Harvard Essays 2025–26: Prompts and Examples
Harvard College requires five short-answer essays (150 words each) for the 2025–26 cycle. Below you’ll find every Harvard supplemental essay prompt, a quick plan for what to write, what to avoid, and example snippets to spark your draft.
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?”
What to Do
Choose 1–2 defining experiences and show the specific skills you bring (e.g., translation, mediation, data-gathering, curriculum design).
Connect those skills to named Harvard communities you’ll serve—e.g., Institute of Politics (IOP) Citizenship Tutoring, PBHA Chinatown Citizenship, and the Mindich Program in Engaged Scholarship (for measuring impact and sharing findings).
Close with the ripple effect: how your work will strengthen House life, classrooms, and Boston/Cambridge partners.
What to Avoid
Abstract statements about “diversity” with no campus tie-in.
A long list of clubs; pick a cohesive combo that clearly fits your experience.
Example Snippet
Growing up as my family’s translator taught me to design inclusion, not just believe in it. At Harvard, I’ll tutor weekly with the IOP’s Citizenship Tutoring program, helping campus employees and local residents prep for the civics, reading, and writing portions of the naturalization exam. I’ll partner with PBHA’s Chinatown Citizenship to host bilingual workshops, then use a Mindich engaged-scholarship course to compare whether 1:1 tutoring or community nights produce higher pass rates and confidence—and share those results so our teams can improve together.
(Other strong fits you can swap in, depending on your story: IOP Politics of Race and Ethnicity, Harvard Votes Challenge, PBHA Adult ESOL, or IOP CIVICS.)
Prompt 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?”
What to Do
Pick a real disagreement (team, club, class, job) where you listened, tested options, and adjusted.
Show steps: what you tried → what changed → what you learned.
End with how this approach will shape your contributions to a Harvard House discussion or project.
What to Avoid
“I won the argument.”
Vague “we agreed to disagree” without process or growth.
Example Snippet
Our robotics team deadlocked on speed vs. reliability. I proposed A/B sprints, gathered failure data, and facilitated a vote after each test. We chose a hybrid drivetrain—and I learned that designing rules for disagreement (evidence, timeboxes, clear decision points) matters as much as the design itself. That’s the mindset I’ll bring to late-night House debates and problem sets.
Prompt 3
“Briefly describe any of your extracurricular activities, employment experience, travel, or family responsibilities that have shaped who you are.”
What to Do
Focus on one sustained commitment that shaped you; add a second detail only if it’s directly connected.
Quantify responsibly (hours, people served, prototypes built) and name a clear takeaway (skill, value, or mindset).
What to Avoid
Re-listing your Activities section.
Unrelated mini-blurbs that feel like a résumé dump.
Example Snippet (3D-printing charity angle)
I founded a student charity that uses our school’s 3D printers to build low-cost upper-limb devices for kids who need them. What started as weekend tinkering became a nine-person team: we learned CAD together, ran fit appointments, and iterated designs until a fourth-grader could throw a ball again. Printing plastic wasn’t the hard part—listening was: asking families what tasks mattered (zippers, bike brakes), then testing and revising until those moments worked. I’m leaving high school with a toolbox—design thinking, humility, and the habit of building with people, not for them.
Prompt 4
“How do you hope to use your Harvard education in the future?”
What to Do
Present a believable path: problem you care about → Harvard resources → early steps after graduation.
Name 1–2 academic homes and builder spaces (e.g., SEAS Active Learning Labs/REEF Makerspace, Wyss Institute, Harvard Innovation Labs) that will give you the skills to act.
Keep tone mission-aligned: impact, integrity, and collaboration in a liberal arts context.
What to Avoid
Grand promises with no plan.
Name-dropping a dozen centers.
Example Snippet
I want to engineer affordable assistive tech and bring it to community clinics at scale. At Harvard, I’ll study Engineering Sciences while prototyping in the Active Learning Labs/REEF Makerspace, seek research exposure with teams connected to the Wyss Institute, and use the Harvard Innovation Labs to pressure-test a distribution model with clinicians and payers. Early on, my goal isn’t a company; it’s a pilot that measurably restores day-to-day function—then growing what works.
Prompt 5
“Top 3 things your roommates might like to know about you.”
What to Do
Be specific and warm; mix a quirk, a habit, and a way you show up for others.
Signal you’ll be a considerate member of Harvard’s residential community.
What to Avoid
Inside jokes no one else will understand.
Generic “I’m friendly” claims.
Example Snippet
I bake stress-relief banana bread—gluten-free by request. 2) I’m an early riser who studies with headphones and labels shared chargers so they make it back home. 3) If you’re homesick, I’ll walk the Charles with you and text your family a “sunset check” photo if you want.
What Harvard Looks For (to shape your tone)
Harvard’s mission centers on educating “citizens and citizen-leaders” through the transformative power of a liberal arts and sciences education. Your Harvard essays should reflect curiosity, integrity, and a collaborative instinct—showing how you’ll thrive in classrooms and the residential community and how you’ll turn learning into service.
Final Notes for Harvard Essays 2025–26
Use each short answer to reveal a different dimension of you (community builder, problem solver, teammate, roommate).
Tie your actions to Harvard-specific opportunities when it’s natural (IOP programs, PBHA initiatives, Mindich engaged scholarship, SEAS makerspaces).
Keep the voice simple, concrete, and reflective; results matter, but learning + next steps matter most.
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