How to Get Into Harvard – International Student Edition

I have written about my top tips on how to get into Harvard, but as an international student myself I know how tough the process is when you are from outside the US. I had to spend countless hours online searching for information about all the different aspects of the application process because no one I knew had any answers to my questions. It often gets lonely and confusing, but it will all be worth it in the end. After that lonely experience, I wanted to share everything that I learned.

This guide covers the most important things to consider as an international student applying to Harvard and other top schools in the US:

1. Understand the holistic admissions process

The holistic admissions process is quite unique to the US, as for example in my home country, you apply to university only with your school leaving exam scores. That is very different from the US model, where you also need to send essays, grades, recommendation letters, a list of your achievements, and more. This means that only one aspect is not going to make or break your application.

Because of their background, international are prone to thinking that their grades have to be perfect to get in. Like I said in my earlier post, this is really not true! You need to show your personality in so many different ways in the application, and grades are only a small part of that. This is also a great piece of news for my fellow internationals – use your cool and unique background for your benefit! Harvard admissions officers want to see unique individuals, and internationals can be one of the most unique people out there!

2. You don’t need to do the same things American high schoolers do

One of the most helpful resources I had during my application process was a book called 50 Successful Harvard Application Essays. It was a great investment, but one thing really bothered me. Most of the essays were from domestic applicants, and their profiles were often really similar. They all shared many similar activities, like debate, student body president, and school sports.

My high school in Europe offered none of that. I started to feel anxious that I didn’t have the right profile for top-rated colleges. However, I came to realize that you absolutely don’t have to! You can make the best out of whatever is offered in your country or region as long as you show commitment and passion to that. Coming back to my first point, having unique hobbies also makes you more interesting.

3. You are primarily competing for admissions with people from your area

This is something very important that I learned during my Harvard interview. It makes it less daunting to realize that you are not competing for your study spot with every single other applicant, and you are mostly compared to students who are also from your country. Schools like Harvard don’t usually have hard-set quotas for applicants from each region, but often the numbers each year are pretty similar.

This means that for some countries, you might even have an advantage as much more than 5% of people usually get into Harvard from that country. This was true for me, where I got in out of 13 applicants in my country that year, making the country’s acceptance rate 7.6%. This might not be true for bigger countries like China or Canada, but either way, you are never competing with everyone else.

With that in mind, you should focus on making sure you are among the top students from your country or area specifically. For this, you should utilize my tips from the rest of my blog, as I cover everything from essay writing to acing interviews and standardized tests.

4. Letters of recommendation can be a huge risk or an amazing opportunity for you

Why is this?

In many countries, asking a teacher for a recommendation letter is less common than it is in the US. When I asked my teachers, some of them have never written one! It can be risky to ask teachers who are unfamiliar with the concept as they might do it all wrong and truly hurt your application.

However, you can also take this as a huge opportunity and influence how your teachers are going to write the letter. It is forbidden for you to write the letter in their name, but you should provide them with amazing resources (such as my post here) to help them understand how to write an amazing letter of recommendation. In the US, you usually can’t influence your letter that much, so use this for your benefit again!

5. There are fewer scholarship opportunities for international students, so plan ahead

This sucks, alright! Studying in the US is expensive, but a lot of schools these days offer extensive financial aid that is often need-based, and also need-blind. Need-based means that you get financial aid based on your need instead of your merits, and need-blind means that your financial need does not impact your likelihood of getting admitted to the school.

Both of these are amazingly important, so it is very sad that at the moment, only 6 colleges in the US offer need-blind admissions for international students as well. These schools are Harvard, Yale, MIT, Princeton, Amherst, and Dartmouth. Dartmouth is the most recent addition, as they adopted international need-blind admission in early 2022.

Depending on when you are applying, some schools might also be on your radar, for example, Brown is moving to international need-blind admissions starting with the Class of 2029 (so those who are starting college in 2025).

Don’t be that discouraged though, because studying in a top US school eventually pays itself off. You can get scholarships from other sources, such as your government or international organizations such as Fulbright.

Let me know in the comments what has been the most difficult in the application process as an international student. Remember, you are not alone!