Prompt database · 2026-27 cycle
Harvard College
Deadlines
source| Early Action | November 1, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Regular Decision | January 1, 2027 |
Essay prompts (5)
- identityAll first-year applicants2026-27150 words
Harvard has long recognized the importance of enrolling a student body with a diversity of perspectives and experiences. How will the life experiences that shaped who you are today enable you to contribute to Harvard?
This is the 2025-26 wording, carried over: Harvard College has not republished this prompt for 2026-27 yet. Schools usually post updates around the Common App opening on August 1; we re-check after that and change this text only against an official source.
- communityAll first-year applicants2026-27150 words
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?
This is the 2025-26 wording, carried over: Harvard College has not republished this prompt for 2026-27 yet. Schools usually post updates around the Common App opening on August 1; we re-check after that and change this text only against an official source.
- activityAll first-year applicants2026-27150 words
Briefly describe any of your extracurricular activities, employment experience, travel, or family responsibilities that have shaped who you are.
This is the 2025-26 wording, carried over: Harvard College has not republished this prompt for 2026-27 yet. Schools usually post updates around the Common App opening on August 1; we re-check after that and change this text only against an official source.
- short answerAll first-year applicants2026-27150 words
How do you hope to use your Harvard education in the future?
This is the 2025-26 wording, carried over: Harvard College has not republished this prompt for 2026-27 yet. Schools usually post updates around the Common App opening on August 1; we re-check after that and change this text only against an official source.
- weirdAll first-year applicants2026-27150 words
Top 3 things your roommates might like to know about you.
This is the 2025-26 wording, carried over: Harvard College has not republished this prompt for 2026-27 yet. Schools usually post updates around the Common App opening on August 1; we re-check after that and change this text only against an official source.
The school's published AI policy
A student's essay should reflect their own content, writing style, and English proficiency. [...] We are aware that it is possible to use tools or other services to fraudulently create essays or pass off another's work as one's own. Doing so in the application process violates the Common Application standards as well as the Harvard College Honor Code. The Common Application identifies the following as a possible form of fraud and violation of its application standards: "submitting plagiarized essays or other written or oral material, or intentionally misrepresenting as one's own original work: (1) another person's thoughts, language, ideas, expressions, or experiences or (2) the substantive content or output of an artificial intelligence platform, technology, or algorithm."
the school’s published policyChecked Sep 8, 2026
Our reading
Harvard requires that an essay reflect the applicant's own content, writing style, and English proficiency and bars passing off an AI platform's substantive content or output as one's own original work, but publishes no explicit permission for — and no prohibition on — using a tool for feedback on a draft the applicant then writes themselves.
How reviews use this page
When you request a review for a Harvard College supplement, the feedback is grounded in exactly what you see here: the prompt itself, its word limit, and what the school publishes about its values and programs. That's the whole claim — calibrated to the prompt and the school's own published guidance, scored against a consistent rubric. Not insider knowledge, and never a rewrite: Second Read is a coach, not a ghostwriter. It flags weaknesses and tells you what to fix and why; it never writes a sentence of your essay.
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