Life in Boston

Choosing to study and live in Boston as a BBS student affords a world-class education in a booming, exciting city.  

Right outside the doors of Harvard Medical School are some of the finest museums, sport venues, restaurants, and academic institutions in the arts and sciences. 

Fenway ParkMaintaining a social life outside of the lab is important for our students’ wellness, and luckily, Boston provides a wealth of possibilities. Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox baseball team is just a ten-minute walk from HMS; indeed, some labs even have a view of the famous left-field wall called the Green Monster. A quick trip down the Green or Orange Line on the MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, or “T”) brings you to the TD Garden Arena for Bruins hockey or Celtics basketball.  

Isabella Stewart Gardner MuseumFor art buffs and historians, you may find yourself two blocks away being served hors d’oeuvres and champagne amidst the Venetian-style palazzo and tropical garden in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, home to works of Rembrandt and Raphael, and infamous victim of an art heist, with the empty frames of the stolen masterpieces on display. Or, you may be wowed by the Art of the Americas Wing at the Museum of Fine Arts just a few blocks down Huntington Avenue. Should you be interested in emerging artists, Harvard Medical School rubs campus shoulders with Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

If history is your hobby, Boston is the Cradle of Liberty, from the Freedom Trail to Colonial-era architecture, including the magnificent campus of Harvard University just across the Charles River in Cambridge.  

As a city, Boston is cosmopolitan, international, eclectic, and entrepreneurial, all the while being easily navigable given its relatively small size, excellent public transportation, and beautiful neighborhoods. Spring and Fall are gloriously lush, summers are breezy and temperate, and winters, while snow-filled, offer the easy pleasures of local skiing, sledding, ice skating, and hot drinks around a cozy fire.

Dragon Boat RaceSocial opportunities also abound within BBS, HMS, and the Harvard Kenneth C Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Communities, and participation in extracurricular activities is strongly encouraged. For example, kicking off the academic year is the BBS Retreat in the beautiful resort town of Provincetown, on Cape Cod. This is a student run retreat – a weekend getaway –comprised of great science talks and posters; skits, singing, dancing, and parties; walks along the beach and dips in the pool; and fudge and saltwater taffy from town. Simply put, BBS takes over the entire hotel and merges science with fun, relaxation, and celebration.

The Student Center at Harvard Griffin GSAS offers social, intellectual, and recreational activities designed to help students make connections outside of the classroom, lab, or library and across the various academic programs and campus locations in Harvard Griffin GSAS.  Hop aboard the LMA Shuttle to go to the Harvard University Cambridge campus. Your student ID gets you into all the amazing Harvard museums, such as the Harvard Museum of Natural History and The Harvard Art Museums, as well as the athletic centers.

This is but a small snapshot of what Boston and Harvard has to offer. BBS students build a community not only within the program and Harvard Medical School, but also with the city of Boston itself.