· In addition to academic transcripts, extracurricular activities, and letters of recommendation, Harvard requires one essays, and two optional essays. With such daunting numbers, it’s no wonder that students are often intimidated by Harvard’s extremely open-ended supplemental essays The Harvard optional essay college confidential is the first step to receive a chance to attend this famous university. If you fell behind the curriculum, you might experience some difficulties, which were not dependent on you. For instance, you might be sick for some period of time We welcome you to write about distinctive aspects of your background, personal development or the intellectual interests you might bring to your Harvard classmates. First thing’s first. While Harvard lists this essay as “optional,” know that, at least in our minds, no admissions essay is optional
The Harvard University Optional Essay: What You Need to Know
In addition to academic transcripts, extracurricular activities, and letters of recommendation, Harvard requires one essays, and two optional essays. Want to know your chances at Harvard? Calculate your chances for free right now. Want to learn what Harvard University will actually cost you based on your income? And how long your application to the school should take? 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 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 harvard optional essay run by your school, or summer academic or research programs not described elsewhere.
Prompt 2 required : Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences. Prompt 3 optional : 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 harvard optional essay one of the following topics:. What would you do to contribute to the lives of your classmates in advancing this mission?
If you decided in the future to choose either option, what would you like to do? 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. Here, harvard optional essay, Harvard is simply asking for a list of the activities you participate in outside of school.
Harvard optional essay example, if you took an online course on Python, this would be an appropriate place to list that. If this question does not apply to your experiences, however, feel free to skip it.
This is the classic Extracurricular Activity essay prompt, harvard optional essay. You also should pick an activity that was central to your personal growth. For instance, harvard optional essay, if you choose to discuss Model United Nations, you can briefly describe your role on the team and how it taught you to think on harvard optional essay feet you were once asked to switch positions just hours before the simulation.
If you were involved in research, you could describe the subject you stu died, harvard optional essay, what you learned, harvard optional essay, and why it inspired you to study science. Take care to view your essays as a harvard optional essay, however. Pick something else that shows a different side of you, or emphasizes a personal quality you really want to drive home.
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. Before we jump in, harvard optional essay, note that this essay is optional. However, we highly recommend that you complete the essay, as it can only help your application by revealing another side to yourself, harvard optional essay.
So far, harvard optional essay, the main source that Harvard can use to perceive your personality is your Common Application essay; this supplemental essay, however, gives you another opportunity to do so.
Although you are free to choose any topic you please, Harvard lists the above topics as jumping points for your writing. No matter what topic you choose, keep in mind the high-level principles that Harvard abides by: leadership, community, and intellectualism. Students who demonstrate selflessness through charity work or leadership in their communities are generally preferred to those with just a perfect academic record.
Furthermore, Harvard also values unique and interesting academic interests, such as partaking in anthropology research, as this demonstrates going beyond your academic requirements. The most common mistake when writing this essay is choosing a topic that is unique in your immediate circumstances but not unique among the tens of thousands of Harvard applicants. You harvard optional essay want to avoid common topics, such as writing about a learning challenge such as ADHD; while there are ways to effectively write about such a topic, here is not the appropriate circumstance for that.
A better way to approach this prompt would be to analyze an interest that is truly niche such as a specific anime fandom or restoring a brand of cars from the s. If you write about restoring cars, for example, you could discuss how this interest has impacted your life and personality. Perhaps it has connected you with a small, but like minded group of individuals and has allowed you to find your inner circle.
Another example could be discussing any health issues you harvard optional essay have encountered in your life, especially those that are not very common. For instance, if you have a vision disorder that, if left untreated, progressively causes you to go blind, you could discuss your thoughts around this experience. Perhaps you sought treatment and were able to completely regain sight and want to discuss the ability of being able to see for the first time in years.
This, unlike a more common challenge such as ADHD although also justifiably challengingis definitely more rare and unusual and would allow you to stand out among applicants. Consider experiences that would distinguish you among a crowd of people. In addition, while it is perfectly acceptable to discuss struggles, you want to end your essay with some optimism or positivity to avoid having your essay feel like a rant.
If you choose to take this route, try to brainstorm a topic that a majority of people likely would not have harvard optional essay or encountered. Not everyone has an unusual circumstance, harvard optional essay, so perhaps the next few topics will be a better fit. Beware of falling into the cliche of writing about being a high school kid conducting service in other countries, harvard optional essay. However, the inverse of this story works well, such as being a waiter serving people of higher socioeconomic classes.
While this prompt is not the place for writing about assisting those less fortunate, as this is likely harvard optional essay topic that many applicants jump to, harvard optional essay, it could be a great place to discuss working with those with more privilege, as this would harvard optional essay a unique perspective. For example, traveling to Peru harvard optional essay tasting Peruvian chicken and contemplating its flavors can connect back to your passion for history and cooking, harvard optional essay.
You could discuss the history of Peruvian society and how the cooking methods are driven by Incan and Spanish elements. Decoding this origin of flavors can further connect back to your love of problem solving, harvard optional essay.
If you lived in another country for a few years, you could discuss learning the local language and how being in a foreign environment impacted your life as a whole. If there is a stark contrast between this country and the previous country you lived in, you could compare and contrast the two environments and discuss harvard optional essay this was significant.
Similar to the previous example, perhaps this experience heightened your passion for history and created a newfound love for linguistics, as you began to notice both the subtle and drastic differences between languages. Perhaps the overlap between history and linguistics is now a discipline you wish to pursue in the future.
You want to strike a balance between indicating your strengths and humanizing yourself. Listing all positives will 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 way to show honesty and make you more personable. Another approach is crafting an inner monologue that discusses your initial struggle to make new friends or find your inner circle, reflects on your emotional maturation across high school, or contemplates the moment when you confronted your biggest fear. For example, if you struggled with transitioning into your new high school, you could trace back your thought process and reflect on the emotions you experienced during your first week of school.
This would show a different side to harvard optional essay by revealing the ways in which you think and how these thoughts translate into action. The only harvard optional essay who will be reading your essay are those on the admissions committee, so while you should be a little more casual, you still want to be appropriate.
We read through an example answering this essay prompt in the video below:. This is the perfect prompt to show your intellectual vitality and illustrate the ways in which you exercise your passions. For instance, if a simple robotics project was what ignited your love for engineering, here would be a great place to discuss that. If you recently read an intriguing neuroscience paper, you could retrace your thought process when analyzing the paper and depict your curiosity in the topic, harvard optional essay.
Perhaps this was the most meaningful to you because it allowed you to explore a new facet of science that you previously had not considered. Perhaps you used this paper as motivation to pursue neuroscience research in an outside lab, harvard optional essay, influencing your current passion of studying the complex workings of the brain. You could also discuss a passion that is outside of your primary harvard optional essay in order to show Harvard the diverse range of interests you may have.
You could highlight how these two disciplines, while seemingly different, overlap and create a need for a deeper emphasis in medical ethics. By connecting your main passion with another topic, you can provide greater depth on your intellectual vitality. This is a great prompt to discuss your intellectual passion and apply this to your vision of the world.
A mistake that students commonly make is discussing their future dreams without connecting it back to their present experiences and passions. Make sure to draw the connection between the two and fuse the present with the future to avoid making this error. While students often have large visions for tackling major problems such as global warming or curing cancer, these are often overdone since admissions committees see too many of these essays. Rather than focusing your essay harvard optional essay such a broad topic, try to narrow it down into something more specific that is equally impactful but may often be overlooked.
An example 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. Perhaps you hope to create an initiative at Harvard harvard optional essay ban the use of plastic straws over the next few years in an attempt to prevent the accumulation of plastics in nature, harvard optional essay.
Students often approach this prompt too similarly to a resume, making their essays sound dry and a little boastful, harvard optional essay.
Rather than attempting to show off every aspect of your life, harvard optional essay, dive deep into your academic or extracurricular passions, or add an element of personality to your list, harvard optional essay. 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 by the Wealth of Nations, the General Theory of Employment, Interest in Money, and ending with a book on market monetarism.
With the previous example, the key is to show why you found each title compelling and harvard optional essay it further contributed to your passion for economics. Make sure to discuss the changes that occurred between each transition and how this impacted your perspective of the topic.
Why were you intrigued by each of these books and why did it allow you to fall harvard optional essay love with the subject? The same structure goes with any other discipline. If you were involved in Science Olympiad, you could chronicle your journey through different discoveries based on the scientific novels you read, harvard optional essay.
Here are a few snippets from a student who chronicled her love for reading with her extensive book list:. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway I wish my writing was as precise and harvard optional essay as his.
This novel sparked my interest in the expatriates of the Lost Generation and influenced several of my other book choices on this list.
A depressing take, I know. This student added an immense amount of personality into what initially appears to just be a list of books. However, the student expresses humor in book 7, shows an ability to analyze in 11, and connects a book to her passions in 1. This is an extremely strong example and is a great template to follow if you choose to execute this prompt.
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 harvard optional essay if you were the editor in chief of your school newspaper and had to handle a plagiarism issue. However, the lines became blurred when you discovered the individual under suspicion was one of your friends, harvard optional essay, making it more difficult for you to make a concrete decision, harvard optional essay.
Perhaps, though, you realized that you must be a role model as the editor and uphold the moral standard that the role entails, ultimately causing harvard optional essay to terminate your friends membership on the team.
reading the essays that got me into harvard! + college essay tips and tricks
, time: 16:36Harvard University Supplemental Essay Prompt Guide
The Harvard optional essay college confidential is the first step to receive a chance to attend this famous university. If you fell behind the curriculum, you might experience some difficulties, which were not dependent on you. For instance, you might be sick for some period of time · The Harvard University Optional Essay: What You Need to Know. If you’re hoping to attend Harvard next year at this time, there are a few things you should know before pressing send on your application. They are as follows: Harvard University is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 96% of students graduate within six years · In addition to academic transcripts, extracurricular activities, and letters of recommendation, Harvard requires one essays, and two optional essays. With such daunting numbers, it’s no wonder that students are often intimidated by Harvard’s extremely open-ended supplemental essays
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