Q&A for How to Get Into Harvard University

Colleges don't look at middle school grades. Just work hard to bring your grades up in high school, and take the most advanced classes available to you.

You can start by joining in some extra-curricular activities to stand out, plus getting mostly A's or all A's is important too. Make sure your study techniques are top notch, and search online or for tutors for suggestions.

Near perfect would probably mean having maximum 2 B's and the rest have to be A's. It's more likely that you get in with all A's though.

For your first year, you are required to live on campus. For the following years, you can choose to stay wherever you would like.

A little bit, but you can show Harvard that you can change by improving in your next 3 years of high school. Harvard loves students who try hard to improve.

You don't have to be from America to get into Harvard. In fact, many of the top schools are looking for diversity, so you might even have an advantage. When the time is right, apply, and see what happens.

You do not need to be a genius, but you do need to be exceptional. Generally, this means doing extremely well in your high school work and standardized test, taking advanced classes, etc., and ideally, demonstrating some sort of special talent or contributions to your community.

They are looking at your cumulative GPA (along with a number of other things), and if you're a freshman, you still have time to improve. Try not to get anything lower than A's going forward, and consider taking some AP courses to improve your GPA even further.

You need to score an 800 in all 3 sections: Critical Reading, Writing and Math. This adds up to a total of 2400 points.

Yes. How you get one is by being exceptional, so you'll have to work hard. There's also financial-aid scholarships.

Only an average of 6% of all applicants get accepted into Harvard. That means out of every 100 applicants, only 6 students are accepted.

Most Ivy League and private institutions (including Harvard) don't give out merit-based scholarships. If you or your family have trouble with tuition, those schools will only offer financial aid on need-based terms.

If you get a scholarship to Harvard, you can get there for almost free. If you're very poor, you might also get your tuition fully covered with financial aid, assuming you get in.

Try doing some sports, community service, AP or IB classes, and get good grades.

Yes, they do. But you have to be extra-exceptional to get one (you have to be exceptional to even be accepted to the college, and a minority of those accepted are offered scholarships). There's also financial aid available.

Become a well-rounded student. Work hard to get good grades and take advanced classes, but also seek out experiences like athletics, clubs and volunteer opportunities to be a well-rounded candidate.

Yes. There are tours that go to Harvard so you can see it without being a student. Or you can just visit and walk around on your own.

Most likely, no. Most colleges don't care about your middle school record unless you did something exceptional.

Most people apply to college in their last year of high school. Most likely, everyone in high school will be talking about college applications around that time, and you may be given some kind of informational seminar. Just make sure you submit your application by the application deadline. Harvard's website and application will specify that deadline.

Theoretically, yes. There are many ways to boost up those test scores though, like tutors or after-school help. I would re-take the test as soon as you can to try and earn a higher score.

Perfect grades matter quite a bit, but you should also have extracurricular activities to recommend you. Join a sports team, or your school band, and do community work.

Yes. Do your best to get into the advanced classes That will qualify you for a good middle school, then high school, then college.

As long as you meet the requirements, your age doesn't matter. The youngest person to get into Harvard was 11 years old.

Harvard accepts students from other countries, too. The standards and the application process are the same as for anyone else, you just probably won't have to take the SAT before applying if it is not available in your country. Follow the guidelines in the article. However, note that medical school is a type of graduate school, which is done after college. So you could potentially go to college somewhere else and then apply to Harvard's medical school after college if you do really well in college. But if you really want to go to both college and graduate school at Harvard, you can do that too, if you get accepted.

Yes. Harvard has a very diverse campus, and, if you display the excellence required to get in, you will.

You can, but they may not count for much.

Kind of, but being bilingual is extremely common nowadays. If you speak more than two languages, that could help you stand out from the crowd.

You could, but it could harm your chances of getting into Harvard when compared against someone who did both.

Yes, Harvard provides scholarships regardless of your country assuming you qualify.

No, unless those middle school grades impact which high school you go to. In that case though, the grades themselves wouldn't affect your chances of getting into Harvard, just your high school and the opportunities you have there.