for relatively lower pay and perhaps less directly applicable industry career trajectory at the end, but if you find good people to tackle the journey with and get to work on interesting problems I personally think the journey is worthwhile!

Cons

Less of a program wide cohort in my particular engineering field. Some funding challenges with the govt last year but seem mostly back now, apart from the recent administration issues funding wasn’t generally a challenge

5.0
Jun 3, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You work with experts from every field possible in science from Mechanobiology to Metallurgy and working as a ML intern along with scientists from different fields gave me a lot of exposure and how to work in a research department.

Cons

One challenge encountered was maintaining a clear focus on training objectives, as the evolving parameters required continuous reassessment of the model's learning priorities. Additionally, the absence of established ground truth for the domain presented a limitation in validating and guiding the approach effectively.

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