Harvard Essay Guide

Part of  Upcoming Essay Guides Series of Top 15 Popular Universities 

Harvard is a university whose reputation precedes it. With its notable alumni and top-tier academics, it is the oldest and one of the most prestigious universities in the world. It is no surprise, then, that the number of applicants to Harvard increases each year: in 2009, only 2,074 out of 22,796 applicants were selected for admission (yielding a 9.1 percent acceptance rate, the most competitive in the Ivy League at the time). In the most recent admissions cycle (2019-2020), the number of applicants had nearly doubled to 40,248 while the amount of accepted students remained nearly the same (2,015), yielding an even more competitive acceptance rate of roughly 5 percent. According to the Harvard Crimson, in the 2020-2021 cycle, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Harvard received a record-high of 57,000 applicants (marking a 42% increase in applications from the previous year).

Given the high amount of applicants, it follows that Harvard would put an emphasis on their supplementary application essay in the admissions process. In addition to the Common App personal statement, Harvard requests applicants outline their extracurriculars, submit recommendation letters, and then provides applicants the option of including a supplemental essay to include any other information about themselves that may be salient in their application. Given that this essay is supplemental and the guidelines are so open-ended, prospective applicants are commonly confused on whether to submit and what to write. Luckily you’ve come to the right place! Keep reading for a guide on how to apply to Harvard and write the Harvard 2021 Supplemental Essay.

Harvard is a university with a rich history of extracurricular activities, athletic teams, research endeavors, and other forms of recreation on campus. From the infamous Harvard Crimson newspaper to the Mountaineering club, there are a variety of activities available of which students can take advantage. Harvard boasts over 400 hundred student organizations, including more than 100 community service programs through the Phillips Brooks House, countless affinity groups providing representation for a variety of identities, and pre-professional organizations such as the Harvard College Consulting Group. There is a place for every student at Harvard and many students are involved in multiple extracurricular activities during their time at Harvard.

Harvard is also a university steeped in hundreds of years of tradition. The residential housing system at Harvard is one that is unique among its peer schools, with students being sorted into one of twelve residential communities (called “Houses”) during the spring of their first year. The majority of Harvard students remain in these residential Houses for the remainder of their time at Harvard. Other Harvard traditions include “The Game,” which is the infamous football game between rivals Harvard and Yale that occurs in the fall each year. Yardfest is another esteemed Harvard tradition, in which a guest artist is invited to perform for a large outdoor spring concert in Tercentenary Theater, the outdoor lawn in Harvard Yard. These are only a few of the many long-standing Harvard traditions that set the university apart and keep the number of applicants increasing with each year.

 Harvard offers two options for applying: restrictive early action and regular decision. Both are equal opportunities in the admissions process and there is no official difference between choosing to apply restrictive early action or regular decision. Prospective applicants should consider their personal timelines, comfort level, and the number of schools they intend to apply to when deciding between early action and regular decision.

Restrictive early action is an option that allows for students to apply by November 1st and receive notice of their admission, deferral, or rejection by mid-December. Unlike the more traditional “Early Decision” option at other universities, this early option for Harvard does not lock applicants in to attending: if accepted during the restrictive early action cycle, applicants may wait until May 1st to accept or reject the admissions offer, just like other applicants. The early action option is labeled “restrictive” because applicants are limited to applying early action to only Harvard if they choose this option; applicants are free to apply to other schools during the Regular Decision cycle in January. Restrictive early action is a great option for those who feel strongly that Harvard would be their first choice school, those who want to limit the amount of applications they submit due to financial reasons, or those who feel that they are ready to submit their application by November.

Regular decision is the much more common option that allows for students to apply by January 1st and receive notice of their admission, wait-list, or rejection by early April. Most applicants choose to apply regular decision so that they have time during the fall to finish up their standardized testing, get their application materials together, and some even need the extra semester to boost their high school GPA for their application.

Both restrictive early action and regular decision applicant pools are treated equally, so students should not feel pressure to apply in November or January but rather should consider the option that works best for them.

So those are the ways to apply to Harvard: now let’s take a look at what students actually need to write for their applications. 

 Students should seize every opportunity to supplement their application with meaningful, engaging, and unique narratives which contribute significantly to their application.

This is a great opportunity for students to pick one of the extracurricular activities that they are most passionate about and let that passion shine through. Applicants shouldn’t select the extracurricular which they think Harvard would find most interesting or suitable. Applicants should really choose the activity for which they had the most passion in high school. When reflecting on their extracurricular activities, it would be a good idea for students to think: which of these extracurricular activities could I talk about for twenty minutes with no preparation? Which one did I participate in the longest? This will be the activity that will yield the best essay response. And remember: 150 words isn’t very much so choose every word carefully and put your passion at the forefront of the essay response.

Essay Example:

I joined the Black Student Union (BSU) when I was a sophomore because I was seeking a sense of community within my larger school one. The BSU is where I found a place in which I could grow intellectually, personally, and academically as a result of our weekly discussions on topics related to race, identity, and inclusion. After my sophomore year I applied for a leadership position on the Black Student Union Show so that I could help improve the visibility of the Black community at my high school and participate in crafting a show during Black History Month that would tell the story of what it was like to be Black at my high school. By the time I was a senior, I was elected President and given the opportunity to lead the BSU in new directions.

In the supplemental essay, the student choses to elaborate on her membership in and leadership of the Black Student Union at her school. This essay provides more depth to the application, showing the motivation she had for joining while simultaneously highlighting  their passion, intellectual growth, and leadership abilities.

This is a great opportunity for students to talk about what they are intellectually curious about. Harvard prides itself on the academic caliber of its students, so applicants should take this time to highlight one of their intellectual interests and how they have pursued this interest outside of the classroom. Students shouldn’t feel intimidated by this prompt: many things, such as an interest in creative writing or a passion for entrepreneurship, can count as “intellectual activities” so long as the student has pursued this interest in some tangible way.

Essay Example:

Although my high school did not offer any classes on the criminal justice system, I was always interested in the law, the carceral system, and criminal justice. I decided to pursue this interest outside of the classroom, specifically researching the death penalty and how it had evolved over the years. I compiled my own resources for this research, from documentaries to library books to online narratives about life in prison. While this was a personal endeavor, I did receive informal mentorship and guidance from several of my teachers, who found me in the library after school or allowed me to hang back after class to talk about my interest in the death penalty. In the end, I was invited to give a small presentation for my History class about my research, sharing my conclusions about the merits of the death penalty and answering questions from my peers.

In the sample above, the student picks an intellectual topic that specifically was not offered at her school as a way to demonstrate their passion and initiative. She explicitly describes the steps she took to pursue this interest, and she shared how this intellectual journey culminated in her personal growth and academic growth for their peers. 

Harvard Prompt: “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 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?

> You may write on a topic of your choice.

Please note: If you do not intend to provide a response to this optional question, you do not need to submit the writing supplement. If you encounter any problems submitting your application, please upload a document that says ‘Not Applicable’ and hit submit.”

Should You Write a Supplemental Essay?

In general, it is a good idea for students to write a supplemental essay to include with their Harvard application. Although technically “optional,” this essay is an opportunity to distinguish oneself from the other applicants. Everyone submits a Common App, a list of extracurriculars, and a set of recommendation letters. But to stand out amidst 40,000 other applicants, students should view this supplemental essay as their chance to make a unique impression.

Tips For Writing The Supplemental Essay

1. Be succinct : While there is no word count or page limit for the Harvard supplemental essay, that does not mean students should take this as an invitation to ramble on for 20 pages. Applicants should write concisely and only include details that are salient to the story they are telling. Admissions officers have to read numerous applications each day, and a student whose supplemental essay is inordinately long is likely to make a bad impression or bore the admissions officer.
2. Write about YOU, not about other people in your life (parents, siblings, etc). This might seem like an obvious tip, but many students tend to write essays about the profound impact that their parents had on them, or how their grandparents’ sacrifices helped them get to where they are today. While these may be significant events or factors in a student’s life, they do not center the student in the application. Harvard admissions are interested in who the student is and how they think and what they are curious and passionate about. Students should take some time to seriously reflect on their interests, passions, and how they can construct a compelling narrative about themselves.
3. Be memorable - start with a gripping hook that will catch admissions readers attention. An applicant’s supplemental essay should be significantly different from their Common App personal statement. The Harvard admissions officer has already read that essay, and they are not looking for a repeat of the same themes or narratives. The supplemental essay is an opportunity to make oneself stand out, and the best way to do that is to write about something that is memorable. Students should start with a gripping hook in the first line that will prioritize them in the admissions officer’s mind and make it easy for the admission officer to reference them later on.

Essay Example

In June of my junior year, I chased down a criminal in a foreign country. I have never been a reckless or impulsive person; in fact, I am the type who would see someone in pursuit of their robber and think “Don't they know how dangerous that is?" But when I decided to travel to Spain for three weeks, I made a choice to start pushing myself outside of my school's protective "bubble," and in the split second when the culprit ran past me on the street, I chose to be the chaser instead of the bystander.

…

Chasing after that boy was undoubtedly the most reckless thing I have ever done in my life. I don't often take risks of that magnitude - I don't roll the dice, I don't "act first and think later." That decision, free from the constraints of opinion, judgment, or warning, marked the beginning of my evolution to an adult mentality. Instead of formulating a plan of action, as I'd been taught to do for most of my teenage life, I had made an executive decision with my friends' best interests in mind, and thrown caution to the wind. It's likely that that wasn't the smartest choice to make in that moment. Even I can admit that. But it was the first step I took to shed the skin of adolescence, because it was the first thing I had ever done to actively be the brave and fearless woman I wanted to be.

The student had written wrote the Common App personal statement about her upbringing and how her mixed race identity impacted their personal, intellectual, and academic growth throughout school. However, for her supplemental essay, the student wrote about a time when she studied abroad in Spain and had a run-in with some young men who robbed her and her friends.

The first line of their supplemental essay reads: “In June of my junior year, I chased down a criminal in a foreign country.” Thus, their essay was significantly different from her personal statement, the first line hooked the admissions officer, and the story told by the essay made it easy for the admissions officer to remember and reference this applicant later on (“the person who chased a criminal in a foreign country”).

Finally, this prompt is an opportunity for international students to make their case for how they plan to use their U.S. education, and particularly their Harvard education, in the rest of their lives. In addition to demonstrating briefly the effect that receiving a Harvard education will have on them, international students should also consider looking up some of the notable alumni from Harvard and making specific reference to one or two who used their Harvard education in a way that the student is interested in. This will show admissions that the student has done their research on Harvard and can chart a clear path for themselves post-graduation.

Harvard specifics to keep in mind while writing

Students should do their research on Harvard before writing this supplemental essay, but here are a few general things to keep in mind about Harvard.

1. Harvard values stewardship and good citizenship.

Applicants’ supplemental essays should speak highly of themselves and demonstrate that they are upstanding moral citizens of their country and community. Students shouldn’t include stories or examples that shine a bad light on them. Rather, applicants should aim to show (and not tell) how they have been upstanding moral citizens or members of various communities of which they have been apart.

2. Harvard strives for a “transformative” experience for all of its students.

Students should show that they will actively contribute to that transformative experience. The supplemental essay is a good time to showcase any unique quirks, accomplishments, or challenges that the applicant has faced and overcome. Students should think about what they would bring to the Harvard community and how their peers would benefit from their presence on campus and center that narrative in their supplemental essay.

3. Harvard wants to see that applicants are passionate about something that they will pursue during their time at Harvard.

This could be a good opportunity for applicants to elaborate on one of the extracurriculars they listed on their application, or to explore one of their other passions. Students shouldn’t feel limited to academic interests, although they should try to connect their passion to an intellectual pursuit or curiosity in some way.

The supplemental essay is the applicant’s opportunity to showcase their unique talents, interests, or personal histories. They should write succinctly, but they should also ensure to construct a compelling narrative that distinguishes them from the tens of thousands of other applicants. And they should always make sure that their essay centers themselves and nobody else. 

Good Luck to all applicants!

 Written by PathIvy Content Team