Harvard Regular Decision Notification Date

When Does Harvard’s Regular Decision Come Out?

There is no place like Harvard University when it comes to prominence and excellence. Harvard is one of the best universities in the globe, not only in the United States.  Now, you might be wondering “When does Harvard’s regular decision come out?” The Harvard regular decision notification date falls by the end of March.

To create an application profile that would convince the admission committee to accept you into a place like Harvard, it takes an exceptional degree of attention and consistent performance in all elements of the application that you must submit before the application deadline.

You can apply to Harvard through either the Restrictive Early Action or Regular Decision program, which allows you to evaluate admission and financial aid offers from other schools and wait until May 1 to make a final college decision.

• Candidates for Restrictive Early Action must apply by November 1 and will be notified by mid-December.
• Regular Decision candidates must apply by January 1st and will be notified by the end of March.

You may apply to Harvard via the Common Application or the Coalition Application, Powered by Scoir. The Common Application will open on August 1 for applicants to begin filling out their applications. The Coalition Application, which is developed in collaboration with Scoir/Technolutions for the 2022-23 application cycle, will be available on September 1st.

How Does The Harvard Admissions Process Work?

Since we have already discussed the Harvard regular decision notification date, let’s answer the popular query “How does the Harvard admissions process work?” Domestic and international students of all year levels are welcome to apply. When it comes to first-year applicants, there are two options: Restrictive Early Action and Regular Decision. Regardless of whatever you select, your application must be submitted to either the Common App or the Coalition App.

Application Requirements for First-Year Students

For both domestic and overseas applicants, the minimum application requirements for both Restrictive Early Action and Regular Decision are roughly the same. For all first-year applications, please provide the following:

• Application cost of $75 or a fee waiver
• School Report and High School Transcript
• Teacher Report (2)
• Personal Essay
• Midyear School Report (after first semester grades)
• School Report Final (for admitted students only)

School Report

Your high school information, a counselor letter, and your high school academic transcript are all included in your school report. Because your transcript may not include grades for your senior year, a midyear report is required. Your application has additional information regarding this school report.

Application Fee Payment

The fee for both early and regular applications is $75. You can use a credit card to pay online using the Common Application or Coalition Application websites. You can also mail a check or money order to Harvard College Admissions. If you want to use this type of payment, keep in mind that you must include the applicant’s legal name.

To make the application process more accessible to all students, Harvard provides cost waivers to applicants who are unable to pay the application fee. You can ask for a fee waiver during the application process. Requesting a fee waiver will have no bearing on your application.

Teacher Evaluations

Instead of recommendation letters, you must request two teachers from different academic topics to complete the Teacher Evaluation forms, which are available while applying. These two teachers should be familiar with you, so they can fill out the forms with useful information.

Although recommendation letters are not required for application to Harvard, you may submit them if you so think they would add value to your application. You can send them after submitting your application since you will receive an application confirmation email with a specific link to send to your recommenders.

Personal Statement

A personal statement is required along with your application. While completing the Common Application or the Coalition Application, essay topics can be found.

The range of viable essay themes is extensive. You may write about whatever topic you like, or you may choose one of the following:

• Unusual circumstances in your life
• Travel, living, or working experiences in your own or other communities
• What you would want your future college roommate to know about you
• An intellectual experience (course, project, book, discussion, paper, poetry, or research topic in engineering, mathematics, science or other modes of inquiry) that has meant the most to you
• How do you hope to use your college education
• A list of books you have read during the past twelve months
• The Harvard College Honor code declares that we “hold honesty as the foundation of our community.” As you consider entering this community that is committed to honesty, please reflect on a time when you or someone you observed had to make a choice about whether to act with integrity and honesty.
• The mission of Harvard College is to educate our students to be citizens and citizen-leaders for society. What would you do to contribute to the lives of your classmates in advancing this mission?
• Each year a substantial number of students admitted to Harvard defer their admission for one year or take time off during college. If you decided in the future to choose either option, what would you like to do?
• Harvard has long recognized the importance of student body diversity of all kinds. We welcome you to write about distinctive aspects of your background, personal development, or the intellectual interests you might bring to your Harvard classmates.

Essays will generally urge you to write about significant events, challenges, passions/goals, or any other examples of self-reflection, self-discovery, or self-improvement. Having a wide range of essay questions available might help you find a perfect prompt for expressing yourself and impressing the admissions committee.

Mid-year School Report

Your school counselor or another school official must complete the mid-year school report. This report is needed so that the admissions committee can see how well you are doing in the first half of your senior year and how well you are prepared to start university right now. Your mid-year school report must include all the midterm grades for the year.

It is important to note that Restrictive Early Action candidates are not obliged to submit the midyear report by the early application deadline in November. However, suppose you applied during Restrictive Early Action and got deferred to Regular Decision round. If this is the case, you must submit the midyear report and transcript as soon as your midterm grades are available, before the Harvard regular decision notification date.

Final Score Report (For Admitted Students Only)

If you accept an admission offer and decide to enroll, you must submit a Final School Report containing your finalized official transcript as soon as your final grades are available. Typically, you must submit your report by July 1st. When writing your Final School Report, we recommend that you seek the assistance of a school counselor or another school official.

Supplemental Materials (Optional)

Do you have any other documents that will assist you in communicating your skills, talents, and interests? Do not hesitate to add them to the application. Essays, prizes and honors, diplomas, test scores, and much more might be included as supplemental materials. Please keep in mind that you can also include materials obtained after submitting your application.

Standardized Test Scores (Optional)

Due to COVID-19 affecting limited access to testing facilities, Harvard has announced an update: applications for Fall 2023 to 2026 no longer require standardized test scores.

According to Harvard’s comprehensive approach to the admissions process, students who do not submit their test scores will not be penalized during the application evaluation. Harvard also encourages applicants to choose which documents to submit that they believe will best portray their secondary school achievements.

Submitting high test scores will boost your chances. Because of how tough the admissions process at Harvard is, you will almost certainly need a very high score to improve your chances, so think carefully before submitting your test score and other application materials.

After submitting your application, Harvard will send you an email confirmation with a link to the Applicant Portal when you submit your application through the Common Application or Coalition Application. Please keep in mind that the school will not begin sending application acknowledgment emails until mid-September, so if you submit your application early, you may not receive the email until then.

You can do the following in the portal:

• Update your email, mailing, and other contact information.
• Check out your customized application checklist.
• Confirm the testing data Harvard has received.
• Change the status of your financial assistance application
• When submitting scores, self-report your test results.
• Change the round of your application (Restrictive Early Action to Regular Decision)
• Additional documents and materials should be uploaded.
• Withdraw your application.

The Harvard admissions procedure allows the admissions officers to give each applicant a careful and thorough evaluation as a whole person. It is time-consuming for the admissions officers, but it allows for tremendous flexibility and the ability to change decisions almost until the day of the Harvard regular decision notification date. This is especially crucial because Harvard is always obtaining new candidate information. The institution makes every effort to make the best admissions decision for each student.

How Many People Get Waitlisted By Harvard?

Being waitlisted implies that you will be considered for admission if a school needs more freshmen. Waitlists are made up of strong applicants who met the college admissions criteria for the school they applied to but were unable to be admitted right away. According to NACAC, nearly half of all universities polled use waitlists, with highly selective schools such as Harvard putting a higher proportion of students on those waitlists.

You are not alone if you find yourself on the waitlist. Because Harvard receives roughly 60,000 applications every year (and often even more), there is always a group of exceptional students that are waitlisted. The admissions counselors routinely state that colleges such as Harvard could create multiple classes, each full of qualified students who have the required grades and test scores.

So, how many people get waitlisted by Harvard? There is no defined number of students admitted from the Harvard waitlist. The number of admitted students might fluctuate substantially, according to Harvard’s FAQ page. More than 200 students have gotten off the waitlist and were able to join the upcoming class. However, during several recent admissions rounds, Harvard’s yield rate was so high that the school was unable to admit a single waitlisted applicant.

Check out the table below for a better understanding of the Harvard acceptance rate, as well as the number of students who apply and those who chose to enroll:

Graduating Class Year	Class of 2024	Class of 2025	Class of 2026
Number of Applications	40,248	57,435	61,220
Acceptance Rate	4.92%	3.43%	3.19%
Yield Rate	81%	85%	TBA

Harvard accepted 34 students from the waitlist for the Class of 2024. According to Harvard admissions records, no students were admitted from the waitlist for the Class of 2025.

Students that were waitlisted should check the school to see how many students were waitlisted and then accepted. Students can change their expectations and create a better plan if they are aware of this information.

There are various things students can do to improve their chances of being removed from the waitlist. It is not always easy to get off the queue however, by looking into more information about the Harvard waitlist and reading AdmissionSight’s take on how to get off the Harvard waitlist, you may give yourself the best possible chance.

Does Early Action Increase Chances At Harvard?

Harvard University offers the Restrictive Early Action program to students who want to get a head start on the application process. This program allows students to choose their college ahead of time, allowing them more time to consider their options, gather application documents, and compose a strong personal essay. Early action applicants will receive their admissions decisions on a day way earlier than the specified Harvard regular decision notification date which would cause lesser anxiety and waiting period for students.

Harvard’s restrictive early action option is non-binding, which means that individuals who are accepted are not required to enroll. Students who apply to Harvard may still apply early to other non-binding public schools or colleges outside of the United States under this program. Early action applicants to Harvard, on the other hand, are not permitted to apply to other private universities within the country.

For individuals whose academic records have been consistently impressive throughout their high school experience, an early action is a fantastic option for applying to Harvard.

Harvard College admitted 7.9 percent of early applications to the Class of 2026; still much lower than in pre-pandemic years. The College welcomed 740 students out of 9,406 early candidates to join the class. The 7.9 percent acceptance rate represents a 0.5 percent increase over the previous year’s record low of 7.4 percent. This year’s early admissions round is the second most competitive in Harvard’s history.

While it is evident that the early action round admitted more applications, individuals who apply early action have been preparing for years to get accepted to Harvard.

Early action applicants to Harvard have three things in common:

1.  They are positive that Harvard College is their first option. According to the dean of admissions and financial aid, William R. Fitzsimmons, the admissions committee works hard to guarantee that students who would undoubtedly be accepted in the regular decision round get admitted in the early action round.
2. They do not require additional time to refine their application. Early action applicants devote most of their time to their first-choice school. Typically, this indicates that counselors, teachers, parents, and other mentors have worked with them for months, if not years, to improve their application and test results. This effort is what provides the early action applicants with a distinct advantage.
3. They possess a hook. All institutions are looking for fresh students to fill specific institutional needs. The ability of a candidate to fulfill this “need” is referred to as a “hook.”

But what is the point of all this effort if you are not immediately accepted into early action? The good news is that most early action applications that are not accepted right away are deferred. Deferral indicates that their applications will be reviewed in the regular decision round as well. However, because fewer students receive an acceptance letter during the Harvard regular decision notification date, having a great application from the start is essential.

Early action applicants have a better probability of acceptance to Harvard since they are prepared far earlier than others.

Harvard has long been one of the most difficult universities to get admission to, and it is only growing more demanding. This year, Harvard only accepted 1,984 students out of 61,221 applicants, for a record-low acceptance rate of 3.2%.

The Harvard admissions journey is long and unforgiving. But you know what they say: you miss 100% of the shots you do not take. Check out the comprehensive guide by AdmissionSight regarding the application process and how to get into Harvard. To know us further, feel free to book an initial consultation today.