How they got into harvard

How to get into Harvard… If you can’t give them money, tell them what they want to hear.

Has ‘the smartest university’ learned the lessons of Adam Wheeler’s rise and fall?

The middle of May is that time of year when, full of hope for the future, graduates from universities all over the world sit through commencement speeches of varying quality before they march, leap, or occasionally cartwheel across the stage to grab that diploma that they have worked so hard (and paid so much) to achieve.

I have been the person who stands on the stage, shaking those incredibly sweaty palms, handing over those fake leather folders containing ‘the diploma’, and I can tell you they never contain the actual degree (too much risk of handing the wrong document to the wrong student). They usually contain a piece of paper telling the student where and when they can get the real thing. But the students don’t know that. They — and their universities — have built up the sense of excitement to such a fever pitch that graduates often act is if they are being given the keys to the kingdom of heaven, rather than a placeholder.

This deception over the diploma should be the only bit of fakery that takes place in higher education. But it is not. Fraud and forgery are on the rise in universities and colleges. And it is not restricted to students: faculty and administrators are increasingly being caught out. Universities conveniently focus their attentions mostly on students and mostly on plagiarism; but they rarely check the résumés of faculty or staff. It’s true that universities usually have more students than faculty and staff, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that students are carrying out the majority of the faking and forging.

Universities have policies on plagiarism. But what policies are there about faculty and staff fakery and forgery? I know of none. Hiring guidelines require faculty and staff to state that the information they provide is factual and correct. But who checks?

And even if the students are being dishonest, shouldn’t the university have procedures in place that detect this? But what is the point of having policies, standards, and values if you don’t police and maintain them? Think of the harm that could be done to your institution’s reputation.

Ah, but then think of the good it will do your institution’s reputation if you have a ‘genius’ student, or a ‘genius’ member of faculty…

Let’s look at a case of the ‘genius’ student, at a university that should know better about maintaining standards; it’s called Harvard. You may have heard of it.

No such chill ran down the spines of those in the Admissions Office at Harvard when they received the transfer application from Adam Wheeler in 2007. If their hair stood on end it was because they thought they were holding in their hands the transfer application of a dream student. Wheeler submitted a transcript from the prestigious Phillips Academy in Andover that showed he had scored a perfect 1600 on his SATS. He was, he said, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) student who had got straight ‘A’s in his freshman year. Alongside this he had glowing letters of praise from professors and one from a counselor at Phillips which said Wheeler was “by far the most intellectually gifted and at the same time so incredibly unaffected, insightful, truly genuine student.’’

Wheeler submitted transcripts that listed the ten courses in philosophy and literature he had taken at MIT while still a student at Phillips as well as numerous other exceptional grades he had achieved. Included in this application package was an essay that was loftily disdainful of the undergraduate programmes at MIT, eight pages of poetry, and a short piece of prose about the effects on him of his parents’ recent divorce. Wheeler’s signature was on the form authorizing Harvard to access all of his secondary school records.

As part of the Harvard admissions process an in-person interview is carried out. This, according to Harvard, is intended to ensure that a rounded out view of an applicant is formed, rather than just looking at their SATS and other test scores. The admissions officer (a Harvard alumnus) who was sent out to interview Wheeler readily accepted that the location of the interview, Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine (over 130 miles from MIT), was a perfectly acceptable place to interview an MIT student, since Wheeler assured him that he was taking a course that was only available at Bowdoin at that time. He added that he had finished his MIT courses early, didn’t have any finals to take, and that he was helping a Bowdoin Professor of English write a book on Shakespeare. So far, so Harvard.

In spite of getting a D in his first year, Wheeler seemed to prosper at Harvard. He was asked to write to other incoming transfer students to welcome them. He told them of his view of his own character, his contemptuous opinion of sports, and his sense of isolation at MIT. He praised Harvard as a place “where the humanities, in short, are not, simpliciter, a source of opprobrium.” In his junior year he submitted a research paper ( “The Mapping of an Ideological Demesne: Space, Place, and Text from More to Marvell”), which was nominated for and indeed won the Thomas T. Hoopes prize, which is awarded to an undergraduate for outstanding scholarly work or research. Remarkably, this was the first time this prize was ever given to a student not in their final year.

In his senior year in 2009 he applied for the prestigious Rhodes and Fulbright scholarships. As part of his qualifications for these awards he cited his GPA of 4.0, the work he had done co-authoring four books with one of the Professors of English at Harvard, and his fluency in Old English, Old Persian and Classical Armenian.

It was at this point, and only at this point, that Wheeler was suspected of not being all he claimed to be.

Examining Wheeler’s Fulbright application, Professor James Simpson, a member of the Fulbright committee, realized that Wheeler had plagiarised the work of another Harvard Professor, Stephen Greenblatt. He informed the Rhodes committee, which was just about to shortlist Wheeler. A few days later Wheeler was confronted by a dean about his plagiarised Rhodes/Fulbright submissions and was told he would face disciplinary action. Wheeler decided to cut and run, leaving Harvard and returning home to his parents in Delaware.

In the seven months that elapsed after he left Harvard, Wheeler, who fully expected to be expelled, wasted no time. No, he did not look for ways to pay back his debt to Harvard, or society. He sent off four more forged applications to Ivy League universities and actually got accepted by Stanford University, no minnow in the ocean of higher education. But he was not to spend any time in sunny California. The wind of freedom would not blow on Adam Wheeler. He was far more likely to get a jail tan, for once Harvard discovered the scope of his fraud, it handed matters over to the police.

In May 2010 Massachusetts state prosecutors indicted Wheeler on identity fraud, larceny, and false claims of college endorsements. He eventually pleaded guilty.

Since Wheeler’s claims were so numerous and so false, here they are, summarised:

— He did not study at Phillips Academy in Andover but at Caesar Rodney High School in Delaware (his father was on the faculty there), where he was a slightly above average student, scoring 1160 and 1220 in his two attempts at SATS

— He was not a student at MIT. He was a student at Bowdoin. But he had been suspended for a semester in his sophomore year for plagiarism. He was not assisting any professor in a book on Shakespeare. MIT does not award alpha numeric grades for freshmen (Wheeler claimed he got straight ‘A’s)

— Phillips Academy does not allow students to take college level courses. MIT does not allow high school students to take its regular courses

— All of the letters of recommendation he submitted were fake. While the overall name of the counselor he submitted the letter from was correct, the middle initial was incorrect

— The letter supposedly from the counselor said Wheeler had enrolled as a junior at Phillips. The accompanying (fake) transcript said he had studied there for four years

— Wheeler’s College Board grade report showed he had been awarded the highest marks on sixteen separate Advanced Placement (AP) exams. Hardly any student takes this many AP exams. Most take a few, and to score the maximum on all sixteen is unheard of

— The years he listed as the times when he took his exams did not match the years the courses were offered. The College Board transcript states he took two of his exams (for which he received maximum grades) before he even entered high school

— The letters of support from professors at MIT were in the names of people who were actually professors at Bowdoin

— The application form and the transcript allegedly from MIT had different dates for Wheeler’s supposed attendance at MIT. The email address and phone number for Wheeler’s MIT advisor were fake. (Harvard never checked them or called the advisor)

— Wheeler’s parents were still happily married at the time of his enrollment at Harvard

— “The Mapping of an Ideological Demesne: Space, Place, and Text from More to Marvell” which won the Thomas T. Hoopes prize, was plagiarised

— Wheeler’s GPA at Harvard was not 4.0 as he claimed, something that could have been easily checked

— The professor Wheeler said he had co-authored four books with had not published any books jointly with anyone. Even at Harvard, few students have co-authored four scholarly texts by the time they enter their senior year

— Wheeler was not fluent in Old English, Classical Armenian, or Old Persian

But Harvard had not only admitted him, it had rewarded him. How on earth had this happened? And why was it only now that his fraud had been detected?

It would be misleading to say Harvard ‘caught’ Wheeler. In part Wheeler himself may have been the cause of his own detection, ramping up his claims right under the noses of people who could easily call him out on them, seeing how far he could twist those noses before the owners of them said ‘uncle’, or in this case, ‘you are expelled.’ Well, he twisted their noses right out of joint. That much is evident from the tone of the evidence Harvard brought against Wheeler when he finally went to court in 2010. They needed to protect their brand.

The university submitted a victim statement to the court in which it said that Wheeler’s fraud “not only harmed Harvard University directly, but also undermined the public perception of integrity in higher education nationally and around the world”. But whose fault was it that he was admitted? The university went on to ask for full restitution of all the monies it had handed over to Wheeler. The statement continued, “We also feel strongly that Mr. Wheeler should be prohibited from profiting from his fraudulent schemes for as long a period as the court has the power to impose. Were he permitted to profit from the notoriety he already has gained as a result of his flagrant dishonesty, all of higher education would continue to be negatively impacted.”

Wheeler returned home, his tail between his legs. He tried to get job after job, without luck. Then he saw an ad for an unpaid intern’s position, at US Green Data, Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. It looked like a really good opportunity to Wheeler, even though he would still need a paying job. He quickly emailed a cover letter and résumé to the company, where it was read by a Harvard alumnus. He recognised Wheeler’s name and knew of his court case. He looked at the résumé. Wheeler listed the years he had spent at Harvard. The alum immediately forwarded the résumé to the university.

One detail of Wheeler’s probation was that he was banned from representing himself as an alumni of MIT, Phillips Academy, or Harvard. But in fact he was a former student at Harvard. Sure, it didn’t end well for him, but he had attended the university. Once Harvard received the résumé, they contacted the authorities. As far as they were concerned, Wheeler had breached his probation. In December 2011 he found himself back in court (in front of the same judge) and was sentenced to a year in prison.

It is quite Kakfaesque to be imprisoned for telling the truth. If Wheeler had lied on his application to US Green Data, he might have got the job. Perhaps lying is preferable to telling the truth as far as Harvard is concerned, in spite of its Veritas motto. If Wheeler hadn’t gone one step too far and applied for the Rhodes and Fulbright scholarships he might have graduated, gone on to be someone, and Harvard would have welcomed him back with open arms, just like it does with all of its alumni, regardless of how badly they have behaved. Yes, I am looking at you, Mr. Kissinger.

Having been so cleanly conned by an academically average young man, the smug, self-satisfied, lazy old Harvard could not simply expel the lad, demand he repay the cash and move on. No, such was their humiliation an example needed to be made — “ pour encourager les autres” as Voltaire wrote in Candide. And there will be others. Because, while it is obviously wrong to lie on an application to a university, it behooves the university to have in place systems and processes that detect such lies. And not just have those systems, but to use them. Harvard, for all of its many layers and means of evaluating students, seems to have done nothing to defend itself from simple lies. They never checked Wheeler’s actual high school transcripts, even though he gave them full authority to, or any of his submissions. They just believed what he told them. Harvard had made known its views of the kind of student it was looking for and Wheeler designed himself to tick all of their boxes, so naturally, it loved him. He was both the cuckoo and the egg it laid in Harvard’s nest. The old buzzard recognised the marks on the shell and suckled it as one of its own. Until the bird inside cracked the shell and revealed its true identity. Then the old buzzard turned nasty.

That failure to detect Wheeler’s lies goes well beyond the responsibility of the Admissions Office. None of Wheeler’s tutors at Harvard, none of his peers, suspected him for a second. The entire university bought into the lanky, dark haired youth as the archetypal Harvard student for two whole years, until he went too far, as fraudsters often do. That clever young man David Foster Wallace wrote in Good Old Neon, “A corollary to the fraudulence paradox is that you simultaneously want to fool everyone you meet and yet also somehow always hope that you’ll come across someone who is your match or equal and can’t be fooled.”

In Conning Harvard, a book about Wheeler by Harvard alums Julie Zauzmer and Xi Yu (who reported on the case as it unfolded for the university’s own journal The Harvard Crimson) he is described as an “expert forger” who tricked one of the nation’s smartest educational institutions. It’s clearly untrue that he was an expert forger, and I am also not convinced that Harvard is one of the smartest universities if such a blatant, error strewn application can fool it. Zuzmer and Yu describe the Harvard Admissions Office as a “finely tuned, carefully guarded machine” that is “intensive, rigorous, and deeply admirable in its thoroughness.” Yeh, right. The authors push the Harvard view of entry into elite institutions: “Regardless of race, religion, nationality, hometown, school or socioeconomic status, all teenagers receive equal consideration from the admissions committees.” If that’s true, why, as the authors later state, is there such an increase in cheating by students in their applications?

You would think that Harvard carried out a stringent review of its admissions processes after the Wheeler case. Heads must surely have rolled. In 2014, the Director of Admissions at Harvard, in response to the question of how they had changed their processes as a result of the Wheeler case gave a nebulous, meandering answer, mentioning “various security features… strong encryption and verification capacity… In addition, we ask applicants to submit a wide range of information, from various sources, and also to participate in an interview.” So, what exactly, if anything, had changed? And how long will it be before they have another Wheeler on their hands?

This lackadaisical response from Harvard is perhaps indicative of a general mood in higher education in the US. Bowdoin wrote to Wheeler every semester he was at Harvard offering him the opportunity to rejoin his old programme. Bowdoin knew Wheeler was now enrolled at Harvard, but never thought to mention his suspension to that university. In 2007 Bowdoin had temporarily banned Wheeler for plagiarism in a submission he made for a philosophy of law class. This was a terrible thing to happen to the student who, the previous year, had won first place in the school’s poetry contest. Yet it was several years after Wheeler was exposed as a fraud at Harvard before Bowdoin discovered the poem was actually by Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Muldoon. (I mean, who reads poetry these days? Give them a break.) And it was only in 2014, when someone told Bowdoin about Zauzmer and Yu’s book that it became aware that Wheeler’s application to it was based on five fraudulent essays plagiarised from, where else? a book of the best application essays to Harvard, published by The Harvard Crimson.

I’ve written elsewhere that we are all spinning narratives these days, explaining ourselves, creating personal myths. And I’ve pointed out how con-men spin us phony narratives that promise much, but will never deliver. Some stories that we tell, or are told, spread quickly. It doesn’t matter if they are true or not, what matters is will other people like the story enough to want to tell it, to pass it on? (This partly explains the spread of fake news, that virus for which there is currently no easy vaccine.) The reason for some stories being repeated is part of what psychologists call ‘theory of mind’. By using theory of mind we try to understand the feelings, beliefs and thoughts of others and, on the basis of our (limited) understanding, decide how to interact with them. So we are nearly always trying to apprehend what other people are thinking. And when we hear a story that we like, and others seem to as like it as well, we might wonder if we could retell this story in some other circumstance or situation.

It’s clear that Adam Wheeler saw exactly what sort of narrative Harvard wanted to be told, and he told it to them so well they didn’t even lift a finger to check it. As a result, they took in an average student and gave him lots of scholarship money. So, yes, he conned them.

But he only told them what they wanted to hear. They had the right, and the responsibility, to check everything he told them. But they didn’t, did they? Because Wheeler told Harvard admissions staff exactly what they wanted to hear, staff at the university abandoned all thought of critical thinking or appraisal. Wheeler gave Harvard the kind of story the university likes to repeat to others, in order to bolster its own reputation and worth.

It can never ever be stressed enough: if something sounds too good to be true, then it is probably not true. Sadly, many people, when they hear something that is too good to be true, conclude it must be true.

When Wheeler told Harvard his story, staff in admissions and advancement may have liked it so much, they would have wanted to tell it to others — to increase the number of applicants like him (or who he claimed to be), and to encourage even more donations to an already wealthy university. Repeating Wheeler’s story would seem like a good thing to Harvard.

Harvard no longer tells Wheeler’s story; not the original application; not his supposed, prize-winning performance at the university; not even his downfall. As far as Harvard is concerned, there was no such person as Adam Wheeler. For Wheeler wasn’t just expelled, he was purged from the records of the university. There is no mention of him in the Harvard files. All references to Adam Wheeler been destroyed by the university.

Harvard has a new story new. One that it will stick to. Until it too doesn’t reflect well on them.

How They Got into Harvard: 50 Successful Applicants Share 8 Key Strategies for Getting into the College of Your Choice

This resource delivers admissions advice from the mouths of those who have been there. Reporters for The Harvard Crimson interviewed scores of successful Harvard applicants to put together this collection of 50 applicant profiles. Through each concise account of a single students resume and application process, the reader picks up lessons and strategies that he or she can apply to his or her own approach. In all, several key strategies are addressed, including: How to identify and present your key talent How to submit the perfect application package How to forge and use connections to your advantage And many more.The students profiled in this book were not all valedictorians, star athletes, or Harvard legacies. Many were simply strong all-around applicants who beat the odds and got into one of the countrys most selective institutions. Through their experience, students and their parents see what it takes to get into Harvard and other competitive colleges.

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How to Get Into Harvard Undergrad: Strategies and Essays That Worked

How hard is it to get into Harvard? Learn Harvard’s admissions requirements and study successful Harvard essays to improve your odds of getting in

learn how to get into harvard

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: Harvard admission requirements

Part 3: Applying to Harvard early action vs. regular decision

Part 4: 2021–2022 Harvard supplemental essays (examples included)

Part 1: Introduction

If your child is a competitive applicant for Ivy League and Ivy Plus schools (e.g., Stanford, Duke), you’re probably encouraging them to consider applying to perhaps the most famous, prestigious, historical, and globally admired of the Ivies: Harvard. There’s nothing quite like the Harvard name, and it’s difficult to overstate how life-altering the chance to attend this renowned university in Cambridge can be.

From years of advising students, we’ve assembled some crucial information for you and your child about how to get into Harvard.

At Harvard, your child can research in the lab of a cutting-edge cancer scientist, study literature or history with a New Yorker writer, collaborate with musicians through the New England Conservatory or Berklee College of Music, or immerse in the complexities of international trade under the guidance of a legendary economist.

They can spend their summers taking advantage of the enormous network and funding opportunities available. Perhaps they’ll head to France to pursue an independent study on culinary history, or to Chile to write for an English-language newspaper. They might grab an internship in the White House, on Wall Street, or at a major tech company—at such positions, they’ll be actively courted and recruited.

And after Harvard? Graduates teach, travel, earn Rhodes Scholarships, start companies, write books, make films, set up art installations—more than you can possibly imagine, all with the help of enormous financial support, drawing on the wide and prestigious network that includes Nobel and Fields and Pulitzer winners.

Harvard University ranking

Harvard is routinely at or near the top of Ivy League rankings:

U.S. News & World Report: 2

Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education: 1

Where is Harvard?

Harvard is located in Cambridge, MA—a few public transit stops away from Boston proper. Cambridge’s population is just over 116,000—a small city that can often feel like its own bubble apart from Boston (the population of Greater Boston is 4.9 million).

Harvard setting

Semi-urban. Cambridge has its own life, with cafés, shops, bookstores, hotels, theaters, and more.

Harvard student population

Harvard College population: 6,699

Total population: 23,731

Harvard acceptance rate

Here’s the admissions data for Harvard’s class of 2025:

Acceptance rate: 4%

Harvard tuition and scholarships

Who gets into Harvard?

Examining the profiles of current students can help you determine your child’s odds of getting a Harvard acceptance. First, let’s examine the academic accomplishments of the class of 2024:

Harvard students tend to rank among the top 10–15% of their graduating classes, and nearly 75% self-reported ranking in the top 2% of their graduating class.

Average GPA: Harvard doesn’t publish its average admitted student GPA, but it’s safe to assume that the average unweighted GPA is around 3.90/4.0.

Harvard average ACT score: 34

25th percentile: 33

75th percentile: 35

Harvard average SAT score: 1520

25th percentile: 1480

75th percentile: 1580

In addition, here are some demographic statistics for the class of 2025:

International students: 15.6%

First-generation college students: 18.6%

25.9% are Asian American, 15.9% are African American, 12.5% are Hispanic or Latino, 1.1% are Native American, and 0.5% are Native Hawaiian. Presumably, the percentage of white students is around 56%.

44.3% intend to concentrate in STEM fields, 28.1% plan to concentrate in the social sciences, and 15.3% are currently humanities-bound.

Part 2: Harvard admission requirements

Harvard academic requirements

Like most of its counterparts in the Ivy League and Ivy Plus cohort, Harvard is seeking excellence and passion from its students.

Excellence can show up in grades and test scores, but that isn’t enough. Extracurricular activities, and, perhaps most importantly, commitment and enthusiasm for a small number of clubs, teams, or other organizations, also demonstrates excellence.

Admissions officers will tell you they expect your child to have made the most of the opportunities that were given to them. That means if your daughter’s school offers three APs, Harvard will be happy to see your daughter took advantage of all three courses, and perhaps enrolled in community college classes and tried a summer program at Stanford, too.

Harvard notes that, while there is no single academic path for successful applicants, ideal preparation for Harvard includes the following:

English: 4 years, with extensive practice in writing

Math: 4 years

Science: 4 years, comprised of biology, chemistry, physics, and an advanced course in one of these subjects

History: 3 years, including American and European history

Foreign language: 4 years of a single language

Harvard application requirements

Harvard accepts the Common Application, which means your child will need the following to apply:

Harvard supplemental essays

Optional in 2021–2022: ACT or SAT scores (with or without writing)

Optional: AP or other examination results

School report, counselor evaluation, transcripts, and mid-year school report

Optional: Supplemental materials such as academic work, creative writing, artwork, or music

Part 3: Applying to Harvard early action vs. regular decision

Your child can apply early to Harvard by November 1st and receive a decision of either accepted, deferred, or denied, by mid-December.

Harvard follows the restrictive early action (as opposed to early decision) model, which means your child need not commit to attending Harvard if accepted; they can still apply to other universities and make their choice in April. Defer means your child will be re-entered into the pool and will hear back by the end of March, and may be accepted, waitlisted, or rejected then.

Your child can also apply regular decision, by January 1st.

How do you know if your child should apply to Harvard early?

Early action might be the right choice for your child if:

Harvard is their top choice

There’s no other school they’d like to apply to via early decision or restrictive early action

Their test scores and grades are strong by the end of junior year

Harvard, like many schools, lets in a significant portion of its class early—in some years, as much as half—but it’s important to remember that this discrepancy is likely due in large part to the fact that many highly prepared students choose early action. These are top candidates who make a great case for themselves to attend Harvard, whose grades and scores are ready, and who know what they want.

Most importantly: Harvard doesn’t offer preference to those who apply early.

Part 4: 2021–2022 Harvard supplemental essays (examples included)

(Note: While this section covers Harvard’s admissions essays specifically, we encourage you to view additional successful college essay examples.)

Acing the supplemental essays is a crucial part of your child’s strategy to get into Harvard. In addition to the Common App Personal Statement, Harvard’s essays, like other Ivy League essays, help admissions officers get a fuller qualitative sense of your child’s personality, goals, passions, analytical capacity, and creative expression.

The following students and their essays are composites of students we’ve worked with in nearly 20 years of advising college applicants.

Harvard supplemental essay #1

Your intellectual life may extend beyond the academic requirements of your particular school. Please use the space below to list additional intellectual activities that you have not mentioned or detailed elsewhere in your application. These could include, but are not limited to, supervised or self-directed projects not done as school work, training experiences, online courses not run by your school, or summer academic or research programs not described elsewhere. (150 words—optional)

This essay prompt is an invitation to show off a few qualities:

Intellectual—including artistic or scientific—curiosity

Personal passion projects

Your child should always ask themselves this: What does the university want to know about me? Why are they asking this question?

Most strong applicants can find a way to address this question, because most strong applicants are always learning something. Here are a few examples of how some students chose to address this prompt.

Maneesha has been teaching herself to code since she was in middle school. At first she never thought of it as computer science—only fiddling with HTML on personal websites. But after a summer course at Georgia Tech, she got inspired to build an environmental awareness app for fun.

Dave got into photography as a kid simply by taking pictures on his parents’ iPhones. When he went to visit his grandparents in Nigeria the summer after his sophomore year, he bought an old school camera, took many rolls of film, and shot everything he could. Back in the U.S., he learned how to develop the film. This is nowhere on his resumé, but he’s interested in minoring in art, despite the fact that he has no other “proof,” academically or extracurricularly, of this interest.

Phoebe is a star debater, but in private, she writes screenplays. Like Omar, she doesn’t have anything to “show” for this interest—no accolades or awards or even coursework. But she once spent her summer job money on a master class in screenwriting and wrote a 30-minute short film script about a lonely librarian who starts to see literary characters coming to life.

Daniel’s uncle is a physician who helped him get set up to spend a summer volunteering and studying in a hospital. Daniel spent four weeks the summer after junior year volunteering with a “food as medicine” program meant to help patients contain diabetes, hypertension, and other heart-related diseases.

Here’s how Maneesha answered this prompt:

How much water have you used today? I used to see this sign in my summer camp bathroom. Our counselors wanted us to save water by taking quick showers. But water was hard to “count!” How could I know how much I’d used, or wasted?

After pursuing computer programming through a program at Georgia Tech, I decided to build an app to help people figure out how much water they’d used each day. The app asks what vegetables, dairy, or meats you’ve eaten, how long of a shower you took, and other relevant details. It isn’t meant to shame people, only to give them the information they need to inspire them to use less. I’ve had a chance to dream up this small way to address the climate crisis. We’ll have to be creative to undo all the damage we’ve done in years to come.

Here’s what Maneesha does well in tackling this Harvard supplemental essay:

She tells a story, with a hook, a sense of growth and change, and a forward-looking conclusion. Even in 150 words, Maneesha grabbed us with an interesting question calling back to her summer camp bathroom, then showed us how she began to answer that question in an unconventional sense.

She shows off her independent thinking. The mere jump from summer camp to her own app speaks to the spirit of Harvard’s essay prompt: they’re asking how you learn on your own, on your own terms. By charting her own thought process—rather than one mandated by her teacher—Maneesha shows Harvard that she can think for herself. She has an inner life full of urgent questions, and she was driven to answer one of them on her own.

She doesn’t summarize her resumé. Maneesha doesn’t simply say: “I took a computer programming class at Georgia Tech, which gave me a chance to learn a skill I couldn’t study in school.” That explains that she did something extracurricular, but it doesn’t demonstrate that she got anything out of the activity, or that she’s much of an independent thinker. Again, by telling a story, she’s addressing not just the substance of the question but also its spirit.

Harvard supplemental essay #2

Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences. (150 words)

Daniel wants a chance to discuss his hospital experience here.

Whenever someone entered the Pantry, you could see their eyes light up, and even imagine their mouths starting to water. But the Pantry wasn’t stocked with candy or cookies or cakes, despite its name. The Pantry had everything I never wanted to eat when I was a kid: lettuce, carrots, whole wheat bread, cans of lentils, and tons of fruit.

The summer I volunteered with the Pantry’s food-as-medicine program, I worked alongside doctors who help patients manage diabetes, hypertension, and chronic heart disease. I’d always been interested in becoming a doctor, but I’d never understood before how much medicine contains. Every day I handed a patient a fresh sandwich or a bag of produce, I felt like a pharmacist. And every night when I went home, I sat down in front of the hot, healthy meal my parents had made, and I felt grateful.

Here’s what Daniel does well in tackling this supplemental essay:

He sets a scene. While Daniel doesn’t tell a story the way Maneesha does in under 150 words, he does give us images of the food, and connects us to the physical reality of the room where he worked.

He demonstrates an internal change. Just like Maneesha, Daniel points to a small personal change—a tiny epiphany —which is authentic because it’s so personal. He doesn’t end the short answer by swearing he’s going to become a doctor, though he really wants to be one. Instead, he brings it home, noticing instead that he’s likelier to eat his mother’s spinach now that he’s relating to food differently.

He goes beyond the basics. Perhaps most importantly, Daniel takes seriously the word “elaborate” in the prompt. He tells Harvard something they could not already know based on his resumé. He demonstrates the space the activity occupies for him personally, rather than just on paper.

Harvard Supplemental Essay #3

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.

These prompts are almost as broad and wide ranging as the Common App prompts. Some of them overlap with other top schools’ questions. You might, for instance, reuse a version of your Stanford roommate essay to tackle prompt #3. You might also draw on any number of schools’ “diversity” prompts to answer #10. (One of our favorite essays involved a student identifying as a Hufflepuff as a way to demonstrate the importance of diversity in a school—she wasn’t a flashy, brave Gryffindor, or an ambitious Slytherin, but a loyal, heads-down badger.)

If none of these options appeal to you, you also have to option to write on a topic of your choice.

There is no stated word limit, but about 400–550 words is ideal. While optional, it’s highly recommended that you write this essay.

Here’s how Phoebe answered #6, a tricky question because it’s deceptively simple.

My bookcase is a mess. Every year, I try to organize it alphabetically by author’s last name or by genre. But it takes me just weeks to tangle it up again. I can’t separate my favorite young adult novels—The Fault in Our Stars, The Hate U Give—from my favorite so-called “grown up” novels—Giovanni’s Room, The Moviegoer. Reading Wendell Berry’s essays and poems, recommended to me by my English teacher, made me reach for Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction. Mixed up on the shelf (next to one of my childhood favorites, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler) are the many books I have to use for my research in policy debate—the topic this year was criminal justice reform: Giorgio Agamben’s State of Exception; Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow.

What have I read in the past twelve months? I’ll give you a list as sprawling as my bookshelf.

Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald

Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami

Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson

What Happened, Hillary Clinton

Sabbath Poems, Wendell Berry

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard

The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula Le Guin

There, There, Tommy Orange

Americanah, Chimamanda Adichie

Originals, Adam Grant

Phoebe used the prompt as a chance to show off her personality—she’s messy, she’s passionate, and she loves to draw connections between unlikely texts. The most obvious thing she did, of course, is treat the “list” prompt loosely, instead telling a story of herself, and treating the numbered list as secondary. She also doesn’t use up too much space, because she manages to convey her message in just 200 words.

Dave chose prompt #7:

I was elected to my school’s Honor Council when I was a sophomore. It’s a student organization that hands off much of the disciplinary action surrounding wrongdoing to our peers, rather than authority figures. I’d joined because I generally believed in the mission: it was important for students to trust one another, work hard in class, and avoid lying, cheating, and stealing. It seemed simple enough.

But a few months into my time on the Council, I was at lunch when I heard a good friend discussing a list the high school varsity soccer team kept. The list tracked freshmen girls, and noted who wore particularly short skirts on what day, who went out to what parties, and more.

Normally, the Honor Council only takes on cases that come up through a standard reporting structure. Another student, or, more often, a teacher, must register a complaint or file a charge against another member of the community. The Council then meets to discuss it. No one had complained about the soccer team’s list. I didn’t have to do anything about it.

And, to be honest, I didn’t want to, at first. About half of my best friends were on the team; I’d been on JV soccer as a freshman and sophomore and only quit because of scheduling reasons as a junior. Those guys were my community. They’d seen me through my parents’ divorce, and been the crowd I chilled with for years. We’d had serious talks and casual talks alike.

It would be heroic to say that I immediately reported the list to the Council. I actually took about three weeks to report it—weeks during which the team might have been adding even more female students to the list. But the whole thing gnawed at me. I kept thinking about what I would say if I were in the room when the list was being made. I would have tried to shut it down, wouldn’t I?

I went back to the friend who’d mentioned the list casually, and told him I thought he needed to end it. When he pushed back, I asked him to sleep on it and get back to me the next day. He started to avoid me in the hallways. I tried his approach with a few of my other friends, most of whom told me to relax, insisting it was no big deal. In the end, I decided to report it.

“Honor” and “integrity” had always seemed like qualities I wore easily. They were part of how I saw myself. But facing the soccer team—and losing several friends from my actions—showed me how much work these qualities require, and reminded me that honor is a practice, not a blind habit.

Dave tackled an essay rife with possibilities for cliché but nonetheless made the topic his own. He told a story and made himself a character—that is, he didn’t paint himself as a total hero—which allowed him to demonstrate growth and change.

He also did something quite difficult: he wrote about a prestigious activity at his school that might have otherwise looked just like any old National Merit Finalist or AP Scholar distinction. By elaborating on something that might have only seemed like a fancy title, he lent new angles to his application.

Final thoughts

You already know that getting into Harvard is no easy task. It’s a reach school for everyone, no matter how talented. With its matriculating class demonstrating such high test scores and grades, Harvard is clearly looking for something more than excellence. By cultivating intellectual and extracurricular passions, your child can become as strong a candidate as possible.

About the Author

Dr. Shirag Shemmassian is the Founder of Shemmassian Academic Consulting and one of the world’s foremost experts on college admissions. For nearly 20 years, he and his team have helped thousands of students get into top programs like Harvard, Stanford, and MIT using his exclusive approach.

THERE’S NO REASON TO STRUGGLE THROUGH THE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS PROCESS ALONE, ESPECIALLY WITH SO MUCH ON THE LINE. SCHEDULE YOUR COMPLIMENTARY 30-MINUTE CONSULTATION TO ENSURE YOU LEAVE NOTHING TO CHANCE.

How to Get Into Harvard as a Foreign Student

“How to get into Harvard?” is one of the most common questions asked by you. This is why I decided to write an overview of things you need to do in order to even be considered by Harvard University. Everyone has equal chances of getting accepted, even as a foreigner.

I’m not a Harvard guru, neither do I work for the admissions office. I just want to give you some advice on how you can make your dreams come true and get accepted as getting into Harvard is possible. Whether you’re an American or foreign student.

How to Get into Harvard as a Foreign Student

While this article mainly applies to Harvard it can be helpful if you’re applying to any other good university.

Admission rules vary depending on the level of studies (undergraduate and postgraduate), mode of study (stationary, extension, online etc), faculty and year, so make sure you check Harvard’s Admissions Office website for the most recent updates and deadlines.

Widener Library, Harvard

Do You Know WHY Do You Want to Study at Harvard?

While Harvard might be your dream school just because it’s the best, it doesn’t mean it’s the best school for YOU. Each Ivy League school or even non-Ivy are different in various ways and you should definitely consider looking at other schools as well.

While Harvard is good for some people, it might not be good for you. It doesn’t mean that you’re not good enough, but your methods of studying and learning are simply different. Here’s what I think you should consider when making a decision if Harvard is for you.

Harvard students are self-starters. If you can’t get yourself to be creative, push yourself to work on your own without a kick from your teachers or parents, then it might not be the best choice for you. I’m not saying that people who need a push are worse in any way, but some people just don’t have a specific character and for instance, this is exactly why so many freelancers go back to the office job in a few months – simply because they cannot work on their own.

As I mentioned in my other article regarding Harvard University the methods of teaching are different at Harvard than anywhere else I studied ( and I did study at many universities ) as a lot of things aren’t going to be told in the class. I often hear from a lot of friends of mine saying for instance “How did you find out about this study abroad opportunity or these scholarships? Nobody told us anything about this in my school”.

I don’t want to be brutal here, but nobody told me about this either. I researched, asked around, tried different options and never stopped until I found what I was looking for. This is how everything is taught at Harvard: teachers are there to answer your questions and point you in the right direction in order to help you improve, but not to give you a list of things to learn for the next test. You should know what to do.

Harvard is not the type of college you’d go to just to have fun and attend parties. Don’t get me wrong, they’re many parties and I enjoyed myself, but Harvard students think about their future after graduation and even beyond that. I’ve been working in NYC while attending Harvard to get a professional experience that allowed me to get a placement in Argentina straight after graduation, but I knew that getting the job in South America wasn’t the end of the goals. I planned way further away.

Things You Can Do To Improve Your Application:

Take Care of Your Grades

A lot of you ask me if it’s important to have good grades in order to be accepted. My answer here is going to be simple: yes, grades obviously matter. Harvard’s acceptance rate is 3%, so people chosen are the best of the best. I know that grades aren’t the most important thing, but they’re still important.

If you’re a foreign student you’re required to take SAT for undergraduate studies and GRE / GMAT for graduate studies apart from the finals required to graduate in your home country. For instance, in Poland, we had to take a final exam and also received other grades and if you want to study in the US you have to take SAT.

Everything matters and while your grades aren’t THE most important thing in your application, someone at the admissions office will look at them at some point, so keep them decent.

Find your Passion and Get Noticed

Whether you’re applying for an undergraduate or postgraduate program you need to show Harvard why should they accept you. Why it should be you and not hundreds of other candidates.

Don’t pretend that you love something, but stay true to what you really enjoy. If you love to dance, try to be the best dancer by training a lot. Why don’t you start coding websites if you’re into IT? If you love linguistics, go learn some lesser-known languages. The possibilities of things to do are endless! It doesn’t matter what you do as long as you’re great at it.

It’s all right to experiment with your passions if you’re unsure what do you want to do. I actually tried to do it all. I rode horses, danced ballet, learned foreign languages, volunteered with wildlife and did many other things that supported my application. You can also take part in some international competitions like I did with art history and philosophy.

All I want to say is that you need to get noticed and prove that you’re special in some way. Why? Harvard wants to see that you’re not only smart and capable of learning a lot for the exams. They want to know that you can change the world in by making an impact on other people. If you’re from a small town or country with not that many opportunities make your own opportunities. Eg. learn aerial silks from YouTube – that’s how I started doing it!.

Not all of us are given the same chances and for example years ago in Poland, I didn’t have the same range of possibilities as if I’d been growing up somewhere or example in California. But if you work with what you have people will recognize it.

Don’t Be Afraid of Standing Out

Remember that it’s fine to be different, the more different you are the more chance of getting accepted you have. Be crazy, be original!

Don’t Ignore Things Around You

For many years I’ve been surprised that I can find a common ground with almost anyone and I always had something to talk about. How is it possible? Simply because I never ignore any information around me. For instance, I’m not a bit fan of basketball, but when I had a chance to listen to my friends talking about it I didn’t think that it’s stupid and walked away. By living this way I’ve gained some knowledge about literally everything.

The Most Important Part of Your Application is the Student Letter

The student letter is the most important thing from your application! It’s your chance to shine and show Harvard who you are. Don’t just write that you’re smart, you’re good at math etc. Tell a unique story as you want this letter to be engaging and not make them stop reading it after the first paragraph. Use this advice also when it comes to cover letter for a job as well.

You also should explain why do you want to attend Harvard (and not, for example, Yale or Brown). This part obviously shouldn’t say that it’s because Harvard is the best.

Your Interview Can Go Different Ways

I cannot say much about the interview at Harvard as my program was specific and I didn’t have one. However, I had an interview for postgraduate programs at University College London (UCL) and King’s College London and in both cases, I got accepted, so here’s my advice: you shouldn’t talk about yourself too much during the interview, keep it short and try to engage with the person interviewing you.

In the case of my interview for UCL (University College London), it was just a casual talk about my passions, plans for the upcoming summer and my potential research. As you can imagine I didn’t speak about heading to Ibiza with my friends for a party in July but showed that I’ll use the summer to travel in order to learn this and that. I was obviously going to enjoy myself during the summer, but there are many ways to portray the same thing.

My interview at King’s College way more strict. The woman interviewing me wanted to check my knowledge about my BA thesis in order to see if I was actually interested in my topic. I cannot tell you what kind of questions you’re going to get, but be prepared for any individuality.

Money & Financial Aid

You always ask me if you can get a scholarship for Harvard. Good news: you can! Harvard officially states on their website: The financial aid policies for foreign citizens are exactly the same as those for US citizens. All aid is need-based, and admissions decisions are made without regard to whether an applicant has applied for financial assistance. Problem solved 🙂

Don’t Be Afraid of Your Language Skills

If English isn’t your first language you obviously need to pass either TOEFL or IELTS exam. I can’t tell you if it’s easy or not, as it all depends on YOUR language knowledge. But what I can say that you shouldn’t worry about it too much. For a very long time, I was doubting myself a lot. Even after Harvard, I thought that my English wasn’t good enough.

Don’t worry, everyone is in the same position. While I was the only non-native English speaker in my class it didn’t mean I was the worst. Remember that many Americans can’t even spell properly. Many others hold an American passport but English isn’t their first language either. Do your best and you’ll be fine.

Good luck!

If you have any specific questions or doubts, post a comment below. However, these days I decided not to reply to all comments on this post for a reason: some things can be found in Google search within 5 minutes. For instance, I don’t know where you can pass SAT in your country, or if Harvard offers a course you’re interested in – but their official website will tell you this. While I can find this information for you, it won’t get you to Harvard or any good school, as they value research abilities.

How to Get Into Harvard: Admissions Data and Strategies

Outside of “Encourage your ultra-wealthy parents to donate a building” or “Be a heavily-recruited athlete who also happens to have an SAT score in the 99th percentile,” there is no meaningful succinct nugget of wisdom that is going to unlock the gates to Harvard Yard. Every successful Harvard applicant possesses a sparking transcript, perfect or near-perfect standardized test scores, and prodigious talents that extend outside of the classroom. Unfortunately, these attributes are necessary but often not sufficient, as Harvard rejects valedictorians every single day of the admissions cycle. However, your quest to get into Harvard can be greatly enhanced from better understanding their admissions standards and how their decision-making process works.

The intent of this article is to give those considering applying to Harvard University a full understanding of the following topics:

Many students applying to Harvard may also find the following blogs to be of interest:

How to Get Into:

Let’s begin with an examination of the most recent admissions data.

Harvard: REA Acceptance Rate – Class of 2026

Those applying Restrictive Early Action to the Crimson Class of 2026 were accepted at a 7.9% clip. There were 9,406 early applicants and 740 were admitted. Looking at the Class of 2025 REA numbers, out of 10,086 REA applications to join the 2021-22 freshman class, only 747 individuals (7.4%) were admitted. While 8,023 of those applicants were deferred to the regular cycle, 924 did receive an outright rejection.

Harvard Acceptance Rate – Class of 2026

Out of an all-time record 61,220 applicants, a mere 1,954 of Class of 2026 hopefuls were admitted. This translates to a stunningly low (even by Harvard’s standards) 3.19% acceptance rate. This is similar to the 3.43% rate for the Class of 2025. For contrast, there were 40,248 applications submitted for a place in the 2020-21 freshman class; just 1,980 were accepted. This equates to a 4.9% acceptance rate.

Harvard Admissions – SAT, ACT, GPA, and Class Rank

According to the most recent official statistics available (Class of 2024), the mid-50% SAT range for admitted freshman was 710-770 on the EBRW section and 750-800 on the math section; on the ACT the range was 33-35. Ninety-three percent had earned a place in the top 10% of their graduating high school class and the average GPA was 4.18. Just shy of 93% of successful applicants possessed an unweighted GPA of 3.75 or higher.

The university was test-optional when selecting the Class of 2026. Harvard will remain test-optional for Class of 2027, Class of 2028, and Class of 2029 applicants.

Admissions Trends & Notes

Being “Well-Rounded” is Not Enough

Being a so-called Renaissance man (or woman) was impressive in the 16th century. The local genius might be the very best person in their village at painting, writing, conducting scientific experiments, jousting, and playing the lute. However, in a technologically modern and globalized world, you don’t need to rely on the neighborhood genius when you have a hankering for some lovely lute music. Instead, you can listen to the very best lutenists in the world on Spotify whenever you like.

What does this have to do with Harvard admissions? Simple: Harvard is looking for young people who are among the best, or, have the potential to be among the very best at something in the world. They are less interested in a jack of all trades, master of none type of individual. Just look at the list of notable Crimson alumni and you’ll get a sense of what the university is looking for: the next generation of politicians, award-winning writers, scientists, intellectuals, actors and actresses, musicians, and tech geniuses whose inventions will literally change the world in which we live.

For advice about how to stand out on the extracurricular front, check out our previous blog entitled How Many Extracurricular Activities Do I Need for College?

How Harvard Rates Applicants

Like a jeweler sifting through piles of perfect diamonds trying to find the “most perfect” of the bunch, Harvard admissions officers need a way to categorize differing levels of excellence. As such, they assign a rating of 1-4 (or 1-6, according to some), with 1 being the top rating in four areas: 1) academic, 2) extracurricular, 3) athletics, and 4) personal. Pluses and minuses can be added on to the numeric rating for further distinction.

This gives us pretty good insight into how Harvard goes about sifting through its hordes of over-qualified applicants.

In order to project your chances at admission, try to accurately assess yourself in these four areas and remember our previous comments about Renaissance men/women. You aren’t going to earn a 1 or a 2 in athletics for playing a year of JV Volleyball in high school. Someone high in that category is being actively recruited by the coach of one of Harvard’s 42 Division I sports teams. Likewise for extracurriculars—Harvard is not going to be impressed that you filled the ten spaces on the Common App Activity List; they are looking for genuine excellence in one or more activities. For example, you won a prestigious international math competition or you are one of the top cellists in the United States. Perhaps you published original scientific research or started a charitable organization that made a monumental impact.

Who Actually Gets Into Harvard?

Let’s look at the demographics of the Class of 2025.

Geographically, the Class of 2025 was comprised of students from:

Competition is stiffest among those hailing from states with endless streams of qualified applicants (the entire Northeast & the West Coast). If you hail from a less-populated state like Wyoming or North Dakota, your location is more likely to boost your admissions chances. This is due to something called geographic diversity.

Looking at ethnic identity, the breakdown of the Class of 2025 was as follows:

Amazingly, one study revealed that 43% of white students admitted into Harvard in the last six years were either legacies (their parents were alumni), recruited athletes, children of faculty members. or teens whose relatives had donated large amounts of money to the university. A case of alleged discrimination against students by Harvard made its way all the way to the United States Supreme Court, but the university prevailed.

The intended majors of those admitted to the Class of 2025 were:

Most People Who Get Accepted Choose to Attend

The percentage of accepted students who elect to enroll, divided by the total number of students who are admitted is 85%. This number is absurdly high and helps to explain why the acceptance rate is so very low. For comparison, elite schools such as Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, Vanderbilt, Rice, Emory, and Georgetown all have yield rates closer to (or under) 50%.

Tips for Applying to Harvard

If you plan on joining the 61,000+ Harvard hopefuls for the next admissions cycle, you should know the following:

Topic Choices

– Unusual circumstances in your life

– Travel or living experiences in other countries

– 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.

4) For International Students: What specific plan do you have, if any, for using the education you hope to receive? (0-50 words)

For detailed advice on how to write the Harvard essay/short answers, visit our blog: Harvard University Supplemental Essay Prompt and Tips.

Should I Apply to Harvard?

If you are academically qualified, there is no harm in filling out a Harvard application. However, as with all uber-elite colleges in 2022-23—even the best and brightest teens need to have a rock-solid backup plan. For more on creating a balanced list, revisit our blog entitled: How Many Schools Should I Apply to?

Dave has over a decade of professional experience that includes work as a teacher, high school administrator, college professor, and independent educational consultant. He is a co-author of the books The Enlightened College Applicant (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016) and Colleges Worth Your Money (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020).

How to get into Harvard

How to get into Harvard

Every year, dozens of students (and parents) contact us for advice on how to get into Harvard. And in each case, we stress that there is no magical, prescribed formula for earning a Harvard acceptance letter, and that application strategies will depend largely on the basis of each student’s background, achievements, and college-related interests. That said, there are a few general rules that all Harvard applicants should follow in order to maximize their chances of securing a spot at America’s most prestigious institution.

In general, Harvard gives serious consideration to students earning top grades in the most rigorous curriculum made available to them—the majority of admitted students have earned mostly or all A’s in a program of study replete with AP, IB, and/or other advanced courses, often nabbing valedictorian or salutatorian status in the process. Outside the classroom, successful applicants have devoted substantial time to at least 2-3 extracurricular activities, assuming leadership roles and typically earning awards at the state and national-level. They also put together applications that effectively showcase their authenticity, potential contributions as a college student, and fit with Harvard’s offerings. Of course, being an athlete, legacy, or underrepresented minority can help; but even if you’re a star basketball player with excellent grades and test scores, a stellar extracurricular resume, and two parents who previously attended Harvard, there are NO guarantees. Each year, Harvard receives applications from many more qualified students than they are able to admit, which means that uncontrollable circumstances and arbitrary decisions lead to the rejection of students who would have earned admission the year before or the year after. As such, instead of asking how to get into Harvard, students should be focused on identifying several additional colleges that are capable of offering an equally or more rewarding undergraduate experience.

In the past decade, College Transitions admissions consultants have helped more than 30 students earn admission into Harvard; yet nearly half of these Harvard admits decided to attend elsewhere after thinking “big picture” about their college plans and after ultimately deciding that another institution could more effectively meet their college-related needs and/or allow them to more effectively pursue their academic and career interests.

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