Harvard Extension School | Online Courses, Degrees, Certificates (2025)

FAQs

Are Harvard online certificates useful? ›

Yes, Harvard certificates are respected. Offered through the Harvard Extension School, Harvard's certificate programs are fully accredited. Employers know these certificates are backed by Harvard's long history in higher education.

Harvard Extension School is one of the 12 degree-granting schools at Harvard University. Since 1910, we have been providing educational opportunities to adult, part-time learners driven to make an impact in the world.

Is Harvard Extension School worth it? It depends. There are professional certificates, free courses, and undergraduate and graduate degree options available on e-learning platforms such as edX and Coursera. Many are comparatively affordable and sourced from other top universities.

Extension School courses are approved each year by Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) to count toward the Harvard degrees of Associate in Arts in Extension Studies (not accepting new students), Bachelor of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies, and Master of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies.

If you've successfully completed an HBS Online course, we encourage you to list this accomplishment on your resume and LinkedIn profile. Your completion status can also be verified by downloading the Course Verification Form. For program descriptions for LinkedIn, please refer to the course-specific FAQs.

Prospective students may wonder if online degrees are just as respected as on-campus programs. Research indicates that 61% of human resource leaders firmly believe in the equal or superior quality of online learning compared to more traditional methods.

Harvard Extension School administrator Shirley R. Greene was accused of 42 instances of plagiarism in her 2008 University of Michigan dissertation in a complaint sent to the University Friday — the latest in a string of anonymous plagiarism complaints against Black Harvard officials.

By taking a Harvard Online course, will I be enrolled at Harvard or have any Harvard alumni privileges? As a Harvard Online participant, you join the Harvard Online community; however, you will not be considered a Harvard student. When you earn your certificate or credential, you will not be considered a Harvard alum.

Computer and Email Accounts

Once you've registered for courses and claimed your HarvardKey, you can activate a Google Workspace account and Harvard Gmail address for use during the term.

What is the acceptance rate for Harvard extensions school? ›

HES boasts of nearly 15,000 students taking classes at any given time. Nearly 5000 of those students are admitted (meaning they passed the first three courses, and their essay and resume were good) which is 30%. Of that 5000 only about 1000 graduate (6.6% if the 15,000).

Graduate Programs Academic Standing Requirements

In addition to maintaining a GPA of 3.0 to be in good standing, you must also be making satisfactory academic progress, successfully completing at least two-thirds of the classes for which you enroll. If your GPA falls below 3.0, you are in poor academic standing.

Harvard College and other Harvard graduate schools are more selective and prestigious, catering to traditional students, whereas HES offers accessible and flexible programs for non-traditional and adult learners.

When you graduate from a degree program at Harvard Extension School, you automatically become an Alumni Member of the HEAA. You also become a member of the Harvard Alumni Association (HAA), extending your benefits to the greater university community.

Harvard Extension School emphasizes that no student has a “right” to admission into an Extension School degree program. Satisfaction of the applicable academic requirements and maintaining good academic standing are necessary, but not sufficient, conditions for admission.

1 Answer. Yes, the Harvard Edx certificate is worth it. Harvard online certificate programs are popular simply because they are delivered by Harvard University in conjunction with Havard Extension School. Many prospective students usually ask 'is Harvard edX certificate worth it?

Yes. In fact, around two thirds of students who enroll in CS50 have never taken a computer science course before. So if you're new to the field and looking to learn the basics, you'll be in good company.

The Value of an HBS Online Certificate

Forty-two percent of more than 2,000 respondents said an HBS Online course helped them increase their compensation. The average increase was $17,000—meaning those who realized such benefits saw a 10-times return on their $1,750 investment in a course.

Undergraduate certificates are stand-alone academic credentials that allow you to broaden your knowledge, update your professional profile, and explore new fields of interest. Earning a certificate can be a great first step to exploring a new field of study.