How To Go Into Harvard – A Guide To Ivy League Admissions

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Every bit an elite test prep visitor whose students accept been accustomed to Harvard, its not uncommon for united states of america to be asked how to get into Harvard Academy. After all, attending a prestigious Ivy League school is undoubtedly a dream for many. And, while it may be more difficult to get into an Ivy League school such as Harvard, the adept news is that information technology's not totally impossible.

In this article, we're going to discuss how to get into Harvard university including:

  • the Harvard acceptance rate (spoiler: it'south only 5% as we explain later in the article)
  • Harvard early on decision acceptance rate (it's 7.ix% – click here to see why)
  • Harvard university GPA requirements
  • plus, additional Harvard university requirements you need to know

Ready to larn how to get into Harvard University? Allow'due south dive in:

Want to know your chances of acceptance? Calculate your chances with CollegeVine's complimentary admissions calculator.

  1. Dean of Admissions Explains The Harvard Admissions Procedure
  2. The History of Harvard University
  3. Harvard Campus Map
    • Harvard Academy Facilities
    • Notable Harvard Alumni
  4. Fun Facts About Harvard University
  5. What Kind of Pupil is Harvard Looking For?
  6. v Types of Students Harvard Admissions Prefer
    • In a Nutshell, Harvard Looks For Work-Life Residual
  7. Is Harvard the Right Fit For Me?
  8. Not certain if Harvard is the right school for yous?
  9. Harvard University Acceptance Rates
  10. Harvard Early on Decision Acceptance Rate
  11. Harvard Admissions Demographics
    • Demographics At A Glance
    • Harvard Course of 2024: Ethnicity Rates
  12. Harvard Form of 2024 Geographical Data
    • Areas Where Harvard Students Are From
  13. Pop Intended Fields of Written report by Harvard Students
  14. Harvard University Requirements: Here's What Yous Need to Become into Harvard
    • Harvard University Acceptance Rates Infographic
    • Harvard Academy GPA Requirements
    • What Saturday or ACT Scores Exercise You Demand To Get Into Harvard?
  15. Harvard Application Basics
    • Common App
    • Harvard'southward Supplemental Essays
  16. How to Get an Edge When Applying To Harvard
    • Apply Early Activity (If You lot Can)
    • Under-Represented Intended Major
    • Get Recommendations From Someone Who Knows Yous Well
    • Putting Information technology All Together
  17. Two Pitfalls To Avoid If You Want To Get Into Harvard
  18. Examples of Successful Harvard Applicants
  19. The Hardest Role of Getting Into Harvard
  20. Are you serious most getting into Harvard?
  21. Schedule a FREE Consultation

Dean of Admissions Explains The Harvard Admissions Procedure

Allow'southward start past jumping back a few years and hearing how Harvard's Dean of Admissions explicate the process.

In 2009, the New York Times interviewed William R. Fitzsimmons, the then dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard College.  Fitzsimons went into detail about the procedure past which Harvard evaluates the applicants in their pool.  He said that once the vast number of applications had been whittled down to a select group, admissions officers would go over each and every application in that pool individually.  Some applications were discussed and considered for over an hr.

What would they hash out for an hour? Everything.

Consider their job: the U.s. has just under 100,000 loftier schools, and Harvard received near forty,000 applications last yr.

That means every other high schoolhouse had i student who idea he or she was qualified for Harvard.

Out of those 40,000 Harvard applicants, only 1,980 were accepted.

That means for every l loftier schools in the United states of america, Harvard can only pick ane student to nourish.

Imagine taking l high schools worth of students and trying to find the best educatee. If only one in l students has a iv.0 GPA, that would still exit an entire loftier schoolhouse worth of perfect-GPA students, and Harvard volition only have i.

If that sounds extreme, information technology is.

Simply hither's the good news: someone'southward got to get into Harvard, and nosotros want it to be yous.

On that notation, let'due south start digging into some of the specifics. If you want to maximize your chances of getting into Harvard, avoid common mistakes, and observe out if Harvard is right for you, read on as we become over Harvard'southward University admission requirements, demographics, and strategies to succeed in the applicant pool.

The History of Harvard Academy

Harvard Campus Map

Before long, Harvard's total campus area occupies nearly 500 acres, concentrated in Cambridge and Boston.

Harvard University Facilities

Harvard has nine dissimilar facilities which students seeking access tin consider.

Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences includes:

  • the Harvard Higher
  • the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
  • the Sectionalization of Continuing Teaching
  • and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

The other eight facilities are:

  • Business concern Administration
  • Design
  • Divinity
  • Instruction
  • Regime
  • Law
  • Medicine (including Dental Medicine)
  • and Public Health

Additionally, Harvard also has the Radcliffe Institute for Avant-garde Study.

Notable Harvard Alumni

ruth bader ginsburg, harvard alumni
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Harvard graduate and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Harvard boasts a staggeringly impressive listing of notable alumni. Any pupil who gains admission to Harvard tin can have pride in knowing they will exist attending a school that has produced an infrequent roster of artists, politicians, scientists, and prodigies in endless other fields as well.

Onetime Harvard alumni include:

  • Westward. Eastward. B. Du Bois
  • T.S. Eliot
  • Hellen Keller
  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg
  • Neil deGrasse Tyson
  • Matt Damon
  • Al Gore
  • and Mark Zuckerberg

Just that's just to name a few…

Harvard has too produced (either every bit alumni or staff) 28 Nobel laureates, the first of which was Professor Theodore William Richards who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1914 for determining atomic weights; too as eight Presidents of the U.s.a., including John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, John F. Kennedy, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.

Fun Facts Most Harvard University

  1. The names of viii Harvard alumni, including Adams (pictured), adorn the Declaration of Independence.
continental soldiers

2. Continental soldiers were quartered in Old Stoughton College in 1775.  The soldiers caused so much harm to the edifice that information technology had to exist torn down.

harvards phi beta kappa logo

three. The oldest continuous chapter of Phi Beta Kappa was formed at Harvard in 1781.  Theodore Roosevelt later joined this affiliate in 1880.

mary fasano Harvards oldest graduate

4. In 1997, Mary Fasano became the oldest person always to earn a Harvard caste when she graduated from the Extension School at the age of 89.

nathaniel ames

5. In 1791, a writer in the Boston printing defendant Harvard of poisoning students' minds with Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Autumn of the Roman Empire.  President Joseph Willard replied that far from even considering Gibbon, the Higher used a text by French historian Abbé Millot.  Nathaniel Ames (pictured), who graduated from Harvard around 1812, recalled Millot's text equally "the most utterly worthless and contemptible piece of work of that kind or any other extant."

george parkman

six. In 1849, Dr. George Parkman (pictured) disappeared at the Medical School in ane of the about famous murder cases in Harvard history.  Before, Parkman had lent coin to colleague Dr. John White Webster.  To secure the loan, Webster gave Parkman a mortgage on his personal belongings, including a valuable collection of minerals.  When Parkman learned that Webster had backed some other loan with the same collection, he began relentlessly pursuing Webster to collect the debt.

A week after his disappearance, a suspicious janitor broke through a brick vault beneath Webster'due south lab and found human body parts, which the regime shortly discovered all effectually the lab.  Institute guilty of first-degree murder, Webster belatedly confessed and appealed for clemency, but was hanged on Aug. 30, 1850.  Parkman's widow led a fund drive to back up Webster's wife and children.

What Kind of Student is Harvard Looking For?

Students who are wondering how to get into Harvard need to know this:

Harvard is looking for students with "growth and potential".

To get accepted into Harvard, students must show commitment to excellence through "interests and activities," have ethical "character and personality," and "contribute to Harvard's community."

But what does that really mean?

Will you get into Harvard?

Find out how likely yous are to become accepted based on your GPA, test scores, and even extracurricular activities. Then, get custom recommendations for how to ameliorate your odds – completely for costless on CollegeVine.

Will y'all get into Harvard?

Find out how likely you are to get accepted based on your GPA, exam scores, and fifty-fifty extracurricular activities. Then, go custom recommendations for how to meliorate your odds – completely for free on CollegeVine.

v Types of Students Harvard Admissions Prefer

When they say they are looking for students with "growth and potential," they desire to meet that a prospective student is on their manner to ever increasing heights.  At its most bones level, this means students should not only have near-perfect grades, only that the difficulty of their courses should also steadily increase each yr.

young female harvard student depicts types of students who get into harvard
Harvard expects students to exhibit exemplary growth and potential.

Assume that near Harvard applicants will accept perfect grades.

How exercise you differentiate in this environment?

i. Those Who Seek Out Advanced Classes To Go Into Harvard

With the difficulty and quantity of your coursework. All 4.0 GPAs are non created equal—a 4.0 GPA that was achieved with all AP classes is superior to one that isn't.

Students looking for an edge should constantly exist looking for ways to grow outside the available high school curriculum.

Supplement your loftier school curriculum with courses from your local customs college in subjects more than advanced or unavailable at your high school.

This demonstrates dedication to noesis and intellectual curiosity.

Harvard is looking for students who volition be the future best in their field, so what students cull to focus their growth and potential on should chronicle to their hereafter aspirations.

2. Students Who Know What They Desire To Exercise Afterwards Graduation

Harvard is nigh interested in students who already know or have an idea of what they want to practise afterward they graduate college.  However, information technology is not necessary to have a fully fleshed out plan so long as a student can demonstrate that they have given the topic serious consideration and have actively explored options that do interest them.

3. Passionate Individuals With Demonstrated Leadership

Harvard wants students who are passionate about something specific and meaningful to them.  This mostly comes in two forms: interests and activities that relate dorsum to a student's future career goals, or interests and activities which demonstrate either a pupil'south unique life experience or a educatee's "character and personality."

For the sometime, Harvard prefers students who actively pursue a narrow field of interest to a meaningful degree.  Sixty-five percent of students from the class of 2023 reported holding a leadership position in one to three extracurriculars, with the bulk of those belongings but i to two leadership positions.

Even so, this isn't a difficult and fast rule: so long as a pupil is passionate about what they do and devotes most of their extracurricular time to those passions.

4. Educatee's Who Don't Buy Into "Lodge Collector" Mentality

Similarly, while Harvard is interested in the breath and scope of the activities pursued in the name of a pupil's goal or passion, it is more of import that a student has taken the greatest advantage of all the activities they do have admission to.

But don't autumn victim to the 'society collector' mentality. Joining clubs is fine, simply being in five that have goose egg to exercise with one another or accept no link to your extracurricular passions is distracting.

Furthermore, lodge membership is somewhat causeless. Club leadership is better but is nonetheless basically table stakes at Harvard.

Consider doing something more meaningful, more challenging, or unique to demonstrate pursuit of your intellectual passions.

Don't accept any?

Unfortunately, y'all're going to have to fake it.

Harvard students studying together
Harvard expects students to contribute to the campus community and actively participate in educating themselves and their fellow students.

v. Students That Contribute To Their Communities

Those activities related to a student'due south unique life experience or their "graphic symbol and personality" may seem supplemental only are no less important.

Harvard specifically says that "contributions that students make to the well-being of their secondary schools, communities, and families are of great interest to u.s.a.."

This includes:

  • extracurricular activities
  • local community
  • work experiences
  • and assist provided to family, such as babysitting, household responsibilities, or working in a restaurant to assistance with family unit or personal expenses

These activities "may reflect underlying character and personal qualities," according to Harvard.

Yet…

Our view is that Harvard doesn't really believe this statement.

Absent extreme extenuating circumstances, a student who talks about babysitting and household responsibilities is not going to exist a competitive bidder compared to ane who has published a novel.

Harvard is, of course, looking for customs involvement, but non of the banal variety.

If you lot're passionate about your community, prove it by leading a protest or helping a mayoral candidate, not by babysitting. The one thing which holds truthful, regardless of activity, is that they should demonstrate a student'due south commitment to excellence.

When Harvard says they are looking for students with "character and personality," they are looking for students with intellectual imagination, strength of character, and who can exercise personal initiative and good judgment.

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In a Nutshell, Harvard Looks For Work-Life Balance

On the most basic level, Harvard wants students with fourth dimension management and work-life rest skills.

Harvard is a difficult schooling surround for students who are not self-motivated. They only accept students they believe can handle that rigor.  More broadly, Harvard is looking for students who can be teachers to other students, though not in a lecture-type sense.

Harvard alumni oftentimes study that the education they received from fellow classmates was as valuable and intellectually stimulating equally the i they received from their professors.  Harvard wants students who provide fascinating conversation over coffee or dejeuner and who exit their fellows feeling enriched.

harvard student exercising between study sessions
To get into Harvard, students are expected to maintain piece of work-life residual between their extra-curricular activities, customs service, and studies.

The concluding thing Harvard describes looking for in prospective students is their ability to "contribute to the Harvard community."  Much of what nosotros have already discussed, such equally the ability to take on the pressures of college life and being a teacher to fellow students, applies here, but this has more to do with what a student will do on campus rather than who they are.

About 75% of the Harvard class of 2023 reported beingness involved in community service during High school, but this is not the merely way students can demonstrate how they volition contribute to the Harvard customs.  For students seeking access to Harvard, it is more important to demonstrate that their interests are Harvard-specific.

Is Harvard the Right Fit For Me?

Hopefully, the in-depth give-and-take of what type of student Harvard wants has illuminated whether Harvard is a good lucifer for your or your pupil'southward personality.

In terms of classmates, all Harvard students characterize their beau students equally intelligent, driven, and infrequent.  Students usually come from a wealthy background, with well-off outnumbering low-income students 23-to-1.

Only this should not be a deterrent to Harvard applicants of any background.

We mention this as an indication of the civilisation yous're likely to feel, as Harvard has a reputation for snobbery that is not entirely undeserved, though general consensus implies that such students tin be avoided.

harvard campus services
Earlier applying to Harvard, consider if you are a good fit for the school and will mesh well with the campus atmosphere.

The school has a "sink or swim" mentality, where students who are non independent and self-directed will struggle.  The numerous opportunities for inquiry, networking, etc. must be actively pursued, and students who exercise non do so volition not accept those opportunities.

However, students who have mental fortitude and drive thrive at Harvard.

Not sure if Harvard is the right school for yous?

Dive into our comprehensive, data-backed guides to larn what it takes to get into any of the Ivy Leagues, including:

  • what your high school GPA should be
  • what your target Saturday or ACT test scores demand to be
  • what kind of extra-cirriculars to focus on

Plus, other actionable tips you tin use to gain an upstanding border when applying to your dream school.

  • How To Become Into The Ivy League
  • How To Get Into The Ivy League As An International Educatee
  • How To Get Into Brownish
  • How To Become Into Columbia
  • How To Go Into Cornell
  • How To Get Into Dartmouth
  • How To Get Into Harvard
  • How To Go Into Princeton
  • How To Get Into UPenn
  • How To Get Into Yale

Harvard University Credence Rates

The Harvard Academy acceptance rate for the Class of 2024 was 5%. This figure was derived based on the admissions statistics on Harvard's website.

harvard acceptance rate for the Class of 2024 was 5%

According to Harvard there were a total of 40,248 students that applied. Of those students, two,015 were accepted into Harvard, including 34 from the look list.

The Harvard Ruby noted, "This year's admissions charge per unit marks a slight increase from the record-depression iv.l pct admitted to the Class of 2023. The College'south acceptance charge per unit has steadily declined for the past several years; the bump in this year's rate is the first increment since students applied to the Grade of 2018. The number of applicants in this admissions cycle was seven percent lower than last yr."

Harvard Early Conclusion Acceptance Rate

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Early Decision acceptance charge per unit is 7.nine%. (We'll talk more than about why you should apply Early Activeness a flake later on in the article.)

Harvard Admissions Demographics

Most students are white, and about 24% of those white students tend to be legacies (significant their parents were Harvard alumni). The total number of legacy students admitted to Harvard each year fluctuates slightly simply generally hovers effectually 15%.

I written report revealed that 43% of white students admitted into Harvard in the terminal six years were either:

  • legacy students
  • recruited athletes
  • children of faculty members
  • or teens whose relatives had donated large amounts of money to the academy

Demographics At A Glance

Compare your information to those of the students accustomed into the Harvard Course of 2024.

harvard student body ethnicity demographics chart

Harvard Class of 2024: Ethnicity Rates

  • White: 46.1%
  • Asian: 24.4%
  • Hispanic or Latino: 12.7%
  • African American: fourteen.7%
  • Native American: i.8%
  • Native Hawaiian: 0.iii%

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Most Harvard students come up from the Northeast and West coast, which is besides where the largest volume of Harvard applications come from.

Furthermore, 60% of students come from suburban areas, 30% from urban areas, and simply ten% come from rural areas.  Equally such, students applying from a less populous country, such as the Great Plains states, may have a slight admissions advantage past virtue of less competition from their area.

Areas Where Harvard Students Are From

harvard student body geography graph
  • Mountain 3%
  • Pacific fourteen%
  • Central 2%
  • Mid-Atlantic 22%
  • South 20%
  • Midwest 10%
  • New England 18%
  • International 12%

Nearly students who are admitted to Harvard accept declared some intended field of written report, fifty-fifty if they end up pursuing a different concentration.  Most students study Biological Sciences or Social Sciences.  This makes sense given that Harvard's graduate Biological and Physical Sciences programs as well every bit their Political and Social Science programs consistently rank as tiptop 5 in the nation.

  • Humanities: xiv.8%
  • Social Sciences: 26.0%26
  • Biological Sciences: xviii.nine%
  • Physical Sciences: 7.7%
  • Engineering: ten.half dozen%
  • Calculator Sciences: 8.ii%
  • Math: 7.iv%
  • Undecided: 6.5%
graph of harvard student majors

So long every bit they have the quality of activities to demonstrate passionate involvement on their application, students who use while declaring a less common intended major may have an easier time standing out from their peers.  This is specially truthful if they are an underrepresented demographic within that concentration, such as women in informatics (note that in that location are some caveats hither that will be addressed afterwards).

By that same token, students who apply to Harvard every bit undecided may have a harder time standing out and volition demand to brand sure their application is exceptional in some other way.

Harvard University Requirements: Here'due south What Y'all Need to Get into Harvard

If you remember, the Harvard credence rate is merely 5%. Information technology'southward an extremely difficult school to become into. On pinnacle of stellar grades, Harvard university requirements include:

  • iv years of a foreign language
  • four years of English (focused on classics and world literature)
  • at to the lowest degree 3 years History (i twelvemonth each of American and European, with 1 year of some avant-garde history course)
  • iv years of Math
  • and 4 years of Science (ane year each of Physics, Chem, and Biology, and one boosted year of any of those three at an advanced level)

Harvard also recommends students take coursework which regularly practices "expository prose" (5-paragraph essays or similar).

Harvard Academy Credence Rates Infographic

Harvard University Acceptance Rates infographic

Harvard Academy GPA Requirements

Almost all students admitted to Harvard had a high school GPA of 3.75 or higher.  Withal, as we previously discussed, GPA is not the most useful metric for colleges when comparing applicants.

average gpa of harvard students

What SAT or Deed Scores Do You lot Need To Go Into Harvard?

Students' admitted to Harvard had average SAT scores from 1460 to 1580 points; and ACT scores ranging from 33 to 35.

average sat and act scores of harvard students

For Harvard, it seems to exist more important that students are in the top per centum of their graduating class.  Of students whose high school provided class rank, 94% of admitted students were in the top 10% of their graduating course, and no students were in the bottom 50%.

Harvard says that "sometimes AP or IB scores are higher than equivalent SAT or ACT scores and tin demonstrate a wider range of your accomplishments," so if a student'due south Sabbatum or Deed scores are not up-to-par, they can hypothetically make up for information technology with stellar AP and IB scores.

Nonetheless, keep in mind that the AP and IB tests are an additional cost to the Sabbatum and ACT. They also encompass a wider and deeper range of topics, and achieving an fantabulous outcome on an AP or IB test is more difficult than performing well on the Saturday or ACT.

student studying to get into harvard
If y'all are seeking comprisal to Harvard University yous need potent exam scores in addition to a loftier GPA.

Fifty-fifty in the era of COVID-19, admitting a decent Saturday or Human action score is in a pupil's best interest equally, even though submitting scores is optional this year, doing so demonstrates a student's commitment to excellence, a quality Harvard emphatically prizes. (You can read more virtually the change to Harvard's Sat and Deed requirements here.)

Harvard recommends that students submit two Sabbatum Subject Test scores of their choice.

(Update one/23/2021: The College Lath has officially ended the SAT Field of study Tests. Yous tin can read more about this story here.)

This is technically optional but highly recommended. Specially for international students and students whose first language is not English language.

What Subject Tests a educatee takes should exist determined by what their intended bailiwick is and what they excel in to demonstrate their academic prowess.

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Harvard Application Nuts

Mutual App

About students applying to Harvard use the Common App.  Students doing so should make sure to fill out all the fields optimally.

For example, Harvard specifically mentions on their "application tips" webpage that descriptions in the "Positions held, honors won, letters earned, or employer" category should exist concise, otherwise they may be cut off, implying that this is an mistake many students make.

Students who want to exist accustomed should make sure they are non 1 such casualty.

Similarly, there are diverse points on the Common App where students will take a express amount of space to write or list their activities.  Harvard calls these places an "act of prioritization".  Students should convey the most crucial parts of who they are and what they have done concisely and with specificity.

For instance, "raised $30,000 for UNICEF" is a ameliorate than "hosted UNICEF fundraiser."  This style, students demonstrate that they are Harvard material not just with what they say but with how they say it.

Harvard's three supplemental essays are amongst the about important ways—-besides students' personal statements—-to stand out from the application crowd.

student typing supplemental essay to get into harvard

The first prompt should be less than 150 words and reads equally follows:

Students should elaborate on one of the activities listed in their application but which they have not already discussed elsewhere.

Every bit with most things in the Harvard application, students should prioritize what is about important to them and explicate how and why that is.  Bonus points for doing and so through a brief anecdote.

Harvard Supplemental Essay Prompt #2

The second prompt should also be 150 words and reads:

Your intellectual life may extend beyond the academic requirements of your detail schoolhouse.  Please use the space below to listing additional intellectual activities that you accept non mentioned or detailed elsewhere in your application.  These could include, but are not limited to, supervised or self-directed projects not done as schoolwork, preparation experiences, online courses not run by your school, or summer bookish or research programs not described elsewhere.

This essay is first-class for quickly describing activities and experiences which do not fit neatly anywhere else in the application.  Students could discuss edifice an App at home, shadowing someone in a profession they wish to go into some day or familiarizing themselves with a country'due south language through an online form before visiting.  These types of activities provide a alter for students to demonstrate the qualities Harvard is looking for (dedication to excellent, cocky-motivation, etc.) in a unique way.

The final prompt should exist around 500 words long and reads:

Y'all may wish to include an additional essay if you feel that the college application forms do non provide sufficient opportunity to convey of import information near yourself or your accomplishments.  You may write on a topic of your choice, or y'all may choose from one of the post-obit topics:

  • Unusual circumstances in your life
  • Travel, living, or working experiences in your own or other communities
  • What you would want your futurity college roommate to know about you
  • An intellectual experience (course, project, volume, discussion, paper, poetry, or research topic in engineering, mathematics, scientific discipline or other modes of inquiry) that has meant the most to you
  • How y'all hope to apply your higher education
  • A list of books you have read during the past twelve months
  • The Harvard College Accolade lawmaking declares that nosotros "hold honesty as the foundation of our customs." As yous consider entering this customs that is committed to honesty, delight reflect on a time when you or someone you observed had to make a choice virtually whether to act with integrity and honesty.
  • The mission of Harvard College is to brainwash our students to exist citizens and citizen-leaders for club. What would you do to contribute to the lives of your classmates in advancing this mission?
  • Each year a substantial number of students admitted to Harvard defer their admission for ane year or take time off during higher. If yous decided in the future to cull either pick, what would you like to do?
  • Harvard has long recognized the importance of pupil body multifariousness of all kinds. We welcome y'all to write about distinctive aspects of your background, personal development or the intellectual interests y'all might bring to your Harvard classmates.

This essay is technically optional, but if students want to be competitive, no essay is truly optional.

For this essay, that is especially true.

Students should call up of this as a 2d personal argument specifically for Harvard.

If possible, students should leave this essay until final to give themselves the enough of time to brainstorm.  According to Harvard, in the past, successful students accept used this prompt to "ship [Harvard] an essay that they wrote for another school that they thought turned out particularly well; others connect to 1 of our suggested prompts to add to the common personal statement already prepared."

The specific topic a student chooses for this prompt is less important than using it to demonstrate the Harvard-qualities that students possesses.

How to Become an Edge When Applying To Harvard

student applying to harvard
Our best advice is to utilise early activeness to increase your chances to get into Harvard.

Employ Early on Action (If You Tin)

The unmarried all-time thing a student can do to improve their admission's chance is applying early activeness, but only if their application is completely ready by the early action deadline.

Call up, the The Harvard early determination acceptance rate is vii.ix%. That means Early Activeness candidates are near three to four times more probable to be accepted than those who only utilise regular determination.

However, this is because students who apply early had known for years that Harvard was their height choice and have honed their applications to perfection long before the deadline.

FURTHER READING: Most Higher Admissions Advice is Wrong. Hither'south What Your Child Should Practise Instead.

Under-Represented Intended Major

With the Harvard acceptance rate being every bit depression as information technology is, one fashion to get an edge is by choosing an nether-represented major.

Perhaps the best intended major to declare is the Humanities.  From the section on Application Demographics, students should know that about students apply with Social Sciences or Biological Scientific discipline as their intended major.

Due to the volume of applicants, students who listing these equally their intended major volition be in competition with everyone else who did the same.

Withal, students should also avoid going in the verbal opposite management by choosing the least represented majors in the accustomed applicant pool: Information science and Engineering.

These majors may really decrease a student'south chances at acceptance, and the reason why stems from a unmarried question:

Is Harvard the best place to pursue an education in those majors?

Harvard is known for producing Nobel laureates and political heavy weights.  Students genuinely seeking an exceptional degree in Informatics or Engineering could receive an equal or amend education in those fields at MIT or Caltech, and Harvard knows information technology.

If a educatee is determined to apply with such majors anyway, he or she should make sure to explicate in 1 of their essays what Harvard has which furthers the educatee's goals and that other colleges cannot provide.

For instance, wanting to go into computer science for election security and developing online voting.

That said, the safer bet for applicants is to choose the popular but underrepresented majors for their application: Humanities and (even) Biological Sciences.

Get Recommendations From Someone Who Knows Yous Well

teacher talking to students
Nurture relationships with your professors and bosses early on earlier asking for a letter of the alphabet of recommendation to accompany your Harvard application.

Forth with a student's personal essays, the recommendations submitted with the application are one of the admissions officers' biggest windows into who a educatee is.

While guidance councilors are invaluable to their schools and students, most guidance counselors in the Us service upwards of 500 students per year, which limits the amount of time they can spend with each student.

It tin exist difficult for councilors and teachers to go in depth on a educatee they do not know well or when they also take 100 other recommendations to write in just a few weeks.  This could outcome in letters of recommendation which come off equally rote or play into stereotypes, both of which have a improve chance of harming a student's admissions chances than helping them.

Students should look for a councilor/mentor/teacher who knows them well and on a personal level.

Educatee should also ask their chosen letters of recommendation writers well in advance of whatever deadlines to give them enough fourth dimension to craft meaningful and insightful messages of recommendation.

Putting It All Together

The student with the best (statistical) chance of success comes from a rural area, comes from a unique groundwork (such as being a first generation American), and is applying with the Humanities as their intended major.

That student has fantabulous SAT or Human action scores and a GPA which places him or her in the top x% of their course.  And Finally, the student has infrequent personal essays and teacher recommendations which highlight their passions every bit well as their energetic but mature personality.

Two Pitfalls To Avoid If You Want To Get Into Harvard

Two ways not to get an edge at Harvard are attempting to transfer or taking a gap yr and applying over again.

That is not to say that students who maintain a stiff academic and extracurricular profile will not have a shot, only the transfer credence rate is extremely low and requires extra work.

Taking a gap yr is generally riskier than merely accepting a spot at a different school and requesting a gap year at that place.

Examples of Successful Harvard Applicants

It may exist easier for some to get a stronger idea of what all has been done to get into Harvard by seeing it in practice.  Provided here are links to examples of students telling their success stories and showing the applications which helped them succeed in getting into Harvard.

However, students reading these applications should call up that this is how other students got into Harvard, it is non an exact guide on what they need to do.

These are references and guidelines, not common cold, hard rulebooks for how to make it.

  • What One Student's Marked-Up Harvard Application Reveals About the Admissions Process
  • 10 Successful Harvard Application Essays | 2019

The Hardest Part of Getting Into Harvard

Every bit with all Ivy League schools, admissions to Harvard requires a demonstration of academic and extracurricular excellence. What makes Harvard unlike is that the things that would be considered excellent at near any other school are expected at Harvard.

graduating class at Harvard ivy league

If you lot want to know how to get Into Harvard University, we can confidently say that it's not the application that makes Harvard admissions difficult, it'southward the things you must do in the four years earlier the application that make the commission spend an hour marveling over your achievements.

And then how do you lot distinguish yourself in an bidder pool full of people who accomplished perfect grades?

You reach perfect grades in harder and more courses.

How do you distinguish when anybody founded or is president of three clubs?

You cull a specific focus and exercise things that others aren't. If you similar art, don't bring together an fine art guild—submit your fine art to competitions; teach art therapy; write a book on art.

Similarly—how practise you distinguish yourself when everyone has a 1500 Sat score?

Past scoring a 1550, of course.

Are you lot serious about getting into Harvard?

With the best average point gains in our industry, Powerful Prep students are accustomed into the nation'due south top schools, and often receive merit-based scholarships that more than cover the cost of our services.

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Find out how Powerful Prep can build a customized, one-on-one plan to conform your student'due south needs and goals. Requite u.s. a telephone call at 714-312-1393 or consummate the form below.