WelcomeIn order to improve the academic experience for all members of our community, GSAS is committed to enrolling a student body that represents the ethnic and cultural diversity of contemporary society. We have an active recruitment program that seeks out potential applicants from groups underrepresented in PhD programs. Efforts to attract such prospective students include summer programs, recruitment visits to undergraduate schools, and specific Financial Aid Opportunities for minority students. Also, in these pages is some advice on the application process to help get you started.
Students of color find academic and social support through many student organizations, and the Office of Student Affairs sponsors a number of events and activities which enhance the achievement of common goals by members of Harvard's minority community. For many minority students, the W.E.B. Du Bois Graduate Society (named for the first African-American to receive the Harvard PhD) has been a critical link between themselves and other students. The Society was founded with one fundamental purpose in mind: minimizing the frustration and isolation commonly associated with graduate school. It sponsors numerous activities such as orientation meetings, student-faculty lunches, and social events. PerspectivesDownload Perspectives (PDF), a brochure for minority students considering GSAS.
A Source of Advice
Stephanie Parsons is the GSAS minority recruitment officer and can answer questions about the application process, student life, and the minority recruitment program. Contact her at
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or 617-495-5315.
Learn more:
The Application Process
Application Timeline
Programs of Study
Summer Programs
Financial Aid
Student Support
Other Harvard Faculties
Contact Us
The Application Process
It is important to understand that the graduate admissions process is not a mechanical one based on a rigid set of criteria. The department to which you are applying, rather than the Graduate School administration, will make the decision on your application. Usually, each department has a graduate admissions committee with faculty membership rotating annually. Committee members weigh all application materials, rather than grades or test scores alone. In all probability they will pay special attention to your grades in your intended field of graduate study and/or closely related fields. Similarly, letters of recommendation by people in your field will be given considerable. Critical to the decision process is your Statement of Purpose, in which you describe your interest in the field and offer details on your qualifications and achievements.
On Acquiring Letters of Recommendation Definition of a Good Letter Candidates for admission to the Graduate School will be judged on their academic abilities, their intellectual capacity and motivation, and their ability to communicate. A letter of recommendation should provide an informative and well-documented evaluation of the quality of your academic performance, furnishing detailed information that grades alone cannot reveal. GSAS requires three letters of recommendation, all of which should focus on your academic qualifications. This academic focus is in contrast to letters of recommendation for undergraduate admission, where extracurricular activities and overall character are given greater weight.
Whom to Ask On the basis of the above definition, you should choose teachers who know your work best and who have been most positive and supportive about your work. These should be professors in your potential field, or closely related fields. Therefore, it is important to keep in touch with former course professors who were supportive of your work and keep them informed of your activities in the field and your interest in doing graduate study. In addition, recommendations may come from work associates or others who can comment on your academic potential for graduate work.
How to Ask Whenever possible, make your request for a letter in person, by appointment, or during office hours. Bring along any materials or information that could help a recommender produce a well-documented evaluation of your qualifications: a résumé or curriculum vitae, a paper or an exam that you wrote for a course, a transcript of your grades, and, if you are at the application stage, a copy of your application essay. You should also be prepared to explain why you want to do graduate work and something about your career goals.
You may want to write a thank-you note to letter writers, telling them where you were accepted and which institution you will be attending.
Waiving Your Right to See the Letters You must decide in advance whether to waive your right to read letters of recommendation which is a right granted under the Buckley Amendment of 1974. The general wisdom in academe is that confidential letters have greater credibility than non-confidential letters, so you should seriously consider waiving this right. If you decide to keep your letters confidential (and you must make this decision for yourself) you should sign a waiver for each letter and be sure that the recommender knows in advance whether or not the letter is confidential. Finally, make it clear to the potential letter writer that if he or she has any reservations about writing the letter, you would prefer to know that in advance.
When to Ask (for Current Students and Recent Graduates) It is wise to start acquiring general letters of recommendation from courses in your potential field of interest where your performance has been particularly strong shortly after the completion of such courses. A professor can most readily write a well-documented letter while your performance is still fresh in his or her mind. Colleges often make provisions for maintaining letters of recommendation on file, so be sure to avail yourself of this service as you start acquiring letters. (Professors may be on leave or otherwise unavailable when you need letters, so this provision can be an important insurance that you will have letters as needed.)
When the time comes to apply, select letters from those professors who have shown the strongest interest and most sustained support for your future goals as a graduate student. At this point, you may want to have the professor customize the recommendation for the program to which you are applying. If it is not already on file, be sure to ask for the letter at least two or three weeks in advance of the application deadline since a good letter takes time to write. If you are also applying for graduate fellowships, you should request those letters at the same time, keeping in mind that fellowship deadlines are normally earlier than admissions deadlines.
The Statement of Purpose Candidates can find it difficult to talk about themselves or to describe their reasons and motivations for pursuing a graduate degree. Furthermore, they often worry that the required statement of purpose asks for their future dissertation topic or for a precise area of specialization. (Most graduate programs, in fact, are designed to allow graduate students one or two years for exploration before choosing a dissertation topic or specialization.)
Your statement of purpose should be a focused and informative essay, one that conveys your interests and qualifications in a concrete, personal way. One effective approach is to proceed from what you have already done, showing the impact of past intellectual experiences on your goals for the future. Some students find it best to present their academic experiences as a series of intellectual turning points; others focus on a single culminating one—often the undergraduate thesis. These experiences can be used to show why you wish to continue exploring a certain theme or why you wish to turn in a new direction. In either case, the discussion should provide a vivid picture of your intellectual profile: how you formulate research topics, how you pursue them, and how you articulate any interesting findings. As you convey this information, be sure to emphasize how these experiences have influenced both your decision to undertake graduate study and your goals within a graduate program.
It is also helpful at this point to say why you wish to study in a particular department or with a particular faculty member. The essay can include discussion of your personal back-ground, but it should be confined to those aspects that have had an impact on your scholarly goals.
In addition, the essay can be used to explain any ambiguities or weaknesses in your undergraduate record. In doing so, be careful not to let this dominate the essay or overshadow your strengths, which should be the main topic of discussion. Also, try to present the issue in as positive a light as possible. For example, a candidate concentrating in English but applying in psychology with only a few psychology courses as background, could give specific examples of ways in which English papers and courses helped to sharpen his or her psychological insights. The candidate might even show through these experiences and others, that psychology was a longstanding interest. In another example, a candidate whose grades suffered while he or she worked on the college newspaper could stress how his or her future goals in graduate study were shaped by valuable experiences at that newspaper.
The statement of purpose is also an important display of your writing skills. Be sure that it is a tightly organized and highly polished piece of work. When you have completed a draft of your essay, read it over closely and ask others to look at it. Be sure to have someone else check your final draft for typographical and grammatical errors.
Taking the GRE The General Test of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is required of all candidates. Some departments also require or recommend the Subject Test or may accept the GMAT (Graduate Management Aptitude Test). GRE scores may not be more than five years old. GRE registration forms, fee waiver applications, and information on how to prepare for the exams may be available at your school or can be downloaded from the GRE Web site: www.gre.org.
US registration fees are currently $140 for the General Test and $130 for the Subject Test. A limited number of fee waivers are available. In addition, be sure to take advantage of any pro-grams on your campus that offer financial assistance in applying to graduate school, including funding for test-preparation courses.
Implications of Test Scores As noted earlier, no single factor determines admissions success at Harvard. There is also no minimum test score that will ensure admission to the program of your choice. Common sense suggests that a score might make a greater difference if it is exceptionally high or low, or if other factors in your academic record are ambiguous.
If you have questions about your specific score results or whether or not you should consider retaking the test, consult with your professors or other advisors who are familiar with the graduate admissions process in the arts and sciences. Additionally, the graduate department to which you are applying may be helpful.
Application Timeline
Summer/Early Fall
- Gather application materials; visit or contact Harvard GSAS
- Take the GRE General Test; Subject Test may be taken earlier
- Begin drafting Statement of Purpose
- Ask for letters of recommendation; request official transcripts
- Apply for national fellowships
Note: Many national fellowship applications are due before the Graduate School’s application dead-lines and require the same set of materials (see page 8).
Late Fall/Winter - Submit application materials. (GSAS does not have rolling admissions.) Deadlines for admission and financial aid applications are December 3, 8 or 15 & 31, 2009, depending on the program.
- Contact the Admissions Office to check that your application is complete.
Spring - Decisions are mailed between mid-February and mid-March. Reply forms are due by April 15.
- Visit campus.
Student Contacts Current minority PhD candidates and some alumni are available to answer questions from prospective students. Consult with Stephanie Parsons about contacting a GSAS student or graduate.
Campus and Conference Visits Representatives from GSAS travel to selected colleges and universities to meet with students individually and during recruitment fairs. They also attend conferences of national organizations where there are likely to be a high number of interested minority applicants.
Student Visits For prospective candidates: If you would like to visit the Harvard campus, meet with faculty and students, and sit in on a class, your first point of contact is the department of interest. You should determine which faculty member(s) you would like to meet. Then, contact the department’s administrator who can tell you the best time to visit, whether it is appropriate to contact faculty directly, and how best to do so. If you would like lodging information or a tour of campus, contact the Harvard Events and Information Center at 617-495-1573 or at
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. Or visit their FAQ website.
For admitted candidates: You will be invited to visit campus as our guest for several days of informational and social meetings with departments, administrators, and current minority students. This visit is intended to give you a more complete picture of the Harvard experience, and will help you make an informed decision about whether to accept the offer of admission. Financial AidGraduate Fellowship Opportunities
The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) sponsors Graduate Fellowships to support minority students who are underrepresented in doctoral programs (Black/ African Americans, Native Americans (must be at least 1/4 Native), Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, or Native Pacific Islanders (Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, and Micronesia). This is a Harvard-funded fellowship and is not based on a national competition. The fellowship is awarded to a select group of students each year on the recommendation of their departments. Amount and Duration The fellowship may provide payment of tuition and fees for five years and a stipend for three years. Most awards will also include summer support in the first two years. In the remaining two or more years of doctoral study, students are expected to be supported by instructional or research appointments, as well as by non-Harvard fellowships. In 2008–2009, the maximum award includes payment of tuition and required medical and insurance fees, plus a stipend of $21,830.
Fellowship applicants are also encouraged to apply for non-Harvard fellowships. Other non-Harvard fellowships, such as the Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships, are listed in The Graduate Guide to Grants, published annually by GSAS. Outside Funding — Major Fellowships Even if you are expecting to receive Harvard University funding, you are encouraged to apply for outside sources of funding. Not only may some of these funds supplement or supplant what the Graduate School offers, but winning a national fellowship competition can improve a candidate’s competitive standing. Some well-known fellowships available to entering graduate students are listed below. Keep in mind that many deadlines fall before the Graduate School’s application deadlines. SUMMER PROGRAMS
Harvard sponsors or takes part in a variety of summer programs designed to encourage talented minority students and increase the pool of minority students entering PhD programs.
Biological Sciences The SHURP Program of the Division of Medical Sciences
The Summer Honors Undergraduate Research Program (SHURP), begun in 1991, is intended primarily for college science students who are seriously interested in research and who are members of racial or ethnic groups under-represented in biological sciences. SHURP students spend about 85 percent of their time pursuing research projects in the laboratories of Medical School and Division of Medical Sciences (DMS) faculty members. Students also participate in informal weekly seminars to teach each other about their research projects and in weekly career development discussions. SHURP student groups are paired with groups of graduate and MD/PhD students for informal peer mentoring. Past participants have found that the Program gives them an opportunity to apply what they have learned in coursework to their research. They also have a chance to build self-confidence in their science skills and in the career decisions they are making. Selection for the program is based on an applicant’s interest in a career in biomedical research, previous research experience, letters of recommendation, and academic preparation. Contact the Division of Medical Sciences at
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or (800) 367-9019. The application deadline is February 1. Social Sciences Galbraith Scholars
The Galbraith Scholars program is a special summer offering for undergraduates (principally rising juniors and seniors) with strong intellectual interests in issues of inequality and social policy. The program aims especially to introduce promising minority students and students of limited economic means to educational and career opportunities in the field. Harvard offers a joint PhD program with the Kennedy School of Government in social policy (students choose either the government or the sociology track). Students selected as Galbraith Scholars will receive fellowships to cover full travel, accommodations, and activity expenses to participate in a variety of specially designed seminars, panel discussions, offsite field trips, and collaborative activities on issues of inequality and social policy during their time at Harvard. Contact Pamela Metz, program coordinator, John F. Kennedy School of Government, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA 02138;
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; or 617-496-0109. Institute for Recruitment of Teacher
Located at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, the Institute for Recruitment of Teachers (IRT) identifies talented minority students in their junior year of college and encourages them to pursue graduate degrees and careers in teaching. IRT offers an intensive four-week Summer Workshop to prepare students for the GRE and for the rigors of graduate school. At the conclusion of the workshop, IRT will continue to provide extensive help throughout the graduate school application process. Participants receive a stipend, travel expenses (for those living outside New England), and room and board. The Associates Program allows students who cannot attend the Summer Workshop to receive similar graduate school preparation and application help from the staff. Applicants must be majoring in the humanities, social sciences, or education. For an application and more information on either the Summer Workshop or the Associates Program, contact IRT, Phillips Academy, 180 Main Street, Andover, MA 01810; (978) 749¬4116;
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. Engineering Many undergraduates get their first exposure to science and engineering by participating in the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. Each REU project is designed to involve the student in all aspects of research and has a clearly identifiable research goal at a level appropriate for undergraduate study. With direction from a faculty advisor and, in most cases, a postdoctoral fellow or graduate student, the REU student defines and sets up the program necessary to accomplish his or her ten-week summer project. A research presentation made by each student at the “end-of-summer” seminar is attended by faculty, student mentors, and fellow REU students. For more information on this program, contact Kathyrn Hollar, director of educational programs, Pierce Hall Room 206A, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138; 617-496–7479;
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. All Disciplines The Leadership Alliance
The Leadership Alliance, a consortium of 33 institutions including Harvard, works to increase the number of underrepresented minority students entering PhD programs. In addition to offering some fellowship assistance for graduate school, students at member institutions may participate in the Summer Research Early Identification Program. Successful applicants are paired with a faculty member to conduct research for eight weeks in a discipline of their choice in the sciences, social sciences, or humanities. Students receive a room, stipend, and travel funds, in addition to valuable research or laboratory experience and mentoring. For information on how to apply, visit the website or contact the Leadership Alliance, Box 1963, Providence, RI 02912; 401-863-1474;
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. Student Support
Smooth Transitions (PDF)
Du Bois Graduate Society
The W.E.B. Du Bois Graduate Society sponsors numerous activities and meets with GSAS administrators to address issues of concern to Harvard’s minority community. Named for the first African American to receive the PhD at Harvard, the Du Bois Society is a multicultural student group and plans such varied activities as potluck dinners, student research forums, and faculty-student lunches. Other Organizations For students whose intellectual interests involve issues of race and ethnicity, Harvard offers a wide range of relevant research groups and programs including the Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Studies, a multidisciplinary program entitled Inequality and Social Policy, the Harvard University Native American Program , and the Center for the Study of World Religions. To find out more about student life or GSAS support services, please consult the following websites:
• Lesbian, Bisexual, and Gay Graduate Students at Harvard
• Office of Work/Life Resources
• Accessible Education Office
• Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning Directory of Other Harvard Faculties
Harvard University is made up of ten separate faculties, including the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which encompasses GSAS, Harvard College, and the Division of Continuing Education. The name and address of the admissions offices of the University’s other graduate schools are listed below; a minority recruitment contact is listed where applicable. GSAS offers joint PhD programs with the Schools of Dental Medicine, Design, Divinity, Business Administration, Government, Medicine, and Public Health.
Harvard Graduate School of Design
Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
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; 617-495-5453
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, director of admissions
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, director of admissions
Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration
Dillon House, Soldiers Field Road, Boston, MA 02163
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; 617-495-6128
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, associate director, MBA admissions
Harvard School of Dental Medicine
188 Longwood Avenue Boston, MA 02115
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617-432-1443
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, director of admissions
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Longfellow Hall 111, Appian Way, Cambridge, MA 02138
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; 617-495-3414
Gregg Glover, associate director of admissions
Harvard Kennedy School
79 J.F.K. Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
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; 617-495-1154, (catalog requests only) -1155, -1156
Alexandra Martinez, associate director of enrollment services
(Note: Political science is also studied in the Department of Government in GSAS.)
Harvard Law School
Austin Hall, 1515 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
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; 617-495-3179 Harvard Medical School
25 Shattuck Street, Building A, Room 210, Boston, MA 02115¬6092
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Office of Recruitment and Multicultural Affairs
260 Longwood Avenue, TMEC-244, Boston, MA 02115
Jennifer Brown, program coordinator, 617-432-1572
Harvard School of Public Health
677 Huntington Avenue, Room G4, Boston, MA 02115
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; 617-432-1031
Kerri Noonan, assistant director of admissions Harvard Divinity School
Divinity Hall, 218 14 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
617-495-5796
Maritza Hernandez, director of admissions and financial aid Contact Us
Stephanie Parsons is the GSAS minority recruitment officer and can answer questions about the application process, student life, and the minority recruitment program. Contact her at
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or 617-495-5315.
Harvard University
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
350 Holyoke Center
1350 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
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;
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617-495-5315
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