Guide To The Guide

The past 10 years have been pretty busy for you. You went through puberty, learned to drive, even had your first beer. You did not lose your virginity, but you did get into Harvard, which was pretty sweet. Which brings us to our first piece of advice: drop the H-Bomb like it’s your job, and eventually you’ll get laid. Or just post an ad on craigslist.

Meanwhile, we’ve been taking it pretty easy. In 1996, at age 70 (we were first published in 1925!), we decided to call it quits. Our days of providing completely one-sided, marginally-useful, and vaguely-humorous course advice were over. We were gone. Nobody cared.

But like some of history’s greatest heroes—Michael Jordan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Derek Bok—we’ve decided to come back for Round Two. Why, you ask? Well, we polled students and found that approximately 17 percent described The Confi Guide as “interesting,” though approximately 14 percent said we were “boring.”* From these numbers we were able to scientifically conclude that there was once again a demand for completely one-sided, marginally-useful, and vaguely-humorous course advice. So we’re back.

Well now that you have us in your hand, how can you make the most of us? Three uses come to mind: Projectile. Doorstop. Course guide. We prefer the latter, but it’s up to you.

In these 28 pages, you’ll find writeups on every Core area and 21 concentrations (those of over 80% of the student body). On the web, you can also find reviews of many individual courses. We’ve also put some discussion forums, organized by concentration, on the web so that you can find out what your classmates think about that course you meant to shop or the syllabus you never had a chance to pick up.

Our reviews aren’t meant to be the final word on a concentration or course. But we are meant to be just one unique, insightful, and maybe funny perspective to help you navigate the Courses of Instruction and have a more successful semester. We’ll give you the truth about tons of courses, identifying along the way the easiest guts, the worst professors, and the best academic experiences.

So basically: read The Confi Guide and you’ll get laid! Just kidding. But we may help you choose your courses or pick a concentration. Or at the very least, before you throw us away, check out the picture of Nelson Mandela shaking Barney’s hand on page 10. We think it’s kinda funny.



* This write-up is based on a response rate of less than 70 percent.