An Undergraduate Experience
Like No Other
HARVARD COLLEGE is a unique academic community—a close-knit undergraduate program located within Harvard University.
With world-class faculty, a dedication to affordability, and groundbreaking research opportunities, committed scholars have all the resources they need to fulfill their academic and personal potential.
Teaching and research are intertwined at Harvard College—students contribute to research in labs and libraries and learn from faculty of the highest caliber. The breadth and depth of Harvard’s resources, from library and museum collections to engagement in the arts and athletics, remain unparalleled in higher education.
At the heart of Harvard College are the Harvard Houses, where three-fourths of students live, learn, and work together with faculty, students, and graduate students. These multigenerational communities provide personal and enriching interactions that shape students both intellectually and socially, while providing a supportive and manageably-sized home inside a larger College and University.
With a 375-year tradition of educating leaders in every endeavor, Harvard College is proud to deliver an education focused on both knowing and doing, on individual achievement and on meaningful collaboration in a supportive environment that fosters intellectual risk-taking.
Situated in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard is one of more than 50 local institutions serving more than 200,000 students—making the Boston area America’s premier “college town.” Yet with an intellectually stimulating environment that is steeped in tradition, Harvard is unlike anywhere else in the world.
Details for Freshmen, Transfer, and Visiting Students
Fre shman applicants
All freshman applicants—both international and U.S. candidates—must complete the Common Application or Universal College Application, along with the required supplements. You will need to submit:
- Common/Universal College Application
- Harvard College Questions and Writing Supplement for the Common Application
- $75 fee or a fee waiver
- SAT or ACT with Writing
- 2 SAT Subject Tests
- School Report and high school transcript
- Teacher Report (2)
- Mid-Year School Report
- Final School Report
Transfer applicants
All transfer applicants must complete an application, along with our Supplement and some special forms for transfers. This includes:
- Common/Universal College Transfer Application
- Harvard College Questions and Writing Supplement for the Common Application
- $75 fee or a fee waiver
- SAT or ACT with Writing
- College (or Registrar’s) Report
- College Transcript
- College Instructor Recommendation (2)
- High School Transcript
Visiting undergraduate applicants
There is a unique application for Visiting Undergraduate Students from another institution who spend a semester or year studying at Harvard. The requirements include:
- VUS Application
- $75 application fee
- Tentative Plan of Study
- Statement of Purpose
- Dean’s Letter of Permission
- Faculty Recommendation (2)
- Resume or Curriculum Vitae
- Official high school transcript
- Official university transcrip
Many Ways to Support Your Education
When you qualify for financial aid from Harvard, we use a combination of resources to create an individualized aid package to meet your demonstrated need. This may include scholarship funds, student employment, and loans, as well as any awards you’ve earned from outside sources.
We will work with your family one on one to help you navigate options and make sure Harvard is an affordable option for your undergraduate education.
After we assess your financial situation, we cover the remainder of your need with scholarship assistance and the offer of a campus job.
Our scholarships are based entirely on need, not merit. Learn more about scholarships.
If you receive financial aid along with additional funding from outside sources, we will add that funding to your aid package, where it will reduce your work expectation.
Find out how to help finance your education through outside awards.
We expect students to contribute to the cost of their education through summer and term-time employment. Student jobs are plentiful, and our aid package will include a term-time work expectation unless you have substantial outside awards.
Learn more about student jobs.
Your financial aid award will cover your entire demonstrated need without loans, but you may still choose to borrow through several federal loan programs, or through Harvard Loans.
Explore options for student loans.
Learn in one of America’s most respected academic institutions, where world-class scholars and researchers teach students as curious as they are capable.
AT HARVARD COLLEGE, you will find small classes, fascinating course topics, personalized degree programs, and unsurpassed research opportunities across a diverse field of subjects. You set the course and pace of your studies, and your advisors and faculty will be there to support you every step of the way.
Fields of Concentration
Choosing Your Area of Focus
You have many options when pursuing your Harvard degree. We offer nearly 3,900 courses in 48 undergraduate fields of study, which we call concentrations. Many of our concentrations are interdisciplinary.
Your plan of study is individualized to meet your academic goals, and there is no predetermined curriculum—even during your freshman year, with the exception of the Expository Writing 20 course that is required of all freshmen.
If your academic goals are best met through a unique, personalized field of study, you have the flexibility to craft your own special concentration. You may also choose to include a secondary field in your plan of study.
Courses within your concentration will provide many opportunities to make close connections with faculty. Many departmental seminars enroll 10 or fewer students.
Honors
About half of all Harvard students choose an honors track within their concentrations, and most of them write senior theses or complete research projects under the one-on-one supervision of professors and departmental tutors.
Tutorials
Tutorials, which are taught in small groups or individually by instructors in your field of concentration, are another central part of many students’ plans of study. Tutorials will encourage you to develop more scholarly approaches to your discipline, and you may include them every year you choose, from sophomore through senior.
A Community Designed Around You
From the moment our Freshmen walk into Harvard Yard until they graduate they are surrounded by people dedicated to making Harvard “home.” Our students make friends in their classes, in the dining halls, on the intramural fields and through student activities.
Spaces for Living—and Learning
Harvard’s housing combines vibrant intellectual engagement and rich cultural and social experience with a welcoming, inclusive community life.
Our Houses and freshman dormitories bring together people from all over the world. Your roommate could be an archaeology student from Missouri, a future engineer from Kenya, or anyone in between. More than living spaces, campus residences are learning communities. Faculty and graduate students guide you through your curriculum, deans provide academic and personal advice, and tutors offer pre-professional advising and academic support.
Making friends is easy over meals shared in our elegant but convivial dining halls. Organized activities within your freshman entryway and upperclass House—including intramural sports, informal study breaks, and social gatherings—continually broaden your circle of friendship and connection.
Life in the Yard
As a first-year student, you will live in a freshman residence featuring shared suites, located within or adjacent to historic Harvard Yard. Enjoy the companionship of suitemates, meals in the freshman dining hall, and activities designed specifically for freshmen. Learn more about freshman residential life.
The Harvard Houses
Harvard’s 12 iconic Houses are the foundation of your upperclass experience. Home to countless traditions and multi-textured learning opportunities, they create a close-knit, spirited community. A thirteenth House accommodates non-resident students and graduate students. Find out how the upperclass Housing system works.
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