Assembling Your Application
Application Components
- Common Application Form (or alternative: ‘Coalition for College’)
- Optional materials (music, dance, drama, art portfolios, publications)
- Student essay (part of the application form)
- Application supplement – most colleges will also have their own supplement that you have to complete in addition to the main application form
- Either SAT or ACT (Harvard requires one of these, but not all US colleges require standardised testing)
- Teacher recommendations and school report with grade transcript
- Possible informal interview in the UK (not offered by all colleges). Harvard interviews are undertaken by alumni/ae, either in person or remotely by Zoom, WhatsApp, or phone.
Further details of Harvard’s application requirements can be found here.
Common Application Form and Coalition Application
The two main application methods to US colleges, the Common Application and the Coalition for College, are similar to the UCAS form in the UK in that you complete it once and then the information is sent to all the schools you list in your application.
The Common Application Form (or ‘Common App’) is used by over 1,000 institutions, including some outside the US, so most applicants are likely to use this method. Useful information for first time applicants can be found in the Application Guide for first-year students.
The Coalition for College (or ‘Coalition Application’) was launched a few years ago with the purpose of making the US college application system more accessible to students with modest means, particularly those whose high schools are unfamiliar with the application process. It currently has over 150 member colleges, including Harvard.
The Student Essay
The Common App. student essay titles for 2024/25 are as follows:
- Some students have a background, identity, interest or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
- The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
- Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
- Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?
- Discuss an accomplishment, event or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
- Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
- Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.
To see some of the writing styles used in US college essays, write ‘US college essay examples’ into your search engine, and you will find a plethora of examples online. You will see that the format is different to the UCAS Personal Statement, as all the essay prompts ask you to say something about yourself. UK students often hesitate about writing something personal, so a little mental readjustment is necessary. Try writing a draft of your essay and showing it to someone who knows you well. Does your voice sound true? Are you saying something about yourself that makes an interesting statement? Will the reader learn something about you as a person that can’t be learned from the rest of your application?
College Essay Advisors website has produced this useful guide to the 2024/25 Common App essay prompts.
Standardised Tests
Harvard College requires the submission of standardised test scores from applicants for admission as part of the comprehensive application process that takes a whole-student approach. The College will accept the SAT or ACT to meet the standardised testing requirement. In exceptional cases when those tests are not accessible, one of the following can meet the requirement:
- AP exam results
- IB Actual or Predicted Scores
- GCSE/A Level Actual or Predicted Results
- National Leaving Exams Results or Predictions
US colleges accept the SAT and ACT equally – it doesn’t matter which one you take. To decide which is the better test for you, take a free online test in both of them and go with whichever style of exam you prefer. Here are some links to the free practice material:
Click here for free SAT practice tests.
Free SAT practice tests are also provided by the Khan Academy
Click here for free ACT practice tests
Free ACT practice tests are also provided by Kaplan
If you run out of free online practice tests, books of additional tests are available from online publishers at a cost of £25 – £30 per book.
Expected Grades
Most applicants admitted to Harvard will be very accomplished academically, achieving top grades in most subject areas.
- GCSE: Grades 7-9 (numbered system), or A/A* (lettered system)
- Scottish National 5s: Grades A/B
- AS levels (where taken): Grades A/A*
- A Levels: Grades A/A*
- Scottish Highers and Advanced Highers: Grades A/B
- International Baccalaureate (IB): Grades 39-45
But don’t forget that the Admissions Office undertakes a “whole person review” of every candidate, so students who have the odd grade lower than those stated above are still often granted admission if they have significant achievement elsewhere in their application, such as for an extracurricular activity or outstanding personal qualities and leadership potential.
Teachers’ Reports
The US application process involves drawing together recommendations from teachers and/or university advisers, which ought to reflect not only their students’ academic potential (typical of a UCAS report), but also their personal qualities and extracurricular achievements. The style and content of a US-style recommendation differs from the UCAS model in that it tends to be wider ranging and more upbeat.
Tips for UK teachers writing references for US colleges can be found online on several websites, including The University Guys.
For information relating specifically to Harvard, go to the ‘Application Requirements’ page of the main Harvard College website and scroll down to the section on ‘School Reports and Teacher Recommendations.’
The Common App Recommender Guide also provides useful information for counselors and teachers about the differences between the two roles and writing effective letters of recommendation. Click the links below to view the information documents.
Writing guide for counselors and teachers. While both counselor and teacher recommendations capture a student’s personality and strengths, there are distinct differences between the two perspectives. This document gives examples of some key student characteristics admissions committees are trying to assess and how each writer might address them.
Writing effective letters of recommendation. Useful tips on the content of an effective student reference.
Student Transcript
The Student Transcript is a document provided by your school as an official record of your academic performance, which might include:
- Years attended
- Achieved and predicted national grades from the last four years of secondary education
- Academic honours and awards
- Explanations and equivalences of new or unfamiliar qualifications for university entry (e.g. EPQ, Pre-U, BTEC, Welsh Baccalaureate)
- Information about how curriculum reforms relate to a student's subject choices
- Plans to resit any exams
- Extenuating circumstances
- How the choice and number of subjects compares to the average student
School Profile
The School Profile is a description of the school and the community it serves and must be submitted by your school alongside the student transcript. Context is very important for a US college application as it helps admissions officers to make sense of the numerical data. It might include the following information:
- Name of city and town and description of surroundings
- Community information (agriculture, business, diplomatic, rural, urban)
- Number of students eligible for Free School Meals
- Ethnicity of student’s year group as a percentage
- Students eligible for Education Maintenance Allowance (if applicable)
- Mixed/single gender
- Demographics of students attending the school (citizenship, gender, etc.)
Supporting Materials
There may be further materials you want to submit – published poetry, music, artwork, science research, and so on. These materials are all optional and should only be submitted if you have reached a significant level of expertise in the field. Check with each college to see how they wish to receive such materials. For Harvard, details of how to submit supplemental materials such as documents, articles and media (video, audio or images) can be found towards the bottom of the Application Requirements page of the College website.
Athletic applications at Ivy League colleges
The Ivy League is an athletic conference formally established in 1954, and is made up of eight universities in the eastern United States: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Yale. The term is often used to refer to the universities themselves, but strictly speaking, it is an athletic league where the eight colleges play each other in a variety of different sports.
Commenting on its foundation, the Ivy League website states that:
“…one of its defining principles was a commitment to access and opportunity exemplified by need-based financial aid. Another was that its recruited athletes be academically representative of each institution’s overall student body.”
In Harvard’s case, this means that all admitted students – whether they are athletic recruits or not – automatically get access to financial aid if they need it, and the amount they receive is means-tested against their family’s income and assets. It also means that athletic recruits go through the same ‘whole person review’ (see above) as other applicants, and have to be able to offer both academic excellence and significant achievement outside the classroom in their applications.
Student athletes must be of a very high calibre. The rule of thumb is that they need to be playing their sport at a national, rather than regional, level. High-calibre candidates are encouraged to contact the head coach of their sport (details on the college websites) with details of their athletic achievements, and to ask the coach directly about the level of interest in them as potential athletic recruits. The coach might then invite some candidates for a trial, and may decide to support some of the applications. However, only the Admissions Office at each Ivy League school has the authority to admit an applicant and to notify the applicant of admission.
Under certain circumstances, the Admissions Office may issue a letter prior to the final admissions decision indicating that a candidate is ‘likely’ to be admitted. This means that, as long as the applicant sustains the academic and personal record reflected in the completed application, the institution will send a formal admission offer on the appropriate notification date.
International athletic applicants are treated in exactly the same way as US citizens, both in terms of recruitment and financial aid.
For further details, see the Ivy League website.