Harvard Supplemental Essays 2022-2023

When it comes to applying to the top schools in the country, your application is vitally important. In order to give yourself the best chance of gaining admission, you need to make sure all aspects of your application are top-notch.

In this post, we’re going to do a deep dive into how to write Harvard supplemental essays and everything you need to keep in mind as you write.

Harvard uses the common app, and this means that you will be asked to answer essay questions contained in the common app. But like many top schools, Harvard also requires you to complete a short activity-based essay and an additional essay about your personal or intellectual growth.

The Harvard supplemental essays 2022-2023 allow applicants a certain amount of freedom when choosing their supplemental essay topic. Still, we’re going to look at each essay prompt and discuss the best way to respond to each topic.

So, let’s start by looking at each supplemental essay prompt, and then we will discuss how to approach each one individually.

Harvard supplemental essays 2022-2023

When it comes to responding to the Harvard supplemental essays 2022-2023, there are several important factors to keep in mind.

First, you need to choose a prompt that you can respond to with authority and integrity. Harvard offers you a list of choices, or you can create your own prompt. We’ll talk about creating your own prompt a little later in this post.

The list of Harvard supplemental essays for 2022-2023 is as follows:

• Unusual circumstances in your life
• Travel, living, or working experiences in your own or other communities.
• What would you want your future college roommate to know about you.
• A list of books you have read in the last 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.

How to write Harvard supplemental essays?

One of the first things you should consider when figuring out how to write Harvard supplemental essays is the word count.

Harvard doesn’t give you a specific word limit, but it is generally advisable to keep your essay to 500-700 words. This will give you enough room to elaborate on your points while not becoming too long-winded.

Because there is no Harvard supplemental essay word limit, you should focus on what you want to say. Let’s look at the first prompt:

Unusual circumstances in your life.

When responding to this prompt, keep in mind that Harvard doesn’t just want to hear an unusual anecdote about your life. They want to hear how this unusual circumstance offered you a new intellectual curiosity, or how it may have impacted your love of learning.

When responding to many of the essays prompts, you want to make sure to highlight how the experience has allowed you to grow and change in ways that will make you a more interesting candidate.

This advice is also helpful for the next three Harvard supplemental essays 2022-2023.

• Travel, living, or working experiences in your own or other communities.
• What would you want your future college roommate to know about you.
• A list of books you have read in the last twelve months.

Whether you are describing books that have shaped your worldview or things that may be interesting to your future roommate, the goal is to highlight how your experiences have given you the opportunity to grow, and how these events will inform your time at Harvard. The next prompt asks for a bit more introspection:

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.

While this prompt may sound straightforward, it is actually giving you the opportunity to highlight a time in which you had to make difficult choices in order to act with integrity.

When responding to this prompt, keep in mind that Harvard wants you to detail an experience in which you had to make an active choice to maintain your integrity and the difficulty that may have come with this decision. Ultimately, the most important aspect of this prompt is to highlight that you value honesty and integrity in every situation in your life.

Let’s take a look at another prompt that can give you an opportunity to highlight your qualities:

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?

Unlike many of the other prompts, this one looks to the future. This isn’t about your past experiences but what you plan to do with your future. This prompt offers you an excellent opportunity to stand out from other applicants by demonstrating that you have goals in mind.

Not only does this prompt give you the opportunity to discuss your potential leadership skills, but it also gives you the chance to speak specifically about what you would offer your community at Harvard should you be granted admission.

Explaining to Harvard admissions officers specifically how you would seek to have a positive impact on your school community demonstrates that you are not only committed to your own well-being but that of the community as well. So, if you have community service ideas, let the admissions staff know. Do you possess special expertise that can be applied to your work with others at Harvard?

The final prompt for the Harvard supplemental essays 2022-2023 asks students to reflect on the diversity they have experienced in their own lives and how this has shaped their personal development and intellectual interests.

This may seem difficult for certain students who do not come from especially diverse backgrounds, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t choose to answer this question.

At AdmissionSight, our goal is to help you with every step of the college admissions process. The Harvard supplemental essays 2022 can seem daunting at first, but our experience and expertise will help you navigate the entire process with confidence.

Hopefully, this guide to the Harvard supplemental essays 2022-2023 has been helpful, but if you want more information about how AdmissionSight can help you realize your dreams, set up your free consultation today.