On This Page
Reviewing and Ranking Applications
2025-2026 Dates & Deadlines
Mon, July 7, 9:00am
Program Application System opens for both fall & spring terms
Thurs, August 7, 11:59pm (midnight)
Application Deadline
Fri, August 8, 10:00am – Mon, August 11, 10:00am:
Faculty Accept & Rank Student Applications
Mon, August 11, 12 Noon: Placement Results sent to students
Tues, August 12, 10:00am: Class lists available on My.Harvard
List of seminars with open seats posted on program website
Tues, August 12-Thurs, August 14: Course registration for first-year students only
Mon, August 25-Tues, Sept 9: Add/Drop Period for fall term 2025
Mon, September 1: Labor Day
Tues, September 2: 1st Day of Classes
November (TBA): Spring Term Registration for Courses
January (TBA): Add/Drop Period for Spring Term
For using our application system, we recommend that you use Firefox as your web browser. Some instructors have had difficulty using Google Chrome and Safari.
When the system opens for reviewing, click on the button above to enter the application system. You will be prompted to enter your HUID and PIN. Once the page opens, click on your seminar to begin the process of reviewing applications.
Accepting Additional Students
After the summer application period ends, we will post the list of seminars with open seats on our website and encourage first-year students to contact instructors for approval to enroll. Please let us know if you’d like us not to post your seminar on the list.
Adding Students and My.Harvard Registration
Please download your preliminary class list from our application site. Students on this preliminary list were already accepted by you and will be enrolled by the registrar’s office and no further action by you or the student is required. We regret that we cannot keep track of the students who add or drop your seminar. Enrollment lists will be viewable in My.Harvard.
Please remember that students will not be able to enroll in your first-year seminar until you go online to give your approval to their petitions in the My.Harvard.edu website. Log in to the Teaching Portal in My.Harvard Teaching/Advising Portal. Student petitions are with the courses listed. Please click here for instructions about the petitions process. Your official class list will be found on this Portal.
About the Algorithm
Our matching algorithm is the creation of Alvin E. Roth, Nobel Laureate and George Gund Professor of Economics and Business Administration, Emeritus. He specializes in game theory and market models, and he created the matching algorithm for the Harvard College Housing Lottery (random match) and the New England Program for Kidney Exchange (paired match). His algorithm for the First-Year Seminar Program matches the student’s top choices in seminars against the instructor’s top offers in a random sequence to find the best mutually‐agreeable assignment for each applicant. We run the algorithm once each term and it matches students to seats until each applicant gets a seat or runs out of applications.
Questions?
Please contact one of the staff below if you have any questions or email us at firstyearseminars@fas.harvard.edu.
Toni Trainor
Assistant Director of Administration for First-Year Seminar Programs and the Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowshipsatrainor@fas.harvard.edu617-496-3993