If you are an international student eyeing the Ivy League, we understand the allure. However, if you are considering Harvard there are some things you absolutely must plan for in advance. That is where we can help, as we’ve assisted international students in gaining acceptance to the Ivies, including Harvard, for over a decade.
Harvard: there’s not much new we can say about this school. It’s maybe the most famous school in the world, and it’s also one of the most competitive. Last cycle, Harvard had a 3.6% acceptance rate, which is just so incredibly low. If you’ve been waitlisted by Harvard, we know you’re now worried about whatever the waitlist acceptance might be like. You also might feel a little rejected or sad, and that’s totally okay. Take a day or two to be sad, and then come right back here for some action items.
If you’ve been deferred by Harvard, your frustration is palpable. Getting into Harvard is hard. With an acceptance rate of under 4%, you can be astronomically smart, caring, and inspiring, and still not get in. What you do after receiving a deferral decision, especially from Harvard, is going to make or break your college admissions experience. You can wallow in self-pity and let it negatively impact your chances of eventually getting into Harvard, or into any of your other top picks, or you can let it catalyze you into action. We suggest the latter.
Harvard is widely-accepted to be one of the best respected, and best known, universities in the world. For nearly any subject, Harvard has one of the best programs globally. Many recognize a degree from Harvard as a ticket to early professional success, empowering graduates to skip a few hurdles as they enter the workforce.
Let’s be honest, applying to Harvard is audacious. By Harvard, we are of course referring to the Harvard, the iconic Ivy League institution that needs no introduction around the globe. Go nearly anywhere and say “Harvard,” and whoever you’re talking to conjures up ideas of academic excellence and high expectations. The reputation is valid, and it’s upheld by the 7,100ish undergraduates and over 25,000 students total who call Harvard their academic home at any given time.
So, you want to get into Harvard? What, like, it’s hard? Yes, it's hard. It's really hard. In case you live under a rock, Harvard is an Ivy League university in Boston… sorry we mean Cambridge, Massachusetts. It wouldn’t be a leap to say that Harvard is the most famous college in America, and maybe the world, and with good reason. They have fabulous academics, high-class research, and a tradition of excellence. They are also extremely hard to get into, with just a 3.4% acceptance rate last year.
Harvard is Harvard. It is one of the most famous schools in the world, and for good reason. Harvard is an outstanding place to study nearly any subject anyone would want to pursue, and it is exceptionally hard to get into. In recent years, Harvard has received over 60,000 applications for first-year admission, and accepted less than 2,000. The acceptance rate hovers around an intimidating 3%.
Even if you’re applying to Harvard as an international student who lives outside of the United States, it’s an institution, a school, and a brand that really needs no introduction. That said, we’ll give it one. Harvard is a university in Cambridge, Massachusetts right alongside Boston that is a member of the vaunted Ivy League. It has 7,240 undergraduate students and about 1,000 international undergrads. The on-campus community as a whole represents 151 countries. In this post, we’re going to talk about how you can increase your chances of making it into the 3% of students, out of over 60,000 applications, who are offered a seat in the first-year class.
Honestly, we should be applying our clown makeup as we write this post, because Harvard is Harvard. Who doesn’t want in? Interest is implied. You don’t get brownie points for wanting to go there because, um, duh. You want to go there, your neighbor wants to go there, every teen rom-com protagonist wants to go there, and — we’re pretty confident in this assumption — even your imaginary friend wants to go there. Yeah, we’re talking Rory Gilmores out the wazoo.
Receiving that deflating rejection letter from your dream school during the Early Decision phase can be really disheartening. You’ve poured your heart, soul, sweat, and tears into becoming a standout candidate. It’s really important to keep in mind that this outcome doesn’t reflect your value or your potential. You still have a bright future ahead. College admissions have become incredibly tough. I mean, Harvard’s acceptance rate is about 3%. (3!!!) And by the way, a rejection from Harvard doesn’t mean you’re not a qualified candidate for other Ivy League universities. So, don’t get too discouraged.
If you’ve been deferred by Harvard, you are not alone. Harvard is notorious at this point for deferring an enormous percentage of early admission applicants. While most elite colleges with early admissions programs, like early decision and early action, only defer students they are seriously considering for the next freshman class, the statistics Harvard has released on early admission suggest that they take a very different approach.
Harvard College, the undergraduate college of Harvard University, is one of the best schools in the world. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts — right alongside Boston — it was founded in 1636. Harvard is at the top of its field across the board, but over 60% of students arrive at Harvard intending to study subjects in the humanities, social sciences, or biological sciences. They are extremely selective, and they look for not only the best students in the world, but the best students for them in the world. As they read applications, they see a lot of perfect scores and amazing extracurriculars, so they need to look beyond that. They look for drive, determination, focus, a global perspective, clarity of purpose, and a vision for their future. The acceptance rate is 3.2%.
“Should I even apply to Harvard?” It’s a question that we often hear from nervous students. These students routinely have over a 4.0 GPA and at least a 34 on the ACT but are still worried about getting in. They understand that with only a 3.2% acceptance rate, it takes more than just excellent grades to get in. Harvard uses a holistic admissions process, meaning they look at all aspects of your application. A large part of that is your extracurriculars. You may ask yourself, “Well, what should my extracurriculars look like?” Let us break it down.
We often tell our students that applying for a specific program or major is critical. That may seem crazy for a high school student who has no idea what they want to do with their life to start considering. But the truth is, college is SO incredibly competitive these days and the Ivy League is just out of control. In order to have a competitive advantage, our students cultivate a highly-specific academic niche throughout high school and leverage that to apply to majors and programs that are a natural extension of what they’ve already been doing in high school.
Barely more than 3% of applicants get into Harvard. As of the 2022 application cycle, the most recent one we have statistics for, of over 61,000 applicants less than 2,000 were admitted. It is excruciatingly hard to get into Harvard, but hundreds of applicants — or more — don’t receive an acceptance or a rejection. Instead, they’re stuck in the middle. They’re waitlisted.
We hear it all the time, “My kid is a legacy so of course, they are going to get in.” We, however, hate hearing this. Mostly because it's simply not true. And it's especially not true at a school like Harvard. Harvard has one of the lowest if not the lowest acceptance rate in America… really take that in. Of course, something as simple as legacy status is not going to make a student a lock.
If you were deferred by Harvard, you are far, far, far from alone. As fewer and fewer top-tier colleges publish their admissions statistics, Harvard continues to come through for us with fairly comprehensive and transparent statistics. In 2021, Harvard deferred 80 out of every 100 students who applied early. 80% of students who applied early were deferred. Again, 80%. Only 7.4% of students who applied early were accepted. So if you applied early, it is much more likely that you were deferred than any other potential outcome.
So you are applying to Harvard? Congratulations. It feels silly even explaining Harvard. Everyone kind of already knows about it, but Harvard is an Ivy League school located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard has been the school of choice for Nobel Prize winners, presidents, supreme court justices, and a surprising number of comedians. It’s also one of the hardest if not the hardest school to get into with an acceptance rate of just 3.13%. This means if you are applying to Harvard, you need to take it extremely seriously. Don’t believe one Ms. Elle Woods, it’s hard. With such a low acceptance rate, your application needs to be flawless and part of that will be the writing supplement. This is how we believe you should approach it for your best shot at Harvard.