What is Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences (fas.harvard.edu)?

Updated

fas.harvard.edu is the official website of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), the largest academic division of Harvard University. It serves as the primary information hub for FAS's academic departments, programs, faculty, students, and administrative resources. If you are looking for official information about FAS departments, courses, faculty directories, or academic policies, this is the authoritative source.

What FAS Is

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences is the central academic body at Harvard responsible for:

  • Undergraduate education through Harvard College
  • Graduate education in the arts and sciences through the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS)
  • Research and teaching across the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering
  • Administrative oversight of academic departments, centers, and programs

FAS is distinct from Harvard's professional schools (such as Harvard Business School, Harvard Law School, or Harvard Medical School), which operate as separate faculties with their own websites and administrations.

What the Website Offers

The fas.harvard.edu site functions as an institutional gateway. Key types of information you can expect to find include:

Category What it covers
Academic departments Links and information for departments in humanities, social sciences, sciences, and engineering
Programs Undergraduate, graduate, and special academic programs
Faculty & research Faculty profiles, research initiatives, and academic resources
Administration Dean's office, academic policies, governance, and administrative contacts
News & events Announcements, lectures, and institutional updates

How It Relates to Other Harvard Sites

FAS is one part of Harvard University's decentralized structure. The main university site (harvard.edu) covers the institution as a whole, while fas.harvard.edu focuses specifically on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Individual departments and programs often maintain their own subdomains or pages linked from the FAS site.

If your question concerns a specific department (e.g., Economics, History, Physics), you will typically find a direct link from the FAS site to that department's own pages.

When to Use This Site

Use fas.harvard.edu when you need:

  • Official information about FAS academic departments and programs
  • FAS faculty directories or administrative contacts
  • Academic policies and governance documents specific to FAS
  • News and events from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences

For university-wide information, admissions to professional schools, or non-FAS programs, the main Harvard website or the relevant school's site is more appropriate.