"Eric Kester has written the kind of book I wish I had the courage and insight to write. His illuminations on everything from Larry Summers to the Harvard football team to cheating, tourists, and competitiveness are dead–on. His writing has also provided me with some of the best laugh–out–loud moments I've had in recent years. God knows Harvard could use some humor!" —PETER OLSON, FORMER CEO OF RANDOM HOUSE, HARVARD GRADUATE, AND CURRENT HARVARD PROFESSOR One of the most thrilling and terrifying days of your life is the first day of college, when you step onto campus filled with the excitement of all the possibilities ahead—and panic about if you'll make it and how you'll fit in. Now imagine that same feeling, but you're in the middle of the lawn at the world's most prestigious university. In your underwear. Thus begins one of the craziest years ever at Harvard, in which Eric Kester finds himself in a cheating scheme, trying to join a prestigious Finals Club, and falling for a stunning type-A brunette...who happened to be standing there in shock that first day when he made his red-faced stroll across the Harvard Yard. That Book about Harvard is the hilarious and heartwarming story of trying to find your place in a new world, the unending quest to fit in, and how the moments that change your life often happen in the most unexpected ways. Eric Kester graduated from Harvard in 2008, where he wrote a popular column for the undergraduate newspaper, the Crimson. Now a featured writer for CollegeHumor.com, Eric has also contributed to the Boston Globe, someEcards.com, and Dorkly.com.

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Samuel Eliot Morison sat down to tell the whole story of Harvard informally and briefly, with the same genial humor and ability to see the human implications of past events that characterize his larger, multi-volume series on Harvard.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Samuel Eliot Morison traces the roots of American universities back to Europe, providing "a lively contemporary perspective...a realistic picture of the founding of the first American university north of the Rio Grande" [Lewis Gannett, New York Herald Tribune].

Depicting the evolution of 20th-century Harvard in the broader context of national and world events, this text shows how changes in the structure and aspirations of American society led the University to remake itself after World War II, and to do so again after the social upheavals of the Vietnam era.

Describes the individual admissions process of fifty students accepted to the prestigious university, sharing strategies for identifying key talents, submitting the perfect application package, and improving networking skills.

In May, 1995, a photograph and an anonymous note arrived at The Harvard Crimson: "Keep this picture. There will soon be a very juicy story involving this woman." Soon afterwards, Sinedu Tadesse stabbed her roommate, Trang Phuong Ho, to death, and then hanged herself. This riveting book recounts the stories of these women, whose admission to Harvard was "halfway heaven," a bridge to the American dream after lives of hardship. Sinedu grew up under communist tyranny in Ethiopia, while Trang was born in a Vietnamese forced labor camp, and fled the country with her father and sister to end up on welfare in Boston. Despite their similarities, the two were never friends; Trang was friendly and outgoing, while Sinedu, awkward and shy, had trouble adjusting to a culture vastly different from her own. Drawing upon her astonishing diaries, New York Times bestselling author Thernstrom, a Harvard graduate herself, reconstructs Sinedu's inner life to reveal a girl struggling against isolation and depression. The book reveals Harvard as an institution ill-equipped to deal with mental illness on campus that apparently cared more for its reputation than for its student body. A brilliant synthesis of cultural analysis, psychological study, and first-rate investigative journalism, Halfway Heaven is a haunting exploration of the power of profound loneliness and an expose of one of America's most distinguished universities.