Harvard University is a private Ivy League school located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The acceptance rate for the class of 2025 to Harvard College was just over 3.4%. You read that right—3.4%. Its reputation precedes itself. It has more Nobel Prize-winning and Field Medals-winning alumni than anywhere else on Earth and has turned out more U.S. presidents than any other school in the nation. So, if you really think you have a shot, here’s how we recommend tackling the (extremely long) supplement:
You may wish to include an additional essay if you feel that the college application forms do not provide sufficient opportunity to convey important information about yourself or your accomplishments. You may write on a topic of your choice, or you may choose from one of the following topics:
- Unusual circumstances in your life
- Travel, living, or working experiences in your own or other communities
- What you would want your future college roommate to know about you
- An intellectual experience (course, project, book, discussion, paper, poetry, or research topic in engineering, mathematics, science or other modes of inquiry) that has meant the most to you
- How you hope to use your college education
- A list of books you have read during the past twelve months
- The Harvard College Honor code declares that we "hold honesty as the foundation of our community." As you consider entering this community that is committed to honesty, please reflect on a time when you or someone you observed had to make a choice about whether to act with integrity and honesty.
- The mission of Harvard College is to educate our students to be citizens and citizen-leaders for society. 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 one year or take time off during college. If you decided in the future to choose either option, what would you like to do?
- Harvard has long recognized the importance of student body diversity of all kinds. We welcome you to write about distinctive aspects of your background, personal development or the intellectual interests you might bring to your Harvard classmates.
If you plan to submit an additional essay, please select a prompt from the list below. If you do not intend to submit an additional essay, leave this question blank.
Harvard’s supplement is super-duper long. Like whoa. They also say it’s optional. We, at TKG, firmly believe that nothing is optional. Especially with a 3.4% acceptance rate. If you’re applying to a school like Harvard, you need to put in the extra work and complete the supplement.
Harvard gives you a bunch of prompts you can choose from. But at the top, they also say you can write about whatever you want. We recommend going through the prompts and seeing if anything inspires you. If it doesn’t, our advice here is to basically write a second Common App. The first thing to note is that the supplement is an opportunity for you to demonstrate a part of your personality that’s not present elsewhere on your application. We recommend asking your friends for a list of adjectives that describes you. Then, pick 2-3 and tell a story that demonstrates those characteristics.
The story can be commonplace. In fact, it shouldn’t be one that talks about a big existential moment in your life, a tragedy, or a revelation about religion, for example. This can be as simple as a story you can tell about your drive to school. Make the story highly specific. Make sure the story has a beginning, middle, and end.
Harvard’s supplement is hard because it is so open-ended. You can write about literally anything, but you don’t want to go too big. Instead, focus on something small. Who you are and why you’re unique should be at the forefront of this supplement.
Need help writing the Harvard supplement? Call us. We’re great at helping students write essays that set them apart.