Harvard Supplemental Essays

Understanding the challenge

When you sit down to write essays for Harvard (or any Ivy League school), it’s not uncommon to have the same reaction as being invited to a fancy dinner party: you tense up, start acting formal, and forget to be yourself. The prestige of these schools is so immense that it can be easy to get caught up in misguided ideas about what an admissions officer at Harvard, Princeton, or Yale wants to read.

Successful applicants do the opposite: instead of pretending to be someone else, they let their personality shine through. Yes, the Harvard is a Big Name, and yes, the bar is high (more on that below), but in the end, it’s just a college. The admissions committee is looking for essentially the same personal qualities that every highly selective school seeks. As a Harvard admissions officer once said to me, “Every year we could put together a class of high-testing valedictorians. But we don’t, because it would be a disaster.” Harvard seeks a range of individuals who will contribute to their campus community – and ultimately, to society – in a variety of ways.

Why I’m qualified to be your guide

Not only did I receive my undergraduate degree from Harvard, I used to be a Harvard admissions interviewer (I no longer do alumni interviews, as it would be a conflict of interest given the number of students I coach on Harvard apps), and I’ve spent over a decade coaching students who’ve also been admitted to every Ivy, including Harvard. In addition, I’ve had in-depth conversations with Harvard admissions officers about exactly what they look for (and what they hate seeing) in application essays.

One thing to be clear about: I don’t have any secret ingredient or silver bullet that will “get you into Harvard,” because it doesn’t exist. Be wary of anyone who claims to have one. Instead, I can offer experience and principles gained from years of research, practice, and coaching.

What Harvard looks for

First and foremost, Harvard, like other top schools, admits students with a range of interests and personal characteristics. As with every selective college, you’ll want to use the supplemental essays to show sides of yourself that complement, rather than repeat, your Common App Personal Essay. Taken together, the essays should give the committee a full picture of your passions, interests, and values, helping them understand how you, uniquely, might contribute to Harvard’s community.

Harvard is also a global center of scholarship. It’s an institution that prizes the life of the mind, so it’s wise to, in at least one of your essays, highlight your intellectual curiosity, i.e. the topic(s) you’re most excited to learn about, talk about, and explore.

Another Harvard-specific term is “distinguishing excellence.” Their admissions committee wants young people who excel. They’re looking for academic accomplishment, and they also want kids who’ve done exciting things outside the classroom.

Yet “distinguishing excellence” can take different forms. It could be an award or honor—extra points if it’s at the state, national, or global level—but it could also be something less traditional that you highlight in your essays: maybe a creative approach to a problem or to unusually challenging circumstances in your life.

What Harvard doesn’t want to see

In conversations with Harvard admissions officers, they’ve consistently highlighted two things that they don’t like seeing in essays.

The first is arrogance. While it shouldn’t be shocking that Harvard attracts some big egos, it’s a mistake to come off as full of yourself in your essays. Harvard admissions officers care deeply about creating a community of students who will thrive together and learn from each other (Cf the quote above about not wanting a “class of high-testing valedictorians” – they’d tear each other apart!).

If you have big accomplishments, great! They are your “distinguishing excellence.” But let your Activities List and Awards/Honors sections speak for themselves. Essays are the place to get into the “how” and “why” behind your accomplishments – where you show the committee your heart – not a place to rehash your résumé.

The second is a failure to do your research. You’d be surprised by the number of people who make this mistake when applying to one of the top universities in the world! Yet when you’re applying to 15 or more colleges, it’s easy to miss things. For example, Harvard has a world-class economics program, but no undergraduate business major (Harvard Business School is graduate-only). Yet a former Harvard admissions officer once told me, “I can’t tell you how many people would apply to Harvard saying that they wanted to study business!” Those applications usually went to the bottom of his pile.

Harvard Supplemental Essay Questions (2026)

Harvard used to have a two short essays and an optional, open-ended long essay, but after the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling in 2023 they switched to five short-answer prompts. I think this was a great move on Harvard’s part; the long essay was often confusing to students who didn’t have the benefit of expert guidance, while the five new prompts tell students exactly what the committee wants to know.

More good news: the five new prompts are fairly formulaic, which means you’ll be able to reuse the material you write for your Harvard essays in apps for other schools.

Here’s a summary of how to approach each prompt:

1. Harvard has long recognized the importance of enrolling a diverse student body. How will the life experiences that shape who you are today enable you to contribute to Harvard?

This is a standard Contributions/Lived Experience essay. Luckily, we have a whole article on writing it!

2. Describe a time when you strongly disagreed with someone about an idea or issue. How did you communicate or engage with this person? What did you learn from this experience?

This is a standard Diverse Perspectives essay, and we have another article with guidelines on how to write it.

3. Briefly describe any of your extracurricular activities, employment experience, travel, or family responsibilities that have shaped who you are.

If you think this looks like an Activity essay, you’re right! Click here for tips on how to write it.

4. How do you hope to use your Harvard education in the future?

This is a question about impact. Think about it from an admissions officer’s perspective: if you get into Harvard (or Yale, or Princeton, or any other top school), a door will open for you that very few people get to walk through.

So, what are you going to do with that opportunity? What do you care about, and what kind of impact do you want to have?

Pro tip: You could approach this question by looking up Harvard’s mission statement, which starts out “The mission of Harvard College is to educate the citizens and citizen-leaders for our society.” Imagine yourself ten or twenty years from now: What kind of citizen or citizen-leader do you want to be? What kind of impact do you want to have on society?

5. Top 3 things your roommates might like to know about you.

This is a fun prompt that’s designed to give the admissions committee a bit of “color” about you.

Start by thinking about this question in the context of the rest of your application. If your other four essays were about heavy topics, consider using this response to lighten up a bit and show your more playful side.

Alternatively, this could be a chance to share something more meaningful that didn’t make it into any of the other essays. Either way, don’t sweat this one. Be real, and think of it as the icing on the cake for your Harvard supplement.

For more help with your Common App essay, supplemental essays, and your entire application, check out my new book Write Yourself In, available from your favorite library or bookseller. You can also subscribe to my Admitted newsletter for monthly updates and guidance.