<p>WedgeDawg: That’s pretty much the rule for everything. However, you send one and it’s neither spectacular nor terrible, the AO is going to get bored reading another useless essay. Erring on the side of brevity is preferred, and including too much extraneous material is a mistake that is often made.</p>
<p>When Harvard says they have enough info to consider your application, they mean it. 3 full letters of recommendation, at least 1 long essay and 1 short essay, an interview report, a full list of activities and achievements, your transcript from 4 years, standardized test scores, and some information about your life experiences from the supplement. If the admissions officer has to cram in another essay in the 30 minutes they have to read your file, everything else, like your glowing recommendations and highly polished common app essay, is going to be skimmed over, and you don’t want that.</p>
<p>The AO rejects 93% of the applications that they read, and they’ve seen it all. When I was doing my work-study, an AO told me that she always groaned when she saw the overly thick folders, because these were often the applicants whose parents pushed them into doing 10^9 extracurriculars and told them to apply. So, send the supplement if it’s great, but if it’s just taking up space, be wary.</p>
<p>I have heard, from less reliable sources than yourself, that submitting the supplementary essay is a sign of commitment or dedication towards your Harvard application and is viewed favorably by the admissions officers. After hearing from you, I am inclined to believe this is false, so unless my Yale supplementary essay turns out to be spectacular, I’m probably going to forgo the addition of a supplement for Harvard.</p>
<p>^ Definitely wise. And just remember that Harvard does not consider demonstrated interest when evaluating your application, perhaps because it has the highest matriculation yield in the country. If you apply to Harvard, the AO can safely assume that you really want to go there.</p>
<p>I think most people write a supp app, or at least recycle one from another school since the topics are pretty broad. I don’t think it will hurt you if you don’t send one, but I think if someone has similar stats than you and he/she has written an essay and you haven’t, then it will hurt your chances b/c it shows that you’re less interested. That being said, if you write an essay and it’s bad, don’t send one. I wrote something for Harvard.</p>
<p>I just wrote my Yale essay and I’m reasonably pleased with it. I think that it’s “me” enough and well written enough to send to Harvard. At the very least, I don’t think that it will hurt my application since I don’t think its a “bad” essay in any way. It’s not as good as my common app one, but it beats my Princeton one and is my second favorite essay so I’m most likely going to end up submitting it to Harvard too. Thanks for the advice everyone, I appreciate it.</p>
<p>I once read on CC and downloaded a form that needed to be submitted to Harvard ( something like teacher evaluation or so). This form is often neglected by applicants. Do you know what it is.</p>
<p>@Mentos: What would you advise for my situation. I have a pretty good supplement essay (Yale SCEA liked it ) and I have another essay that’s good but not as good as the first one. So I’d be better off not sending it right?
I want to send this first essay to Princeton also but they actually have a prompt and I can’t find a quote good enough! Uhhh so annoying! Does anyone know if I can still send it along with their required essay which answers the prompt? So then I’d have two essays in my supplement.</p>
<p>Send the required essay, and relax. Contrary to popular belief, a marginally better essay will not make or break your application. The process is holistic, and it focuses on grades. Show that you know how to read and follow directions by sending the required essay, and there’s no need to overwhelm the AO with text. You’re going to do great.</p>
<p>Ok quick question everyone. When I check my status, it says “Thank you, all required documents have been received.” Does this mean that my school counselor sent in the SSR Part 2? Did anyone else have the same message who did NOT send in SSR Part 2? Will Harvard contact me (or my counselor) if it is missing? I’m getting worried; if I don’t get into Harvard, I don’t want it to be because of a missing form.</p>
<p>Also, when I check my standardized test scores, it shows one of my ACTs (official) twice. What’s up with that?</p>
<p>I the same message and I only learned about the second SSR today! I emailed them to ask why they indicated my application was complete in lieu of this form and whether it would be ok to submit in when school resumes on the 10th. I’ll let you know if and when they respond…</p>
<p>Okay, this is a very n00b-like question, but how do I check my status? I sent in my application yesterday. Should I wait for a confirmation e-mail from Harvard? (I already got one from Common App)</p>
<p>Please, somebody answer fast!
So, I submitted the common app as my Harvard application, with the two teacher evaluations and secondary school report included. Does Harvard want me to submit two DIFFERENT teacher evaluations also? Because when I look on their website and my app status, it says that they do not have my teacher evaluations and secondary school report, but they do have my common app. And on the common app it says that they downloaded the teacher evaluations and secondary school report. I’m so confused! None of their FAQs answer this ?, and I emailed them and got some automated response…</p>
<p>Actually, I would wait a few days on the teacher thing. When I applied to [an Ivy League college], I submitted everything on the CommonApp together and after they sent me the application tracking thing, i went to check my app status. it said that my app and supp had been received, but my teacher letters and counselor thing hadn’t. Two days later, I got another e-mail saying that they had everything. I submitted everything on the commonapp together so I think it was just a processing thing. Like right now, my commonapp shows that everything from harvard has been downloaded, but i haven’t even received a confirmation e-mail. if you submitted today, then i would wait. if you submitted months ago, then this may be something to possibly worry about.</p>
<p>haha, referee I know which Ivy league school your talking about. It was the same for me! It showed only the common app and supplement in the items received table when i had in fact submitted everything. :)</p>
<p>I think Harvard took 2 weeks to send me the link and the pin. i think this was back in November. It also showed things as not received for about a week after that. Dont worry, it will updated this status soon enough… :)</p>
<p>Alrighty, thanks! On the Common App, it shows that my application, supp app, payment, and teacher’s recs have been downloaded. However, my score reports are still “pending”. I sent them out on December 21st, so do you think that it’s okay?</p>
) and I have another essay that’s good but not as good as the first one. So I’d be better off not sending it right?