• Unless your parents or grandparents are prepared to endow a building at the school, you will have an uphill battle for one of the spots in Harvard's freshman class. Harvard no longer accepts transfer students (as of March 2009), so you will have one shot to get in.

• Your preparation for Harvard begins early, starting with the decisions you make about where to attend high school.

Select the Right High School

• Some prep schools have good track records for getting their top students into Harvard and other elite schools. The Wall Street Journal has identified the following schools as having excellent success in getting their students into top colleges, including Harvard:

1. Collegiate School, New York, New York
2. Brearley School, New York, New York
3. Chapin School, New York, New York
4. Polytechnic School, Pasadena, California
5. University of Chicago Lab Schools, Chicago, Illinois
6. College Preparatory School, Oakland, California
7. Trinity School, New York, New York
8. Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts
9. Delbarton School, Morristown, New Jersey
10. Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire

• If you are not in a position to attend one of those high schools, select a school that offers a rigorous curriculum, a good selection of Advanced Placement courses, and a selection of extracurricular and athletic opportunities that match your interests.
• The right high school is not essential to getting into Harvard, hoever. Each year Harvard accepts 5-10 homeschooled students.http://www.massnews.com/past_issues/2000/7_July/hschool.htm

Focus on Academics

• Academic achievement will be looked at very carefully by the Harvard College admissions department.

1. You need to take the hardest courses available at your school, and do well in them.
2. Harvard recommends the following high school course of study:
   1. Four years of English, with extensive practice in writing
   2. Four years of math
   3. Four years of science, including biology, chemistry, physics, with an advanced course in one of them
3. Three years of history, including American and European history
4. Four years of one foreign language
5. Most admitted students rank in the top 10-15% of their class.
6. Harvard requires students to submit scores from either the SAT Reasoning test or the ACT.
7. The student also needs to take three SAT subject tests.

• Harvard is looking to assemble a well rounded class of interesting people who have passion and excel in specific areas. While you don't have to have received a Nobel prize for cancer research, demonstrating consistent participation and achievement in an area outside of academics can help to differentiate you from the more than 29,000 applications Harvard receives each year.

• Harvard accepts the Common Application, and also requires a Harvard Supplement. A complete application also requires supplemental information from the school, in addition to the school recommendations and transcript required as part of the common application.