employer cover photo
employer logo
employer logo

Harvard University

Is this your company?

Harvard University reviews

4.2

83% would recommend to a friend

(4,072 total reviews)

Alan Garber

80% approve of CEO

69% positive business outlook

Harvard University has an employee rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars, based on 4,072 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The Harvard University employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Education industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

4K reviews
2.0
Aug 4, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The best reason to work for Harvard University is the TAP education benefit which allows employees to take courses at Harvard Extension School for $40 each plus the cost of books. Courses do not have to be job related, and can be taken for no credit, undergraduate credit, or graduate credit. You can get a degree in "Liberal Arts" at Harvard Extension School, which is not the same thing as getting a real degree at Harvard College. Harvard Extension School is the open enrollment evening division of Harvard. The one exception to this is the School of Education. You can get a Masters degree in Education using TAP through Harvard's School of Education that is the same degree that full-time "regular" students get. Working at Harvard can be used as a stepping stone to finishing a degree, getting an advanced degree, or simply as a means to enriching one's personal life.

Cons

There is very little opportunity for advancement at Harvard. The faculty and the students are carefully selected from amongst the best and brightest, senior management is not. There are many managers here who are jaded and bitter and who will never voluntarily leave, and they make life miserable for the people who work for them. This fact is widely acknowledged by senior management, which has run several employee surveys over the past 5 years trying to figure out how to improve Harvard employees work experience. Unfortunately, they did not follow through and insist on change or documentation of change, and so there has been little improvement.

3.0
Jun 24, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Benefits include Dental, Medical, and you can tap into the Universities resources from concierge services, to housing and real estate services to discounts on tickets Vacation is good. You automatically get the week between Christmas and New Years off and it doesn't count toward your vacation Work/Life Balance: When you go home you don't stress about work Its nice to be on a very pretty campus which is more casual and less corporate

Cons

There seems to be lower pay.

3.0
Jun 23, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Harvard has excellent benefits and salary which is most likely the main reason that employees remain at Harvard.

Cons

While Harvard promotes itself as one of the "best places to work," be mindful that once you get your foot in the door, it is a political, bureaucratic machine that, at best, moves at a snail's pace to move ideas forward.

Viewing 4066 - 4068 of 4,072 Reviews

Glassdoor has 4,620 Harvard University reviews submitted anonymously by Harvard University employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Harvard University is right for you.