Social Studies will count all courses in Anthropology, Economics, Government, History, and Sociology, whether or not they are part of a student’s focus field in Social Studies.

Please note that for purposes of calculating honors we will include the grades in all courses you have taken that are acceptable for concentration credit, not just the courses you designate in your focus field or towards a specific concentration requirement.

Students commonly include courses outside of our five member departments (Anthropology, Economics, Government, History, and Sociology) in their Focus Fields. Typically, courses that have substantial social science, historical, or social theoretical content (e.g., more than half of the topics covered) can be counted, as can courses taught by faculty members with PhDs in the social sciences, history, or continental philosophy. If the course that you want to include in your Focus Field is taught by a faculty member with a PhD in one of these areas, all you need to do is list the course on...

Yes, as long as the secondary field is substantially different from your focus field in Social Studies. Harvard College allows only one course to overlap between the primary and secondary fields, and Social Studies counts all social science and history courses for concentration credit. But students can petition to “unconc” (not count) courses in one of these departments at the beginning of their senior year, as long as they are submitting a focus...

All of the courses that you are counting for Social Studies concentration credit must be taken for a letter grade, except for Social Studies 99, which is graded SAT/UNSAT. However, we will count courses that are transferred for Harvard credit (either taken at another college for transfer credit, or taken abroad) for focus field credit if they were originally taken for a letter grade even when that grade will not show up on an official Harvard College transcript.