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WebMar 11, · 10 Successful Harvard Application Essays | Our new version is up now! Our edition is sponsored by HS2 Academy—a premier college counseling WebWhy this Harvard essay worked: From an ex-admissions officer. This writer discussed a passion project with a long-lasting impact. As admissions officers, we realize that post WebHow to Apply Resume and Essays All of our master’s degree programs require that you submit your résumé and at least four essays, which vary by program. Résumé A résumé Web10 Successful Harvard Application Essays | Our new version is up now! Our edition is sponsored by HS2 Academy—a premier college counseling company that WebHarvard University Application Essay Question Explanations. The Requirements: One long essay with no word limit, two word essays. Supplemental Essay Type(s): ... read more
One of the most useful things I did while working on my college essay was asking a couple people to read it over. When I asked my parents and teacher what they thought, they unanimously picked one option over the other. This is an important step! Both you, and perhaps someone who knows you well, should read over your essay and make sure it is in tip-top shape before you turn it in. There should be no grammatical or spelling mistakes — that gives the impression that you did not take your time on it. So sit down, smile, and get to writing! Hi everyone! Hudson Miller Class of ' Gloria Maldonado Class of ' Ana Barba Class of ' Skip to main content. Guides Application Tips Navigating Campus Preparing for College How to Complete the FAFSA What to Expect After You Apply View All Guides.
Helpful Links Frequently Asked Questions Applicant Portal Admitted Students Contact Us My. Harvard University Resources Academic Calendar Campus Map Dean of Students Office Directory Office of Undergraduate Education FAS Registrar. Important Addresses Harvard College University Hall Cambridge, MA Harvard College Admissions Office and Griffin Financial Aid Office 86 Brattle Street Cambridge, MA Social Links Twitter Facebook Instagram Youtube. Search Suggestions Top Searched Tuition Majors Courses Scholarships Sports International Students Transfer. Common Questions What is the difference between Harvard College and Harvard University? Paying the admissions application fee is a hardship for my family. Can I get a waiver?
Can I self-report my test scores? Do I need a minimum required SAT or ACT score? Helpful Links FAQs Applicant Portal Events Contact Us my. The Personal Essay Category Student Voices. Halie Olson Class of ' Tag Admissions. Halie Olson Class of '17 Hi everyone! The globe he had won for being on the Honor Roll was proudly displayed on the bookshelf among his prized possessions. Smiling ear to ear, he told us that JPA was the best thing in his life. I realize that it really is too late to go home. I remain seated, deep in thought. I look up and see Deidre looking at me. In essays about community service, it is easy to fall into the trap of self-aggrandizement— emphasizing your own personal sacrifices and good deeds and in the process making yourself look like someone more interested in self-service than community service.
This seemingly straightforward story arc is enlivened by choice details and images—the off-hand conversation about dengue fever in the first paragraph, for example, adds a good jolt of surprise, and the descriptions of the Cambodian countryside are vivid and well-executed. And as the admissions office gets deluged with more and more applications every year, this spark of sincerity goes very far indeed. The language barrier was like a tsunami, gurgling with strange and indistinguishable vocalizations. I bolted up in surprise, my head colliding gracefully with the underside of the table. Yelping in pain, I noticed that the entire class was staring at me. That boy, Jack, came to visit me during my lonely recesses.
It was rather awkward at first—I could only stare at him as he rambled on in English. But it was comforting to have some company. From there, our friendship blossomed. Our initial conversations must have been hilarious to the hapless bystander. Jack would speak in fluent English while I spurted sentence after sentence of Mandarin. It was like watching tennis—rallies of English and Mandarin back and forth. But I learned quickly, and in no time I was fluent. Jack also showed me the ropes of Western culture. Today, I volunteer at a community service agency for new immigrants where I work with children. I do it because I understand the confusion and frustration of dealing with a strange and sometimes hostile environment; I remember how it feels to be tangled up in an amalgam of unfamiliar words and sounds.
And so I teach them; I give seminars on reading, writing, and speaking skills as well as Western culture, history, and sometimes, a bit of social studies. But I strive to do more than just that. I try to be a friend—because I remember how Jack helped me. I organize field trips to the science center, the museum, and the symphony: double-whammy trips where children can have fun while improving their literacy skills. Through these experiences, I try to understand each of them as unique individuals—their likes, dislikes, pet peeves, background.
Everyone needs a guiding light through the lonesome process of adaptation, a friendly bump to lift them from the dark shroud of isolation. My hope is that, one day, these children will also feel compelled to do the same, helping others adapt to an unfamiliar environment. With this, we can truly create a caring and cohesive network of support for the children of our society. Lucien's essay depicts a personal connection with his community service activity and provides the why to an extracurricular that probably shows up college application. He starts off with an endearing anecdote of meeting his first friend in Canada and connects the encounter to his current passion, then delves even deeper by concluding with self- reflection and a bigger goal for society that he hopes to achieve.
His personal statement gives the reader a glimpse at his background and assimilation into a new culture, and how his qwn experience as an immigrant motivates him to help other immigrants adapt to life in a new place. The strengths of this essay lie in the vivid and charming recounting of his first encounter with Jack, his first friend in a foreign new environment, and how he uses that story to explain his passion for volunteering. He connects his community service to a bigger goal at the end of the essay that leaves the reader feeling inspired, and alludes to his thoughts, hopes, and dreams. There is a tone of humility and humor as he depicts how he met his first friend by bumping his head under the table, and makes a motif out of the head bump by referring to it again later when he's talking about helping other immigrant children.
He modestly credits his noble deeds at the community service agency to meeting his first friend, and humbly reveals his hope that his own good deeds will inspire others to pay it forward. He does a good job of exhibiting his accomplishments in community service without sounding like he's bragging. Lucien could also make the essay more memorable and distinctive by including anecdotes of his experiences at the community service agency where he gave seminars and organized field trips. He denotes his volunteering responsibilities in list form, which can seem a bit impersonal and résumé- like.
For example, he mentions how he tried to understand the people he helped, but does not include how he goes about doing this, or whether learning about those unique individuals contributed to his experience. Adding a story of how he changed the lives of the immigrants he helped would enhance his message and create a fitting parallel with the anecdote of how Jack helped him as he assimilated only one line on the activities portion of his into Western culture. Overall, Lucien combines humor with humility and leaves the reader feeling inspired. I think the most tragic part of my childhood originated from my sheer inability to find anything engraved with my name. I never had a CHAFFEE license plate on my hand-me-down red Schwinn. No one ever gave me a key chain or coffee mug with the beautiful loops of those double Fs and Es.
Alas, I was destined to search through the names; longingly staring at the space between CHAD and CHARLOTTE hoping one day a miracle would occur. My name has always been an integral part of my identity. Sure, it sounds a bit like my parents created it from a bag of Scrabble tiles, but it comes from a long-lost ancestor, Comfort Chaffee. In my opinion, a name can make or break a person. The ability to embody a name depends on the individual. My greatest goal in life is to be the kind of unique person deserving of a name so utterly random and absurd. I began my journey in preschool. Nothing about me screamed normal. I was not prim, proper, and poised. I preferred sneaking away from my preschool classroom, barefoot, in the purple velvet dress I wore every single day to resting obediently during nap time.
I grew up in a family akin to a modified Brady Bunch. Stepsisters, half sisters, stepbrothers, and stepparents joined my previously miniscule household. But in a family of plain names like Chris, Bill, John, Liz, Katherine, and Mark, I was still the only Chaffee. I was a bit of a reverse black sheep in my family. My name helped me carve an identity separate from my myriad of siblings. Instead of enriching my brain with Grand Theft Auto, I preferred begging my parents to take me to the bookstore. While my parents mandated homework time for my brothers, they never questioned my work ethic or wiretapped my assignment notebook.
The thing that set me apart from the herd was that I was self-disciplined enough to take control of my own life. Putting school first came naturally to me, much to the distaste and confusion of my siblings. As I got older, I began to embody my name more and more. I was often picked to lead classroom discussions and my complete disregard for making a fool of myself bolstered that skill. The manner in which I operate academically is perfectly described as Chaffee-esque; including but not limited to elaborate study songs, complex pneumonic devices, study forts, and the occasional John C. Calhoun costume. Seeing someone struggle over those two unfamiliar syllables fills me with glee. I feel as though I am adding a new word to their vocabulary.
So on my last day as a page in the U. Senate, I prepared myself for the anticipated awkward stumbling as Senator Harry Reid thanked me by name in his closing address. But the stumble never came. I felt very humbled by his perfect pronunciation. Perhaps Chaffee is actually catching on! She shapes her development from preschool to high school in the lens of her name, demonstrating the importance that it has played throughout her life. Yet, the essay works quite well. Chaffee spends a great deal of time elaborating on how she was different from both her family and others with examples of her transgressions in preschool and her penchant for schoolwork and education as opposed to procrastination or video games like Grand Theft Auto.
Chaffee toots her own horn just a little bit when describing the merits of her work ethic, but it is still fairly endearing overall, and there is no shame in sharing a desire for learning. That summed up what running had always meant to me, ever since I was a seventh grader, choosing his sport for the first time. I was fine and content, however. I always had Jeffrey and Archie, classmates like me who ran slowly. We were good friends. We laughed together; we raced together; we pushed each other, and endured tough workouts together. But after middle school the people I trained with went on to do things they were better at. I remained, even though I was not good enough to be considered for varsity.
High school running was hell. I struggled with workouts, most of which I had to run alone. In the hot, dry days of autumn, I often coughed on the dust trails left by my teammates as they vanished into the distance. During the workouts, I got passed incessantly, almost getting run over on occasion. It hurt not to be important; to be dead weight for the team. I looked forward to the next year, when I could hopefully run with the incoming freshmen. Even a year later, I was still the slowest on the team. How could the freshmen who had snored off the whole summer beat me, a veteran from middle school and high school with decent summer training?
My mother, worried about the steady deterioration of my condition, contacted a doctor. The doctor prescribed a daily iron pill, and the results were exhilarating. I joked that I was taking steroids. I sunk into endless oxygen. I got tired less. During the workouts, I felt more machine than man. Iron therapy taught me something fundamental. It reminded me why I was running; why I had stuck to this damn sport for four straight years. When I was anemic, I struggled to gather what little motivation I had for those painfully slow jogs in those parks. Putting the effort in, and seeing the dramatic results fooled my mind like a well-administered placebo. Iron therapy was the training wheels that would jump-start my dramatic improvement.
It took four months—four months of iron pills, blood tests, and training—to get back to my personal best: the mile that I had run the year before. Early February that year, the training wheels came off. I was running close to seven miles a day on my own. I could catch a light. I could walk as many stairs as I wanted without getting tired. I was even far ahead of where I was the year before. After two and a half years as a miler, I finally had a breakthrough race. I ran a I asked coach if I could eventually break 5 minutes. He told me to focus more on maintaining my fitness through spring break. I ran the mile again, this time outdoors. Coach had me seeded at a I ran the first lap, holding back. I hoped to squeeze by with a The euphoria was unprecedented as I realized by the second lap that I was a dozen seconds ahead and still holding back.
I finished with a On the bus ride back from the meet, one of my long-standing dreams came true. I pretended to ignore Coach sitting next to me, but he kept on giving me glances. He was excited about my time. We talked a lot about the race. We talked about my continuous and dramatic improvement. He said it was early in the season and that I would break 5 minutes after only a few weeks of training. Six weeks later, Mr. Song, my chemistry teacher, asked me if I had broken 5 minutes for the mile yet. I told him all about how I had run in three meets over the past month and had failed to break on every one of them. I told him that 5 minutes was now for me a mirage in the distance. Even though these consoling words were from the man who had baffled my nutritionist when he had guessed that I was anemic, I still doubted his wisdom.
On Sunday, I would run the mile once. My last mile of the year. This was it. Using my tried-and-true racing strategy, I finished with a , a second drop in time. Before I was anemic, the correlation between hard work and success was something that only appeared in the cliché success stories of the talented few. Now, I am running more mileage than I ever have before. And my violin teacher still complains. Although challenging and not to mention the fact that he always finishes last , John has stuck with running for many years. This magic mineral allows him to heal, excel in his running, and ultimately exceed his wildest expectations by almost breaking the 5-minute mark by a few seconds. John guides us through his story through the lens of his infallible work ethic.
Even though he did not reach his exact goal, he is seconds away from it, and the reader knows he will keep pushing to achieve it. As a reader, I would love to hear more about what happens next. This self-reflection section is the most important element of the essay as it allows admissions readers a window into what drives a student. As the essay culminates, John makes us smile as he smiles even though his violin teacher is still not too happy with him. We know John has learned to appreciate the beauty of the journey rather than the destination and we are just thrilled for him! The backbone of my life is my writing desk. Math exercises overlap an organizer, set next to almost-empty tubes of paint and overdue library books.
An eclectic desk shows an eclectic personality; mine has had the honor of being the training grounds prior to the Great final Battle exam of Chemistry, the peaceful meadow of relaxed reading afternoons, and all in all the pristine-turned-colorful canvas of an inquisitive mind. I remember buying it with my mother five years ago, when my bruised knees protested against the tiny white-paint-gone-yellow one I had used since childhood. My new desk was made of native Rimu heartwood—solid, resilient, dependable—a perfect role model for me to grow into.
Over the years, its material became representative of my New Zealand identity, its surface slowly coated in quirky personality, and its compartments filled with treasured memories; the heartwood desk echoed my heart. At first, it did not fit with the decor of the rest of my room, which even now appears boxy and stark next to my grandiosely elegant writing desk, but its quiet strength is unafraid of individuality, just as I have learned to become. It has watched as I grew stronger branches, a straighter trunk, firmer roots; whereas I had once been but a shy young seedling, I sprouted leaves and with them the ability and yearning to provide shade for others.
I have certainly physically grown into it, but although I would like to think that I have become completely independent, I remain human; in inevitable times of need, it is still my steadfast, sturdy desk that offers its support. I sit here and, well, I write: joyfully, desolately, irately, wistfully—at times paralyzed by excitement, at others crippled by fear. I scrawl notes in my organizer which is, naturally, not in the least organized , words overflow my blog, overemotional oranges and blues plague my illustrations; shallow scratch marks indent the wood from where I have pressed too passionately into paper. It may be solid, but it is elastic enough to be shaped, resilient enough to adapt: This is my soft wooden heart. It can take it. My desk remains constant despite scars of experience—unassuming, stoic, ever watchful.
Even when I dismembered dying cell phones, their frail key tones pleading for mercy, the desk stood there, nonchalant. Regardless of what fervor goes on from time to time, it knows there will eventually be a constant calm; my lively nest of rebuilt mobiles still calls this place home. Some things will never change. And, like a mother, it always turns out to be right.
Other High School , College Admissions , Letters of Recommendation , Extracurriculars , College Essays. In , I applied to college and got into every school I applied to, including Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, and MIT. I decided to attend Harvard. In this guide, I'll show you the entire college application that got me into Harvard—page by page, word for word. In my complete analysis, I'll take you through my Common Application, Harvard supplemental application, personal statements and essays, extracurricular activities, teachers' letters of recommendation, counselor recommendation, complete high school transcript, and more. I'll also give you in-depth commentary on every part of my application. To my knowledge, a college application analysis like this has never been done before.
This is the application guide I wished I had when I was in high school. If you're applying to top schools like the Ivy Leagues, you'll see firsthand what a successful application to Harvard and Princeton looks like. You'll learn the strategies I used to build a compelling application. You'll see what items were critical in getting me admitted, and what didn't end up helping much at all. Reading this guide from beginning to end will be well worth your time—you might completely change your college application strategy as a result. I was so thrilled when I got this letter. It validated many years of hard work, and I was excited to take my next step into college and work even harder.
I received similar successful letters from every college I applied to: Princeton, Stanford, and MIT. After getting into Harvard early, I decided not to apply to Yale, Columbia, UChicago, UPenn, and other Ivy League-level schools, since I already knew I would rather go to Harvard. The application that got me admitted everywhere is the subject of this guide. You're going to see everything that the admissions officers saw. If you're hoping to see an acceptance letter like this in your academic future, I highly recommend you read this entire article. I'll start first with an introduction to this guide and important disclaimers.
Then I'll share the 1 question you need to be thinking about as you construct your application. Finally, we'll spend a lot of time going through every page of my college application, both the Common App and the Harvard Supplemental App. Important Note: the foundational principles of my application are explored in detail in my How to Get Into Harvard guide. In this popular guide, I explain:. If you have the time and are committed to maximizing your college application success, I recommend you read through my Harvard guide first, then come back to this one.
From my student records, I was able to retrieve the COMPLETE original application I submitted to Harvard. Page by page, word for word, you'll see everything exactly as I presented it : extracurricular activities, awards and honors, personal statements and essays, and more. In addition to all this detail, there are two special parts of this college application breakdown that I haven't seen anywhere else :. For every piece of my application, I'll provide commentary on what made it so effective and my strategies behind creating it. You'll learn what it takes to build a compelling overall application.
Importantly, even though my application was strong, it wasn't perfect. I'll point out mistakes I made that I could have corrected to build an even stronger application. Here's a complete table of contents for what we'll be covering. Each link goes directly to that section, although I'd recommend you read this from beginning to end on your first go. In revealing my teenage self, some parts of my application will be pretty embarrassing you'll see why below. But my mission through my company PrepScholar is to give the world the most helpful resources possible, so I'm publishing it. One last thing before we dive in—I'm going to anticipate some common concerns beforehand and talk through important disclaimers so that you'll get the most out of this guide.
My biggest caveat for you when reading this guide: thousands of students get into Harvard and Ivy League schools every year. This guide tells a story about one person and presents one archetype of a strong applicant. As you'll see, I had a huge academic focus, especially in science this was my Spike. I'm also irreverent and have a strong, direct personality. What you see in this guide is NOT what YOU need to do to get into Harvard , especially if you don't match my interests and personality at all. As I explain in my Harvard guide , I believe I fit into one archetype of a strong applicant—the "academic superstar" humor me for a second, I know calling myself this sounds obnoxious.
There are other distinct ways to impress, like:. Therefore, DON'T worry about copying my approach one-for-one. Don't worry if you're taking a different number of AP courses or have lower test scores or do different extracurriculars or write totally different personal statements. This is what schools like Stanford and Yale want to see—a diversity in the student population! The point of this guide is to use my application as a vehicle to discuss what top colleges are looking for in strong applicants. Even though the specific details of what you'll do are different from what I did, the principles are the same.
What makes a candidate truly stand out is the same, at a high level. What makes for a super strong recommendation letter is the same. The strategies on how to build a cohesive, compelling application are the same. There's a final reason you shouldn't worry about replicating my work—the application game has probably changed quite a bit since Technology is much more pervasive, the social issues teens care about are different, the extracurricular activities that are truly noteworthy have probably gotten even more advanced. What I did might not be as impressive as it used to be. So focus on my general points, not the specifics, and think about how you can take what you learn here to achieve something even greater than I ever did. This is what I believe will be most helpful for you. I hope you don't misinterpret this as bragging about my accomplishments.
I'm here to show you what it took for me to get into Harvard and other Ivy League schools, not to ask for your admiration. So if you read this guide and are tempted to dismiss my advice because you think I'm boasting, take a step back and focus on the big picture—how you'll improve yourself. A sample list of schools that fit into this: Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, MIT, UChicago, Duke, UPenn, CalTech, Johns Hopkins, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Brown. The top in that list are especially looking for the absolute best students in the country , since they have the pick of the litter. For less selective schools, having an overall strong, well-rounded application is sufficient for getting in. In particular, having an above average GPA and test scores goes the majority of the way toward getting you admission to those schools.
The higher the admission rate, the more emphasis will be placed on your scores. The other pieces I'll present below—personal statements, extracurriculars, recommendations—will matter less. Still, it doesn't hurt to aim for a stronger application. To state the obvious, an application strong enough to get you Columbia will get you into UCLA handily. In my application, I've redacted pieces of my application for privacy reasons, and one supplementary recommendation letter at the request of the letter writer. Everything else is unaltered. Throughout my application, we can see marks made by the admissions officer highlighting and circling things of note you'll see the first example on the very first page. I don't have any other applications to compare these to, so I'm going to interpret these marks as best I can.
For the most part, I assume that whatever he underlines or circles is especially important and noteworthy —points that he'll bring up later in committee discussions. It could also be that the reader got bored and just started highlighting things, but I doubt this. Finally, I co-founded and run a company called PrepScholar. I want to emphasize that you do NOT need to buy a prep program to get a great score , and the advice in this guide has little to do with my company. If you stepped into an elevator with Yale's Dean of Admissions and you had ten seconds to describe yourself and why you're interesting, what would you say? This is what I call your PERSONAL NARRATIVE. These are the three main points that represent who you are and what you're about. This is the story that you tell through your application, over and over again.
This is how an admissions officer should understand you after just glancing through your application. This is how your admissions officer will present you to the admissions committee to advocate for why they should accept you. The more unique and noteworthy your Personal Narrative is, the better. This is how you'll stand apart from the tens of thousands of other applicants to your top choice school. This is why I recommend so strongly that you develop a Spike to show deep interest and achievement. A compelling Spike is the core of your Personal Narrative. Well-rounded applications do NOT form compelling Personal Narratives, because "I'm a well-rounded person who's decent at everything" is the exact same thing every other well-rounded person tries to say.
Everything in your application should support your Personal Narrative , from your course selection and extracurricular activities to your personal statements and recommendation letters. You are a movie director, and your application is your way to tell a compelling, cohesive story through supporting evidence. Yes, this is overly simplistic and reductionist. It does not represent all your complexities and your 17 years of existence. But admissions offices don't have the time to understand this for all their applicants. Your PERSONAL NARRATIVE is what they will latch onto. Here's what I would consider my Personal Narrative humor me since I'm peacocking here :. These three elements were the core to my application.
Together they tell a relatively unique Personal Narrative that distinguishes me from many other strong applicants. You get a surprisingly clear picture of what I'm about. There's no question that my work in science was my "Spike" and was the strongest piece of my application, but my Personal Narrative included other supporting elements, especially a description of my personality.
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WebHarvard University Application Essay Question Explanations. The Requirements: One long essay with no word limit, two word essays. Supplemental Essay Type(s): WebHow to Apply Resume and Essays All of our master’s degree programs require that you submit your résumé and at least four essays, which vary by program. Résumé A résumé WebMar 11, · 10 Successful Harvard Application Essays | Our new version is up now! Our edition is sponsored by HS2 Academy—a premier college counseling WebWhy this Harvard essay worked: From an ex-admissions officer. This writer discussed a passion project with a long-lasting impact. As admissions officers, we realize that post Web10 Successful Harvard Application Essays | Our new version is up now! Our edition is sponsored by HS2 Academy—a premier college counseling company that ... read more
The consequences of premature labeling are too great, the risk of inaccuracy too high because, most of the time, not even the hundreds of alphanumeric digits and symbols available for entry on my P-Touch can effectively describe who an individual really is. The finishing touch, of course, was always a glossy, three-eighths-inch-wide tag, freshly churned out from my handheld labeler and decisively pasted upon the numerous plastic bags I had successfully compiled. I really think this means they place less emphasis on the supplementary recommendations, compared to the teacher recommendations. What to Expect After You Apply Here you'll find information on tracking your application and interviews. Complete the Harvard Questions with the Common Application or Coalition Application, Powered by Scoir.
For a free harvard application essays about our services and more, please visit our website. Until you submit your own application sections, no part of your application will be transmitted to the Harvard Admissions Office. Yelping in pain, I noticed that the entire class was staring at me. We welcome you to write about distinctive aspects of your background, personal development or the intellectual interests you might bring to your Harvard classmates. The beginning of the creative process involves coming up with ideas, judging them comes later, harvard application essays. What was his connection to the country, language or culture?
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