(3) What You Would Want Your Future College Roommate to Know About You

Harvard Academy, perhaps the most prestigious and well-known institution in the globe, is the nation'south oldest college learning establishment with a founding appointment of 1636. Boasting an impressive alumni network from Sheryl Sandberg to Al Gore, it'south no surprise that Harvard recruits some of the superlative talents in the world.

With merely a little over i,900 students gaining access out of an bidder puddle of most 40,248, Harvard College'southward acceptance rate for the class of 2025 came in at a tape low of 3.43%. In addition to academic transcripts, extracurricular activities, and letters of recommendation, Harvard requires one essays, and 2 optional essays.

With such daunting numbers, it's no wonder that students are often intimidated by Harvard's extremely open-concluded supplemental essays. However, CollegeVine is hither to help and offer our guide on how to tackle Harvard'due south supplemental essays. Want to know your chances at Harvard? Calculate your chances for free right now.

Want to larn what Harvard Academy volition actually cost you based on your income? And how long your application to the school should accept? Here's what every educatee considering Harvard University needs to know.

How to Write the Harvard University Supplemental Essays

Prompt 1 (optional): 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 accept not mentioned or detailed elsewhere in your application. These could include, but are not limited to, supervised or self-directed projects not washed as school piece of work, grooming experiences, online courses not run past your school, or summer bookish or research programs not described elsewhere. (150 words)

Prompt ii (required): Delight briefly elaborate on 1 of your extracurricular activities or piece of work experiences. (50-150 words)

Prompt 3 (optional): You may wish to include an boosted essay if you lot feel that the college application forms practise non provide sufficient opportunity to convey important information about yourself or your accomplishments. You lot may write on a topic of your choice, or you may cull from one of the following topics:

(ane) Unusual circumstances in your life

(ii) Travel, living, or working experiences in your own or other communities

(3) What you lot would want your hereafter higher roommate to know nigh you

(4) An intellectual experience (course, project, book, word, paper, poetry, or research topic in engineering science, mathematics, science or other modes of inquiry) that has meant the most to you

(v) How you lot hope to apply your college education

(half dozen) A list of books you accept read during the past twelve months

(7) The Harvard Higher Honor code declares that we "concur honesty equally the foundation of our customs." As you lot consider entering this customs that is committed to honesty, please reflect on a fourth dimension when you or someone yous observed had to make a selection well-nigh whether to human activity with integrity and honesty.

(8) The mission of Harvard College is to educate our students to be citizens and citizen-leaders for society. What would yous do to contribute to the lives of your classmates in advancing this mission?

(9) Each yr a substantial number of students admitted to Harvard defer their admission for i twelvemonth or accept time off during college. If you decided in the future to choose either option, what would y'all like to practice?

(x) Harvard has long recognized the importance of student body diversity of all kinds. We welcome yous to write virtually distinctive aspects of your background, personal evolution or the intellectual interests you lot might bring to your Harvard classmates.

If none of these options appeal to you, y'all take to option to write on a topic of your choice.

All Applicants—Prompt ane

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 non described elsewhere. (Optional – 150 words)

While you don't have to consummate this essay, we at CollegeVine recommend completing any essay that could potentially give Harvard a deeper insight into your personality.Here, Harvard is simply asking for a list of the activities you participate in outside of schoolhouse. However, notation that you don't want to repeat anything you may have mentioned when listing your extracurriculars elsewhere on your application.

For example, if you took an online course on Python, this would exist an appropriate identify to listing that. Or perhaps you lot designed an app on your own time that couldn't be classified as an extracurricular or an academic responsibility; here would too exist the identify to list that.

If this question does non use to your experiences, however, feel free to skip it. There'southward no need to dwell on non completing this question, as it won't make or intermission your application.

All Applicants—Prompt ii

Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences. (Required, 50-150 words)

This is the archetype Extracurricular Activity essay prompt. Since this essay is simply 150 words, there's no need to add whatsoever gimmicks or overthink your response, though you can consider adding ane short chestnut. The purpose of this question is essentially to requite you the opportunity to farther draw one of your activities, as Harvard can't see these details from your extracurricular listing.

When picking the topic, information technology's definitely best to pick the activity/piece of work experience that is the about significant to you lot, since this is likely to accept played a larger role in your life. You likewise should selection an activity that was fundamental to your personal growth. For case, if you choose to hash out Model United nations, you can briefly describe your role on the squad and how it taught you to remember on your anxiety (you lot were once asked to switch positions just hours before the simulation). If you were involved in inquiry, y'all could describe the subject yous studied, what y'all learned, and why it inspired you to report science.

Have care to view your essays equally a portfolio, however. If yous already discussed i action in your Common App essay, don't talk near it again for this essay. Pick something else that shows a dissimilar side of y'all, or emphasizes a personal quality you really want to drive dwelling.

Despite the limited discussion count, attempt to be every bit detailed as possible and avert calculation unnecessary "fluff" to your response. Every sentence should reveal something new about the experience and give Harvard a clearer sense of the ways in which you involved yourself outside of academics.

All Applicants—Prompt 3

Optional: You may wish to include an additional essay if you feel that the college application forms exercise not provide sufficient opportunity to convey important information about yourself or your accomplishments. Y'all may write on a topic of your choice, or you may choose from one of the following topics:

(1) Unusual circumstances in your life

(2) Travel, living, or working experiences in your own or other communities

(3) What you would want your time to come college roommate to know about you

(4) An intellectual experience (class, project, book, word, paper, poetry, or research topic in applied science, mathematics, science or other modes of inquiry) that has meant the about to you

(five) How you promise to employ your college education

(6) A listing of books you have read during the past twelve months

(7) The Harvard College Honor code declares that we "hold honesty equally the foundation of our community." As you consider entering this community that is committed to honesty, please reflect on a fourth dimension when you or someone y'all observed had to make a choice virtually whether to act with integrity and honesty.

(eight) The mission of Harvard Higher is to brainwash our students to exist citizens and citizen-leaders for society. What would you do to contribute to the lives of your classmates in advancing this mission?

(9) Each year a substantial number of students admitted to Harvard defer their admission for one year or accept time off during higher. If you decided in the future to choose either choice, what would you lot similar to do?

(10) 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 none of these options appeal to you, you have to option to write on a topic of your choice.

Before we jump in, notation that this essay is optional. Nevertheless, we highly recommend that you complete the essay, as it can but help your application past revealing another side to yourself. Then far, the main source that Harvard can apply to perceive your personality is your Common Awarding essay; this supplemental essay, all the same, gives yous some other opportunity to exercise so.

Although you lot are costless to choose any topic yous please, Harvard lists the higher up topics equally jumping points for your writing. No matter what topic y'all choose, proceed in listen the high-level principles that Harvard abides by: leadership, community, and intellectualism . Students who demonstrate selflessness through clemency work or leadership in their communities are generally preferred to those with just a perfect bookish record. Furthermore, Harvard also values unique and interesting academic interests, such as partaking in anthropology research, as this demonstrates going beyond your bookish requirements.

The ideal length for your essay is almost 500 words, whatsoever longer and your essay volition exist hard to read; if it's too short, information technology will experience a little incomplete. With all of the above being said, let's analyze each of the following topics in more depth.

(1) Unusual circumstances in your life

The nearly common mistake when writing this essay is choosing a topic that is unique in your immediate circumstances just non unique among the tens of thousands of Harvard applicants. You may want to avoid common topics, such equally writing about a learning challenge such equally ADHD; while there are ways to effectively write nearly such a topic, here is non the appropriate circumstance for that.

A better manner to approach this prompt would be to analyze an interest that is truly niche such as a specific anime fandom or restoring a make of cars from the 1960s. If you write about restoring cars, for example, you could discuss how this interest has impacted your life and personality. Perhaps it has connected y'all with a small-scale, but like minded group of individuals and has immune you lot to find your inner circumvolve.

Another example could be discussing any wellness issues yous may have encountered in your life, particularly those that are not very common. For example, if yous have a vision disorder that, if left untreated, progressively causes you to go blind, you could discuss your thoughts around this experience. Perchance you sought treatment and were able to completely regain sight and want to discuss the ability of existence able to see for the first time in years. This, different a more than mutual claiming such as ADHD (although also justifiably challenging), is definitely more rare and unusual and would allow yous to stand out amongst applicants.

Consider experiences that would distinguish y'all among a crowd of people. Although growing up in an immigrant family unit is a circumstance that may take affected several aspects of your life, this is not all that "unusual." If you're going to discuss racial or indigenous background, try to become 1 layer deeper into a highly specific event that afflicted you. Examples might exist colorism in the South Asian community or immigration'due south bear on on the Hispanic community. In add-on, while it is perfectly acceptable to discuss struggles, you want to terminate your essay with some optimism or positivity to avoid having your essay feel similar a rant.

If you choose to take this road, try to brainstorm a topic that a majority of people likely would not have experienced or encountered. Still, if you're struggling with this, there's no need to worry because there is an endless number of other routes y'all could take with this essay. Not everyone has an unusual circumstance, so perhaps the next few topics volition be a better fit.

(2) Travel, living, or working experiences in your ain or other communities

Beware of falling into the platitude of writing about beingness a high school child conducting service in other countries. It's corking if yous're involved in community service piece of work, but these topics are often overdone and tend not to offer as unique of a perspective every bit other experiences, since many others may share the same experiences.

However, the inverse of this story works well, such as existence a waiter serving people of higher socioeconomic classes. While this prompt is not the place for writing about assisting those less fortunate, every bit this is probable the topic that many applicants jump to, information technology could exist a great identify to discuss working with those with more privilege, as this would provide a unique perspective.

If you're writing well-nigh travel by itself, make certain it involves a broader purpose than yous just becoming more worldly or culturally aware. For example, traveling to Peru and tasting Peruvian chicken and contemplating its flavors tin connect back to your passion for history and cooking. You could discuss the history of Peruvian society and how the cooking methods are driven past Incan and Spanish elements. Decoding this origin of flavors can farther connect dorsum to your love of problem solving.

If yous lived in another country for a few years, you could discuss learning the local linguistic communication and how being in a foreign environment impacted your life as a whole. If there is a stark dissimilarity between this country and the previous land y'all lived in, you lot could compare and contrast the two environments and discuss why this was significant.

Similar to the previous example, perhaps this experience heightened your passion for history and created a newfound love for linguistics, as yous began to notice both the subtle and desperate differences betwixt languages. Mayhap the overlap between history and linguistics is now a discipline you wish to pursue in the future.

(three) What y'all would want your hereafter higher roommate to know about you

This essay allows you to be a scrap more than casual, as y'all don't necessarily take to sound overly bookish. Equally you brainstorm, make sure you don't want list every single ane of your strengths or accomplishments, equally this will read like a resume and come up off a little too dry out.

Y'all want to strike a remainder between indicating your strengths and humanizing yourself. Listing all positives volition seem insincere, while focusing on negatives will cause Harvard to do the same. Sprinkling in a few of your fears and insecurities (without revealing anything that might cause you trouble on campus) is a great manner to show honesty and brand you more personable. Perhaps you could say something along the lines of "if you hear me screaming at the top of my lungs solitary at my desk, don't worry I probably only saw a spider." A bit of humour tin help your personality shine.

Another arroyo is crafting an inner monologue that discusses your initial struggle to make new friends or notice your inner circumvolve, reflects on your emotional maturation beyond high school, or contemplates the moment when you confronted your biggest fear.  For example, if y'all struggled with transitioning into your new high school, y'all could trace back your idea process and reflect on the emotions you experienced during your start week of school. Perhaps yous were afraid of approaching new people, or you were worried that you wouldn't fit into this new environs. You could frame it equally if you're having a conversation with yourself by documenting the reactions you had to specific moments. This would prove a dissimilar side to you by revealing the means in which you think and how these thoughts interpret into action.

With that beingness said, however, keep in mind who's reading your essay. Although this is a "alphabetic character to your hereafter roommate," your roommate actually won't be reading this. The only people who will be reading your essay are those on the admissions committee, then while you should be a little more casual, yous all the same desire to be advisable.

An excellent way to ensure that you're remaining true to yourself is to have a close friend or family unit member read your essay to see if the essay screams y'all . Students often fall into the trap of trying too hard to exist someone they're not, when in reality your about honest self is your true self. Harvard simply wants greater insight into who you lot are as a person so don't be afraid to show some personality!

We read through an case answering this essay prompt in the video below:

(iv) An intellectual experience (form, project, book, discussion, paper, poetry, or inquiry topic in applied science, mathematics, science or other modes of enquiry) that has meant the most to y'all

This is the perfect prompt to show your intellectual vitality and illustrate the ways in which you practise your passions. For example, if a simple robotics projection was what ignited your love for engineering, here would be a peachy place to discuss that.

If you recently read an intriguing neuroscience paper, you could retrace your thought procedure when analyzing the paper and depict your curiosity in the topic. Possibly this was the well-nigh meaningful to you because information technology allowed you to explore a new facet of science that you previously had non considered. Peradventure you lot used this paper as motivation to pursue neuroscience research in an exterior lab, influencing your electric current passion of studying the circuitous workings of the brain.

You could also discuss a passion that is outside of your primary subject in order to testify Harvard the diverse range of interests you may have. Maybe while you lot're primarily passionate about medicine, y'all became interested in philosophy and ethics after having a debate in 1 of your high school courses. You could highlight how these two disciplines, while seemingly dissimilar, overlap and create a need for a deeper emphasis in medical ethics. By connecting your master passion with some other topic, you tin provide greater depth on your intellectual vitality.

(five) How y'all hope to apply your higher education

This is a neat prompt to discuss your intellectual passion and apply this to your vision of the world. A error that students normally make is discussing their time to come dreams without connecting it back to their present experiences and passions. Make sure to depict the connectedness between the 2 and fuse the nowadays with the future to avoid making this error.

While students ofttimes accept large visions for tackling major issues such every bit global warming or curing cancer, these are often overdone since admissions committees encounter besides many of these essays. Rather than focusing your essay on such a wide topic, try to narrow information technology downward into something more specific that is equally impactful but may ofttimes be overlooked.

An instance of this could be a student pursuing urban studies wanting to convert more rural and suburban intersections into roundabouts. While this may seem insignificant, such a change could save tens of thousands of lives over a time span of 20 years.

If you're passionate most the surround, rather than discussing something wide like recycling or renewable free energy, you could discuss the dangers that plastic straws pose to the environment. Perhaps you hope to create an initiative at Harvard to ban the use of plastic straws over the next few years in an attempt to preclude the accumulation of plastics in nature. Through this, you lot promise to take a role in improving Harvard'south campus sustainability for decades to come.

(6) A list of books yous have read during the past twelve months

Students often arroyo this prompt as well similarly to a resume, making their essays sound dry and a piddling boastful. Rather than attempting to show off every aspect of your life, dive deep into your academic or extracurricular passions, or add together an element of personality to your list.

One way to successfully execute this essay is to order the titles in such a way that shows your progression through a topic. For example, you could begin with Freakonomics, then an AP Economics textbook, followed past the Wealth of Nations, the Full general Theory of Employment, Interest in Money, and ending with a book on market monetarism.

With the previous instance, the primal is to evidence why y'all found each championship compelling and how information technology further contributed to your passion for economics. Brand sure to discuss the changes that occurred between each transition and how this impacted your perspective of the topic. Why were you lot intrigued by each of these books and why did information technology allow you lot to fall in love with the subject?

The same structure goes with whatever other discipline. If you're passionate about women's literature, you could compare and contrast your observations from reading books written past diverse female authors written in different time periods. If you were involved in Science Olympiad, you could chronicle your journey through different discoveries based on the scientific novels you read.

However y'all could also simply listing a series of books that y'all've read that do not necessarily have relationships to one another. Hither are a few snippets from a student who chronicled her love for reading with her all-encompassing book list:

"1. The Dominicus Likewise Rises by Ernest Hemingway (I wish my writing was as precise and powerful equally his. This novel sparked my interest in the expatriates of the Lost Generation and influenced several of my other book choices on this list.)"

"7. Large Girl Small by Rachel DeWoskin (I love to estimate books by their covers; this 1 looked similar the book-equivalent of a "chick flick" and turned out to be dark, lousy fiction.)"

"11. Death of a Salesman past Arthur Miller (I observe that things haven't changed much since the fifties: we face the same expectations, perpetuate the same stereotypes, and strive for the aforementioned goals that these characters practise. A depressing take, I know.)"

"43. Walden by Henry David Thoreau (I have vowed to revisit this in a few years; I trudged through it, simply I'k determined to relish it next time.)"

This student added an immense corporeality of personality into what initially appears to only be a list of books. Withal, the student expresses humor in book #7, shows an ability to analyze in #eleven, and connects a book to her passions in #1. In doing and then, the student transforms what'south fundamentally a list of titles into something that is quite revealing and enjoyable to read. This is an extremely strong instance and is a bully template to follow if yous choose to execute this prompt.

(7) The Harvard Higher Accolade code declares that we "hold honesty equally the foundation of our customs." As y'all consider entering this customs that is committed to honesty, please reverberate on a fourth dimension when you lot or someone you observed had to make a choice most whether to deed with integrity and honesty.

The goal for this prompt is to write nigh something that is both insightful, all the same won't make you appear like a problem to Harvard. For example, you would non want to discuss anything illegal that you've done or anything morally questionable. You should therefore look for a topic that has severe consequences but is also appropriate to discuss in a college application.

An example of this could be if you lot were the editor in chief of your schoolhouse paper and had to handle a plagiarism issue. However, the lines became blurred when you discovered the individual under suspicion was one of your friends, making it more hard for you to make a concrete decision. Mayhap, though, you realized that you must be a function model every bit the editor and uphold the moral standard that the office entails, ultimately causing y'all to terminate your friends membership on the squad. Although you feared risking your friendship, your conscious proved to be the stronger force in the situation.

Other examples could exist challenging your friends in other means, such equally ending friendships over sexist, racist, or homophobic comments or actions. Hither, the consequences are astringent in the sense that you lost a friend and risked beingness criticized for a lack of loyalty, but appropriate in that the law was not involved.

Harvard does non desire y'all to preach the value of honesty and integrity since this is already given. Rather, they desire to run across that you lot recognize the implications of certain actions and how integrity plays a function into the choices you make.

Due to this, it is acceptable to tell a story of a fourth dimension where you acted dishonestly but suffered consequences from your action, causing you to mature from your mistakes. The strongest essays are those involving situations where the lines between moral and immoral are blurred, making it all the more than challenging to reach an appropriate conclusion.

(8) The mission of Harvard College is to educate our students to be citizens and denizen-leaders for society. What would y'all do to contribute to the lives of your classmates in advancing this mission?

This essay is similar to the prompt request how you hope to utilise your college didactics, merely eliminates the need to discuss pure academic interests. The aforementioned guidelines follow for this prompt, merely with more than focus on the leadership aspect.

For instance, the aforementioned example about eliminating plastic straw usage tin as well be applicable to this prompt. Nevertheless, rather than discussing your goals to promote sustainability, you could instead analyze the topic from the perspective of educating your peers on being office models in the face of modern challenges. Perhaps you want to encourage fellow students to be leaders by signing your initiative to cease plastic straws on campus. While true that y'all initiated the entrada, educating your peers allows them too to be leaders for future environmental modify.

Equally in prompt five, it's preferable to choose a topic that's underrated rather than a broad well-known issue. Perhaps y'all are passionate about a niche, but equally important, social issue and desire to create an organization defended to its advancement. This would be a keen place to talk over your goals surrounding this and how your leadership skills would use.

(9) Each year a substantial number of students admitted to Harvard defer their admission for ane yr or take fourth dimension off during college. If you decided in the future to choose either pick, what would you like to do?

If this applies to yous, this would exist an excellent opportunity for yous to show a not-academic passion and how you plan to pursue it in your gap year. Make certain you discuss this topic in a effective way that conveys a sense of passion and highlights your skill.

For instance, if you take a passion for gaming, perchance y'all want to take a year off to pursue eSports or intern at a video game company in society farther advance your passion in ways that an academic environment may not let you to do so.

Some other option for those business-minded applicants could be taking time off to pursue your own startup or gaining work feel at a company. Maybe y'all experience that this experience would supplement your education and allow you to utilise your skill prepare to real world applications.

You lot want to brand sure that you apply any potential time off in a meaningful style. For example, if you want to take a yr off to travel the earth, make certain you make this time off pregnant to justify you leaving school. Perhaps you lot have extended family that cannot travel due to wellness or age and you had never had the opportunity to visit them. This would make your time off more than meaningful since the usage has personal weight.

(10) Harvard has long recognized the importance of educatee body diverseness of all kinds. Nosotros welcome yous to write virtually distinctive aspects of your groundwork, personal development or the intellectual interests you might bring to your Harvard classmates.

This is a challenging essay to write because it is hard to exist unique among tens of thousands of applicants. While some students from immigrant backgrounds might focus on stories nearly their heritage, this has get less unique over the years, since many students have similar stories.

An exception to this is if you grew up in poverty or a low socioeconomic background, as these will convey the aforementioned honesty every bit immigrant stories with the added benefit of existence a little more uncommon. Your perspective on this issue would be greatly valued every bit it is one that likely will non be shared past a significant proportion of applications.

Another suggestion would be to consider different definitions of diverseness equally opposed to the obvious definition of diversity. This could be something like a physical aspect such as weight. Perhaps you are a strong abet for torso positivity and want to comment on the ways in which your trunk type has impacted you lot. Or perchance you take been mistreated based on your physical experience and want to discuss the ways in which you lot overcame this.

Beyond physical traits, notwithstanding, you could discuss cognitive diversity. For instance, if you worked on a team conducting a project, you could discuss the diverse ways in which each person approached a problem and how combining these differences fostered greater productivity. You tin can then discuss your ain perspectives and your personal approaches to trouble solving and how you retrieve this will positively contribute to Harvard's student torso.

If none of these options appeal to you, you accept to pick to write on a topic of your choice.

An contained topic, if done correctly, tin can exist much more than powerful than whatever of the in a higher place options. However, beware of trying too hard to be creative, as this can experience disingenuous and will exist blatantly obvious to admission readers.

If you take a unique perspective on a truly innovative or interesting topic, such as why the ninety'due south is and forever volition be the best decade, this is the place to hash out that. Y'all want to write well-nigh something unconventional that would grasp the reader'due south attention, nevertheless it should exist something that you are truly interested or involved in.

Some other instance could be chronicling your life in a comedic story by discussing major events with a lighthearted and fairytale-like tone. Y'all could add together humor and wit to both the positive and negative elements of your experiences to make the admissions officers experience equally if they're reading a story rather than an essay.

However, the possibilities are endless here. Only effort this essay if you are confident in your innovative writing abilities and accept gained approval from many reliable sources. An unconventional essay executed poorly could impairment your application more than than it helps it. Do good judgement, but don't exist afraid to exist a little creative.

We hope this guide was helpful and has allowed you to tackle Harvard's application with the utmost confidence. Happy writing!

Want to learn more about writing the Harvard University supplemental essays? Cheque out i of our pop recorded alive streams on this topic.

Want assist with your college essays to improve your admissions chances? Sign up for your complimentary CollegeVine account  and get access to our essay guides and courses. You can also get your essay peer-reviewed and improve your ain writing skills by reviewing other students' essays.

harveyanythe1982.blogspot.com

Source: https://blog.collegevine.com/how-to-write-the-harvard-university-supplemental-essays-2021-2022/

Share this post