Wolcowitz says information about the citations can be found in the Handbook for Students and that most language professors mention it in their classes.

But Gasgarth says too few people know of the benefits to take advantage of the program.

“If [faculty] thought it was a motivating factor, you’d think there’d be more publicity, especially if it can count for Foreign Cultures,” Gasgarth says.

The Invisible Certificate

Certificates—issued for health policy, MBB, Latin American studies and African studies—occupy a more ambiguous role among academic programs at Harvard.

Specific requirements for each certificate vary, but each requires coursework and an honors thesis that connect the certificate topic to the larger concentration.

Unlike foreign language citations, certificates are not voted on by the full Faculty and are instead issued by various Faculty committees, Wolcowitz says.

And because certificates are not officially recognized by the University, they are not included on transcripts—and are not even mentioned in official publications like the Handbook for Students, Wolcowitz says.

But Gutman Professor of Latin American Affairs John H. Coatsworth says lack of University recognition does not make certificates wholly worthless.

“They are not officially FAS certificates, but they are certainly certificates of the entities within FAS or within Harvard FAS committee that issued them,” Coatsworth says. “They are official enough to list on your résumé.”

Gordon C. McCord ’02 says he sees a certificate as valuable proof of his academic interest in Latin American studies.

“It is a signal that you are a Latin Americanist,” he says. “You wrote a thesis and you took courses in and outside of Latin America.”

“Without the certificate program I’d be giving a much weaker signal. I could say I was interested in Latin America but I’d have nothing to prove it,” he said.