How to use your Common App essay for Ivy League supplementals: Harvard

If you’re aiming to get into an Ivy League school, you will already know that it is a lot of work just to apply – especially if you’re applying to multiple schools. The good news is, if you’ve spent a decent amount of time prepping for your Common App essay a lot of the work has already been done. This is because you can essentially use the material from various Common App prompts and rework it for your Ivy supplementals. 

When it comes to school admissions, experts may ask for the same information in different ways, but it’s important to remember they are using a set number of lenses to get an understanding of who you are and why you’re a better candidate for their school. This is why the ideation that went into the Common App prompts that you haven’t submitted as your main essay remain relevant. 

Some schools try to be very creative or unique in their supplemental essay topics. This is because their applicant pools are pretty homogenous: students with high GPAs, good recommendations, and extracurriculars with recognitions. The essays help admissions representatives by giving them a filter that is tailored to their school. At first glance, supplementals may seem like a massive undertaking, with many schools having 4-7 supplementals each. But, as we’ll demonstrate in this series, about 90 percent of them overlap with a prompt from the Common Apps. Be smart. Use the time that you’ve spent on your Common App essays to build your supplementals, and you’ll have so much more time to tweak and fine-tune your essays to perfection. 

If you’ve brainstormed for some Common App prompts but not others, we have a full breakdown series for each prompt here. Use the sample outlines as a benchmark to tell your own story. Now with this, you’ll be able to start building out your supplementals. So which questions go with which prompt? We’ll start off with Harvard.

Harvard supplementals (2022-2023)

No word count limit (We suggest 300-800 words)

TOPIC	PROMPT
Unusual circumstances in your life	1
Try to add in something unique that boosts your argument for attending this school.
Travel, living, or working experiences in your own or other communities	1, 4, 5
Show a connection to others that has affected your work ethic/output.
What would you want your future college roommate to know about you?	1
Everyone will talk about being excited. Go into details about what you hope to be able to do together.
A list of books you have read in the last twelve months	7
Particularly good for liberal arts. However, any stated interest can benefit from a strong list of books and explanations for their selection. It’s very hard to “copy” this from someone else; so make it yours beyond the obvious.
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.	3,4
Humanities majors will enjoy deconstructing how Harvard’s foundation is “honesty” and not “integrity” given the wording of the prompt -- there is a lot to work with in this topic. Make sure you articulate the dilemma, its resolution, and your argument for your judgement’s accuracy.
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?	1, 5
Talking about your background here is good, but the scale of this question is huge. How would you contribute to leading changes made to everything we know as the status quo as a student to other students? Talking about challenging a big concept or a transformative period can help you set up the context for that type of argument.
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?	1, 3, 6
“I’d love to just take a break and learn about the world because school isn’t that much fun” is probably not the best way to start this topic off, but it’s essentially what you’re going to say if you talk about deferring or going on a magical sabbatical. Make sure the argument is mature and grounded in opportunities.
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.	1, 2, 5, 6
Though topic overlap is common, this topic combines Harvard’s supplementals, which also combine some of the Common App topics. You can see that, just with Harvard, if you are applying to any of the Ivy League schools, or any school in the top 25, you’re going to have a much easier time with your supplementals if you just prepare all 7 outlines for every Common App topic.