Small Concentrations, Opening Up Big Worlds

The question of concentration choice is inextricably linked to another one: What will you do with that?

Come December, freshmen will have to commit to one of the 46 concentrations offered at the College. Many of them will choose one of the most popular: government, economics, biology, or social studies. But a fraction of undergraduates will go against the tide, picking one of Harvard’s smallest concentrations, such as statistics, folklore and mythology, or Sanskrit and Indian studies.

But these more obscure concentrations can propel their members to distant and diverse futures—even if their specificity might raise eyebrows at a cocktail party.

INDIA TO ILLINOIS

Half a world away, a fuzzy telephone connection between India and Cambridge provides a glimpse into the life of one Harvard graduate whose choice of concentration was as unconventional as her current occupation.

Meghan C. Howard ’04 says that the question of her future was hardly a consideration when she decided to concentrate in Sanskrit and Indian studies. Describing her course of study to curious friends and family was very similar, she said, to “dropping the H-bomb.”

“The main misconception is that it doesn’t exist,” she says. “It’s like when people ask you where you go to school—it just takes too much explanation.”

Born in Minnesota and the daughter of Buddhist converts, Howard says that her academic interest originated from a desire to read ancient Buddhist texts in its original Sanskrit. At Harvard, she learned Tibetan instead and now works in India translating Tibetan to English.

In Chicago, Sara M. Berliner ’98 began her college career at Harvard like the majority of her classmates. As a freshman, she chose what she called one of the more “classically Harvard concentrations”—history and literature—but found herself drawn more toward her electives.

Now, nearly nine years later, Berliner says that she could not have predicted that concentrating in folklore and mythology with visual and environmental science would have led her to her current occupation—running Star Farm Productions, a storytelling company.

Calling it a “mini Dreamworks,” Berliner explains that the company is responsible for producing stories in all forms­­—from print, to television, to toys.

“In a concentration like that,” she says of folklore and mythology, “you get unusual people and they go off to do unusual things.”

UNVEILING THE MYTH

Weary Professor of German and Comparative Literature Judith L. Ryan explains the allure of uncommon studies through her own experiences as a teenager who was distracted by a German poem in the back of her textbook.

“It becomes a sort of secret science,” Ryan says of less common fields of study, “some knowledge that you have access to that others don’t.”

Head Tutor and Director of Undergraduate Studies of Folklore and Mythology Deborah Foster, who herself studied African folklore traditions, encourages students to use the concentration to explore their interests. “What we can do,” Foster says of her concentration and others of its size, “is listen to what the student is interested in.”

“A lot of people can get lost in [larger] concentrations” says Sarah H. Arshad ’09, who is pre-med and a folklore and mythology concentrator. “I feel like my adviser cares about what I’m doing and she wants to make sure I’m doing well.”

SIZE DOES MATTER

But small concentrations may not always mean a better experience in every aspect.

While they may receive individualized attention, concentrators in small fields have fewer peers with whom to share their academic experiences.

One of only five Sanskrit and Indian studies concentrators in her graduating class, Howard was aware during college that her experience was drastically different from that of most of her friends.

“Basically I was in graduate classes for most of my undergraduate education,” she says.

Former Germanic languages and literatures concentrator Margareta I. Christian ’03 remembers that a lack of community among the undergraduates in the department was, for her, one of the few disadvantages of her chosen field, adding that she did get to know the graduate students.

Christian is now studying German literature at Princeton University.

Although small numbers may limit student interactions, Foster says that students and faculty receive both academic and personal attention. “We become sort of a big family,” she says.

BEGINNINGS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

The success of graduates from smaller concentrations attests to the benefits of both the flexibility and the individual attention that students receive in those departments, Ryan says.

Bryn M. Neuenschwander ’02 entered Harvard with an interest in anthropology and science fiction, left with a degree in anthropology and folklore and mythology, and now goes by the pen name Marie Brennan. Neuenschwander, author of two science fiction novels, says that a class she took with Foster sparked her writing career. “Out of her course I got $500 and a trip to Florida,” Neuenschwander says, referring to a prize she won for a story on a topic she covered in the class.

And coming from studies in small concentrations such as women, gender and sexuality, classics, religion, and Germanic languages and literature, three undergraduates earned a trip across the Atlantic as recipients of the Rhodes Scholarship this year.

Often responsible for soothing the fears of both parents and students alike about life after studying Latin and Greek, Assistant Professor of the Classics David F. Elmer ’98 says Classics concentrators, among others, go on to a full range of professional and academic careers.

As for nervous parents, he jokes, “It’s not hard to convince them that their child will not end up living on the streets.”