How to Write Harvard Supplemental Essay?

Harvard College is among the world’s most prestigious colleges and universities when it comes to higher studies. The reason is that the college has a very low acceptance rate, which was just 1966 admitted out of 56937 applicants, which is a little above 3.4% for the class of 2027. However, the charm of applying to Harvard does not stop among youngsters and they anticipate getting selected. The reason is that there is ‌hope among aspirants who are working on the factors that contribute to their success.

Harvard Supplemental Essay is one of the factors that play a crucial role in improving the chances of selection into Harvad College. But do not assume that just writing an essay can fulfill your dreams of studying at Harvard. You are among the thousands who are planning to apply to Harvard, so you understand that just writing an essay will not get you into Harvard, but writing an impressive and thought-provoking personal essay can.

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What are the Harvard Supplemental Essays?

Harvard gives ‌applicants the opportunity to add supplemental essays along with their applications to demonstrate what they ‌feel they cannot satisfactorily share or submit through a Common Application Essay. Though Harvard’s admissions website mentions this essay as optional, ask any advisor and they will suggest you submit as much information as is possible for you. This can be all about positive things, like your achievements, recognitions, rewards and contributions to society.

When you learn that about 85% of the 2019 Harvard Class ‌wrote a supplemental essay, you will realize ‌how important it can be while applying to Harvard College.

Types of Harvard Supplemental Essay Prompts

Every year, applicants struggle to write an essay that can influence the admissions committee. It becomes challenging to decide what topic or idea to write about to make it impressive and stand out in the competition. One thing that students must know is that Harvard wants applicants to write something that demonstrates their creativity, self motivated attitude, and independent thinking—something that allows applicants to freely write about some interesting aspects of their lives.

Here are some prompt ideas for the Harvard Supplemental Essays:

Take the opportunity to briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences. (50-150 words)

This will allow you to share some of your experiences that you could not accommodate in your common application. Make sure you choose an activity about which you have not talked yet and that has an awesome impact on people who read it. Ensure that you have chosen something that you are passionate about and have been doing for quite some time and it will give you the opportunity to display your qualities of patience, perseverance, commitment and leadership. You have a small space to convey your message, so use it wisely.

You can also use the space to write an essay that talks about something beyond your academic achievements. It could be something related to your projects, your training, something you have created, something that may have changed your life, something that has inspired you, etc. Harvard expects to understand what‌ your motivation, inspiration, and outcome are and what the purpose of engaging in certain activities is. Therefore, do not miss the opportunity to showcase your talent, knowledge and intent.

In your Harvard Supplement Essay, you can either choose your own topic or you can pick from the below given ideas:

• Something unusual happened in your life.
• Anything you want your prospective college roommate to know.
• An impactful intellectual experience related to your project, paper, poetry, book, course or research in science, mathematics, engineering or something that is meaningful to you.
• Experience of travel, living, or working with one’s own people or among strangers.
• How do you plan to use your college education?
• Books that you have read recently and what you gained from them.
• The Harvard College Honor Code declares that we “hold honesty as the foundation of our community.” Now that you have decided to attend Harvard college and become a part of the community that is committed to honesty, take a moment to reflect positively on a personal experience or someone you know had to choose between doing the right thing and being honest
• Harvard College aims to accept students who are more than just talented and smart. The college wants to engage with people who have a burning desire to be responsible citizens of society. To take this mission forward, talk about how you would contribute to the lives of people around you.
• Harvard has long recognized the significance of diversity. Take this opportunity to talk about your distinctive background, culture, personal growth, or the intellectual interests you could contribute to your Harvard community.

The above topics will help you find your own topic to write for your Harvard supplemental essay. Now, learn what approach to follow to make these prompts ‌meaningful and impressive for the admissions officers.

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How Long Should the Harvard Supplemental Essays Be?

Harvard does not give a fixed word or character limit for the supplemental essay. However, most accepted students usually write between 500 and 700 words. So, you don’t have enough space to talk about multiple things. Therefore, stick to one aspect of yourself and try to make the most of it. Also, you must understand that you will have to write multiple drafts until you finally get the most satisfying copy possible. The more time you spend on your essay, the better it will get!

Popular Prompt Ideas for Harvard Supplemental Essay

Below are some prompt ideas that you can use while writing your Harvard supplemental essay:

Express Yourself in a Unique Way 

The above prompt will give you an idea of which aspects of your life you have not talked about yet and that you want the world to know about. Do not choose what you have already written in your common application that is about your passion, experience, interests, talents, etc. No matter how inspiring an event or activity may have been for you, do not choose similar topics for the Harvard Supplement Essay that you have already shared in your common application. It will not help you show your talent and personality properly.

Also, the essay should not only be different by the nature of the topic, but it should have an entirely different perspective as well. If in your ‌Common App Essay you have written something about your travel experience, ensure ‌you write something about volunteering for a social cause in your Harvard Supplement Essay. The idea should be to showcase your personality and character in as many possible ways as you can. Also, try to show things like your unique accomplishments that make you a perfect candidate for the admissions committee.

Be Sincere in Your Presentation 

Your essay should be able to showcase your sincerity, your attitude, and your excellence. It should not be merely in writing. As you describe your experience, you can add a lot of details about what you did, how you did it, what motivated you to do it, how you felt about it, what efforts you took to do it, how profoundly it impacted you, and what you achieved from it instead of just telling people you were sincere in your approach. Your detailing will give a picture of your sincerity to the admissions committee. It can be as simple as just feeding a bird or playing with your guitar. You will have to sketch the details in words through anecdotes to express your sincerity and passion.

Showcase Why You Are Fit for Harvard Community

While writing your essay, keep in ‌mind that Harvard emphasizes fostering what you are passionate about and how much you engage in your community, rather than solely focusing on your grades and academic accomplishments. They are deeply associated with different kinds of experiences and ideas. This means they look for inquisitiveness in their students, who yearn to explore and learn new things concerning different subjects, like science, history, philosophy and curiosity about other cultures. They aim for intellectual transformation for the betterment of society.

Keeping these objectives in mind, you should design your essay in such a way that it can demonstrate how much you can learn and achieve and how your passion can motivate you and involve you in contributing meaningfully towards the advancements of ‌society.

Explain Why You Deserve to Attend Harvard College

One more thing that Harvard is interested in is accepting people who are more than just smart, intelligent and ambitious. Their mission is to get genuinely good people into their space. Their mission statement is aimed at building a community through education that can best serve the world. It shows their commitment to people and the rest of the world by making the world a better place. So, you can incorporate this perspective into your essay and demonstrate how ‌hardworking, sincere, kind-hearted, responsible, and compassionate you are that they are looking for in their candidates and how much you are like-minded to fit into their community. However, be honest and authentic in your presentation and do not end up being a liar by trying to be someone you are not. Do not pretend; be yourself.

Finally

After all the above points are demonstrated well in your essay, before you submit it, ensure to get grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence formation and other important English errors corrected. If you are not comfortable doing that, you can always get assistance or guidance from Harvard supplemental essay editing services to edit and proofread your essay.