Frequently Asked Questions

Other than sabbatical salary replacement, what types of projects typically receive funding?

Fellowships may be used for a wide variety of projects; examples include publication of research, enhancement of sabbaticals, travel to libraries or collections, reasonable payment of student research assistants, dramatic productions, excavation expenses, or cost of research materials (...

Who is eligible to receive an LCLF Fellowship?

Applicants must have faculty or faculty emeritus status at an institute of higher education at the time of application and during the entire time covered by the fellowship. U.S. citizens and non-U.S. citizens are eligible.

Where can I walk-in to get helpdesk-style assistance on GIS

Starting July 2018, the CGA no longer runs regular GIS helpdesks. You may submit your request for assistance here.

In addition, the Harvard Map Collection at the Pusey Library offers walk-in helpdesk style assistance from 10:30am to 4:30pm; and the...

What can I do when license.cga.harvard.edu is not accessible for floating licenses

Occassionally, the primary license server may be offline for maintenance. If that happens, you may switch to the backup license server "cga2.cga.harvard.edu" for all CGA supported licenses, except for eCognition which is only available from the primary license server.

Geospatial packages in R such as rgdal and sf cannot be installed. Is there a work-around?

Support for geospatial R packages on the RCE is currently shaky at best. There are work-arounds, but they can be error-prone and are easy to break. You may wish to use another system for your geospatial work in R for the time being. Read on if you wish to try some work-arounds in order to install and run rgdal and other geospatial R packges on the RCE.

The basic issue The system GDAL library is too old, but cannot be updated beause other software depends on it. As a work-around we compiled GDAL 2.1.1 and made it available at

/nfs/tools/apps/gdal/2.1.1

To...

NX Gray screen: Could not connect to session bus

You may attempt to login to the RCE and see an image like this on a gray screen.

In most cases, this is caused by a line added to the user's .bashrc file in their home directory on the RCE.

SSH to the RCE...

How to submit a large file to the CGA

Go to the Secure File Transfer Service and login with your Harvard credentials.

Compose your message with the following details:

TO: contact@help.cga.harvard.edu
SUBJECT: Submission for [your purpose, such as an award name]
MESSAGE: You may provide more information about your submission, if...

Will term-time study abroad reduce my Gen Ed requirements?

Beginning in Fall 2019, Gen Ed requirements will not be reduced for students who study abroad during term time. However, the Gen Ed requirement will be reduced by one course per term of Harvard College credit earned for term-time study abroad completed before Fall 2019, unless a student is granted a ninth term.

You might be able to fulfill one or more of the College's distribution requirements...

Can I fulfill Gen Ed requirements with courses taken Pass/Fail?

You can fulfill one of your Gen Ed requirements with a course taken Pass/Fail. Please note that the instructor's permission is required to take a course Pass/Fail.

Gen Ed courses taken SEM/UEM in Spring 2020 will not count against the limit of fulfilling one Gen Ed requirement with a course taken Pass/Fail.

Can a Gen Ed course fulfill more than one Gen Ed requirement?

Some Gen Ed courses are approved for two categories. However, an individual student will be able to use a particular course to fulfill only one requirement. For courses tagged for two requirements, you will be able to choose which requirement you would like to use it to complete. Please contact the Gen Ed office if you have any questions about Gen Ed courses approved for two categories. Read more about Can a Gen Ed course fulfill more than one Gen Ed requirement?

Can a course fulfill a Gen Ed requirement and also count for concentration credit or for secondary field credit?

Only Gen Ed courses can be used to fulfill Gen Ed requirements. Departments may elect to have Gen Ed courses count for concentration credit or for secondary field credit. Please contact the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the relevant department to determine whether a particular Gen Ed course can be used for concentration or secondary credit.

How can I find Gen Ed courses?

You can explore Gen Ed courses by category. You can also see a complete list of Gen Ed courses, filterable by term offered.

To find information about Gen Ed courses' time and location, please visit...

Can departmental courses, First-Year Seminars or Expos courses count for Gen Ed requirements?

Only courses offered through the Program in General Education (that is, courses with GENED course numbers) can be used to fulfill Gen Ed requirements.

How do I know which of the Gen Ed requirements I have fulfilled?

Your Academic Advising Report (AAR), available on my.harvard, tracks your progress towards your Gen Ed requirements. Learn how to generate your Academic Advising Report.

Are Gen Ed requirements reduced for transfer students?

Gen Ed requirements will not be reduced for transfer students in the Class of 2020 and beyond.

Many transfer students will be able to use their transfer credits to fulfill one or more of the College's distribution requirements. For questions about this, please e-mail divdist@fas.harvard.edu.

Can I petition to have a course fulfill a Gen Ed requirement?

Ordinarily, only courses already approved for Gen Ed by the Standing Committee on General Education can be used to fulfill Gen Ed requirements.

However, it is possible to petition courses taken prior to Fall 2019 for the Ethics & Civics requirement. If you are interested in submitting a petition, please email mailto:gened_questions@fas.harvard.edu...

Can Harvard Summer School courses fulfill Gen Ed requirements?

Some courses at the Harvard Summer School (HSS) can be used to complete Gen Ed requirements.

Please note that no more than one HSS course taught through remote formats may be used to fulfill a General Education requirement. HSS courses taken in 2020 and 2021 (when all courses were offered remotely) do not count towards this limit.

How do I know which Gen Ed requirement a course fulfills?

There are several ways you can learn which Gen Ed requirement(s) a particular course fulfills:

Information about which requirement(s) a Gen Ed course fulfills can be found on the page for the course on the Gen Ed website.
Gen Ed courses can be searched by category.
The description of a course on my.harvard includes information about...

What is the College's distribution requirement?

You must take a departmental course in each of the three main divisions of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences: Arts & Humanities, Science & Engineering, and Social Sciences. Further information about the distribution requirement can be found on the Office of Undergraduate Education site.

You can determine whether a course will fulfill a distribution requirement by examining the course description on...

What is the College's Quantitative Reasoning with Data (QRD) requirement?

The College's Quantitative Reasoning with Data (QRD) requirement introduces you to mathematical, statistical, and computational methods that will enable you to think critically about data as it is employed in fields of inquiry across the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

You can fulfill this requirement by completing a course approved for QRD. A list of courses approved for QRD can be found on the...

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