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Harvard supplement essay?
WhiteWishes
48 replies22 threads Junior Member
Can I submit an essay that is unrelated to the listed topics in the Harvard supplement? For additional essays in the Harvard supplement, it says:
"Occasionally, students feel that college application forms do not provide sufficient opportunity to convey important information about themselves or their accomplishments. If there is something you would like us to know, please inform us below. If you wish to include an additional essay, you may do so.
Possible Topics:
- Unusual circumstances in your life
- Travel or living experiences in other countries
- Books that have most affected you
- An academic experience (course, project, paper or research topic) that has meant the most to you
- A list of the books you have read during the past twelve months"
I know the question has been asked, but has anyone who's gotten into Harvard written about something not listed in the possible topics? Is the question basically a "write about anything you want" (like the Common App), or do you have to pick one of the five listed topics?
23 replies"Occasionally, students feel that college application forms do not provide sufficient opportunity to convey important information about themselves or their accomplishments. If there is something you would like us to know, please inform us below. If you wish to include an additional essay, you may do so.
Possible Topics:
- Unusual circumstances in your life
- Travel or living experiences in other countries
- Books that have most affected you
- An academic experience (course, project, paper or research topic) that has meant the most to you
- A list of the books you have read during the past twelve months"
I know the question has been asked, but has anyone who's gotten into Harvard written about something not listed in the possible topics? Is the question basically a "write about anything you want" (like the Common App), or do you have to pick one of the five listed topics?
Post edited by WhiteWishes on
This discussion has been closed.
Replies to: Harvard supplement essay?
Common sense, people.
Thank you!
Thank you!"
I totally like the question XD what's the answer to it?
with the one above me
That's simply not true! A good supplemental essay tells an Admissions Committee something else about yourself that they could not have learned elsewhere in your application. For example, my daughter's Common App essay was about her curiosity about religion, and the fact that her family raised her basically as an agnostic. Her supplemental essay was about overcoming stage fright and her passion for theater and feeling at home being in the spotlight. Her 150 word extracurricular activity essay was about being the flyer on her cheerleading squad and the strange looks she got in the hallway because cheerleading was looked down upon at her school. Submitting three distinct essays allowed her present a fuller picture of herself to Harvard's Admissions Committee -- and it worked.
Beyond that, I think we need to take a step back as parents and ask whether obsessing about such a small part of the application package is healthy for our kids. My son applied to nine colleges, only two of which didn't require a supplemental essay (thank you Middlebury and Harvard!). The supplemental essays significantly increased the pressure of the application process and by the time my son completed them he was pretty much burned out, as were most of his friends. In light of the fact that that even the best and the brightest have a less than ten percent chance of being admitted to Harvard, does it really make sense to spend a lot of time and energy on something that probably won't make a difference?
As I said, write a great common app essay and be done with it.
Call me cynical, but I think one of the reasons that Harvard does not require a supplemental essay, while every single one of it's peers (YPSM) requires one, is to boost it's applicant numbers. I'm sure thousands of applicants just throw in an application because it doesn't require any extra thought to do so.
Isn't a far more likely reason for the increase in Harvard's applications last year the phenomenal financial aid that it provides? And isn't it just possible that Harvard's position on the supplemental essay is based, not on a cynical desire to increase its number of applicants, but rather on the fact that requiring a supplemental essay increases the burden on both the student and the adcom and, in the words of the Middlebury Admissions Director, actually provides the admissions committee with very little useful additional information? You have to remember that, even without a supplemental essay, these schools receive a mountain of information about the applicant. To think that a supplemental essay makes a difference in all but a few marginal cases just doesn't make sense.
The real pity is that threads like this contribute to the perception that the supplemental essay is a make-or-break proposition. (If you want proof of that, just read Samonuh's post above). And I think we parents bear a large measure of responsibility for that. We have made getting into Harvard (or another Ivy) akin to the pursuit of the Holy Grail. And, to support this ridiculous obsession, we go onto threads like this and make completely unsupported statements like the poster above who said that the number of students who don't write a supplemental essay is "few and far between."
Sorry to challenge the conventional wisdom here, folks, but the reality is that, unless you're right on the edge, you're better off submitting a good common app essay and then relaxing and spending your spare time with your family and friends.
No. Harvard's financial aid policy has not changed since 2008, so last year's increase in applicant numbers is unrelated to Harvard's financial aid policy. Although, it may be related to the stagnate US economy.
BTW: In the last several days, Harvard rebalanced it's financial aid policy for the class of 2016 -- boosting aid for the lower end, but decreasing it for the higher end -- so next year will be an interesting year to watch. See: Harvard increases financial aid to low-income students | Harvard Gazette
We attribute this continued and growing interest in Columbia to a variety of factors, including . . . our first-year membership with The Common Application.
--- Jessica Marinaccio, Dean of Columbia Undergraduate Admissions