How do I find departments, programs, and academic resources on the Harvard FAS website?

The Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) site at fas.harvard.edu is the main web presence for Harvard's largest faculty, and it is organized so that you can reach departments, academic programs, and student resources through a small number of top-level paths. The fastest approach is to decide first whether you want a department or program, a course or academic calendar, or a student-facing resource such as advising or the library, then use the matching entry point rather than browsing the whole site.

What fas.harvard.edu actually covers

FAS is the faculty that houses Harvard College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the Division of Continuing Education, along with the departments and centers that sit under them. The website is primarily an institutional and navigational hub: it explains what FAS is, points to its schools and units, and links out to the individual department and program sites where most detailed academic information lives.

Because of that structure, you should expect fas.harvard.edu to route you to a dedicated site rather than host every course listing or faculty profile itself.

Finding departments and programs

Departments and academic programs are the most common destination, and there are two reliable ways to reach them.

• Use the site's own navigation. FAS organizes its units by school and by academic area, so a "departments" or "academic units" listing is the intended starting point. From there you select the department, which takes you to that department's own website.
• Search by name when you already know the target. If you know you want, for example, the Department of Economics or the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, searching the department name from the FAS site or a general search engine is usually faster than clicking through categories.

A practical rule: fas.harvard.edu is for discovering and confirming which department or program exists and how it is grouped; the department's own site is where you find faculty lists, concentration requirements, and course offerings.

Departments vs. programs vs. centers

These are not interchangeable, and the distinction affects where you end up:

If you are a prospective student looking for a concentration, start from the program or department rather than a research center.

Academic resources: courses, calendars, and libraries

Different resources sit in different places, so match the resource to the right entry point.

• Course catalog and course listings: These are handled by Harvard's central course systems rather than by the FAS homepage. Use the course catalog or my.harvard-style tools that the FAS site links to for enrollment and listings.
• Academic calendar: Term dates, add/drop deadlines, and exam periods come from the central academic calendar, which the FAS site points to.
• Libraries: Harvard Library is a separate system; the FAS site links to it rather than hosting catalog search itself.
• Advising and student support: Harvard College and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences each maintain their own student-facing pages for advising, tutoring, and academic support.

The pattern is consistent: fas.harvard.edu is the index, and the resource you want is one click away on a specialized site.

Entry points by audience

Who you are changes which path is shortest.

• Prospective students: Start with Harvard College (for undergraduate study) or the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (for PhD and master's programs), then move to the specific department or program.
• Current students: Go directly to the course catalog, academic calendar, and your school's advising pages; the FAS homepage is mainly useful for finding a department you have not visited before.
• Faculty and researchers: Department sites and the relevant center or institute pages are more useful than the FAS homepage, which is largely institutional.
• Visitors and the public: The FAS site is a reasonable overview of what the faculty is and which units it contains, but events, news, and public lectures are usually posted on individual school or department pages.

Common sticking points

• Expecting course listings on the FAS homepage. They are not there; follow the link to the course catalog instead.
• Confusing FAS with Harvard University as a whole. FAS is one faculty within Harvard, so university-wide services like the library or central IT live on separate sites.
• Landing on a department page and stopping there. Department sites often have their own sub-navigation for undergraduate vs. graduate study; check both if you are unsure which applies to you.
• Assuming a program is a department. Interdisciplinary programs may be administered jointly and listed separately from any single department.

If you tell me the specific department, program, or resource you are looking for, I can point to the more direct route.