Mission and Vision

Today’s RSEA Program is as vital as it ever has been. The mission of the RSEA Program to educate students entering the academic and professional fields about every aspect of East Asia is more important than ever.

RSEA students must meet the rigorous standards of Harvard. With an admission rate of 16%-18%, RSEA admits an extraordinary cohort each year. Today, more than ever, RSEA students enter the Program with advanced East Asian language proficiency and often have studied a second East Asian language.

The Program’s advising structure has been intensified over the past decade, and each RSEA student is matched with an advisor with expertise in their area of interest with over 50 faculty members across the many schools at Harvard working enthusiastically with RSEA students. This interdisciplinary approach provides a broad stage for students to flourish in their interests, and the small size of the cohort brings them together to improve mutual understanding and collaboration.

Though many students’ academic interests may focus on one country, some also focus on comparative work with other countries or work in an academic field that crosses borders. The RSEA program has a flexible, student-oriented curriculum with broad general guidelines. Students develop their own independent study plans supervised by their academic advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies. The broad spectrum of courses offered at Harvard allows students to pursue courses in support of their future career paths, such as law, business, and government policy, among others.

RSEA students engage in the same classes as doctoral students across a broad range of disciplines and areas. The capstone of their studies is a thesis on an original topic in their field. RSEA theses result from extensive research using primary source materials, often breaking new ground by exploring unanswered questions.

Today, RSEA continues to uphold this rich scholarly legacy and injects it with invigorating new perspectives and fresh talent, sustaining its dynamism and relevance in contemporary times.

The need to understand the histories, cultures, governments, and economic situations of the peoples and countries in East Asia will continue indefinitely into the future. Keeping a robust student body fully engaged in learning the histories and contemporary cultures of East Asia is vital to our academic communities, our governments, and our businesses.

As the need for knowledge about East Asia and its relationship with the world increases, the need for the RSEA Program remains strong. The wide-ranging backgrounds of our students help to build relationships across socio-economic divides, bridging political differences, allowing for the exchange of ideas and perspectives, enriching the learning experience, and preparing for the global workforce needed in tomorrow’s world.

Still, there are challenges. While the generosity of the Harvard Griffin GSAS, the area Centers, the Harvard-Yenching Institute, and the newly established Albert and Teruko Craig Fellowship allow some students to receive tuition scholarships; however, the majority of our students receive only partial funding or are self-funded. As a result, some of our top admitted students decline our offer each year, choosing to accept the larger funding packages offered by our competing top-tier institutions. This directly impacts the diversity of each cohort and causes our program to lose our desired candidates.

The rise in the cost of higher education over the past 20 years weighs heavily on our new admits and current students. Tuition is quickly approaching $60,000 per year, and the high cost of living in Cambridge and the rapidly rising inflation rate make pursuing a graduate education a very real struggle for master’s degree students who are primarily unfunded at Harvard. Regrettably, each year we witness prospective students of exceptional promise forgoing their Harvard admission due to the unavailability of timely financial aid, opting instead for universities like Yale, Stanford, or Columbia that extend a more favorable financial package—a trend we strive to address and reverse.

Alleviating the financial burden on students goes beyond simply allowing entry into the program and permitting them to focus on their academics. It also allows students the freedom to pursue careers or job opportunities that pay less, but nevertheless impact the world in crucial ways.

The success of the program is evident in the impact the graduates have on the world. The commitment of the faculty and staff has ensured the program’s completion rate is extremely high. The overwhelming majority of students (over 95%) graduate within two years, with a small minority taking additional time to complete their thesis. In an impressive showcase of the RSEA program’s efficacy and support, out of 250 students over the past 12 years, 99.6% completed their degree. As these numbers make clear, any funding provided to RSEA students results in an exceptionally high “success” rate among our students.

The coming years will be critical in deciding how RSEA addresses the above challenges, and how we can retain the success story of Regional Studies East Asia at Harvard.