1. Language performance requirements
Deadline for Harvard application is 65438+ 10/month 1. TOEFL score is required to be above 108, and IELTS score is accepted.
2. High school grades are very important.
William Fitzsimmons, director of the admissions office of Harvard University, once spent more than a year investigating American universities. He concluded that American universities' over-reliance on college entrance examination scores is distorting middle school education, encouraging students to take part in exam competitions and encouraging students and parents to spend billions of dollars on preparing for exams in the tutor industry.
Fitzsimmons said, "Compared with the scores of the college entrance examination, the scores of ordinary high school students and other unified examinations can better predict whether students can enter the university", because the carefully prepared college entrance examination contains false high elements.
Harvard University does not stipulate admission scores, and often rejects the "top scholar" with full marks in the college entrance examination, but this does not mean that academic performance is not important. American schools have a comprehensive score ranking for senior high school students' four-year courses. According to the data released by Harvard University, 95% of the students enrolled in the school are in the top 65,438+00% of the high school rankings, and 75% of the students are close to full marks in the college entrance examination.
The American college entrance examination can be taken many times a year to get the best results, but Harvard University says that the results will be discounted if you take it more than twice. To "toss" for high marks, this is not the student that Harvard University wants.
Students who attach great importance to the results of the college entrance examination should not forget their usual performance. Although the exam results of famous American schools are very important, we should not forget to cultivate our abilities in many aspects and pay more attention to the details of our daily study and life while paying attention to the exam results.
3. The teacher's recommendation is the best.
Harvard University Admissions Committee believes that teachers who have taught applicants, especially those who have taught in the past two years, will provide the most valuable recommendations.
In America, letters of recommendation are generally not met. For the United States, the importance of recommendation letters is very high. Hui Dejun once learned a recommendation letter from an American native Chinese Harvard undergraduate. The applicant's father put it this way: letters of recommendation from high school history teachers and chemistry teachers. Hastings is a famous history teacher. In 2003, she was elected as one of the two best teachers in American social studies. She has taught my daughter for a year, and her evaluation is: "All A's are not enough to show her talent. She is a very talented student, a profound thinker, with real wisdom, excellent analytical and writing skills, and strong debating eloquence ... "The final conclusion is:" I have been teaching for more than 30 years, and if I want to rank, she is one of the top 5 students I have taught. " My daughter ranked fifth in grade average in high school, but she was the only one who was admitted to Harvard University that year. I think the history teacher's evaluation has contributed a lot. Another chemistry teacher's recommendation letter, although well written, seems a little pale and weak.
In the United States, schools value the credibility of letters of recommendation most, followed by the identity of referees. Another example is that a Harvard student wants to pursue further studies after graduating from college. A laboratory director at Harvard University wrote her a letter of recommendation, but it was rejected by the school. The reason given by the other party is, "When he wrote the recommendation letter, you only worked in the laboratory for less than two months. His understanding of you is limited, and even the best writing is usually not good."
Speaking of letters of recommendation, Hui Dejun also stressed that when you are going to apply for an American undergraduate course, you must carefully prepare the application materials in the early stage and pay attention to the quality of the documents and materials. High-quality documents and materials will add a lot of points to your application and improve your chances of being admitted to a famous American school.
4. Be able to adapt to university pressure
For each student's application materials, Harvard University will have at least two teachers of the Admissions Committee to read them carefully, and then discuss whether to accept them at the admissions meeting. Admission will take several months.
A teacher of Harvard University who participated in the enrollment explained the role of each part of the enrollment materials as follows: through unified examination results, including the results of elective college preparatory courses, high school results and college entrance examination results, students' academic achievements can be understood; Evaluate students' academic potential, teamwork ability, leadership ability, etc. Through their resumes, school reviews, teachers' letters of recommendation and performance of off-campus activities; Through students' autobiographies and compositions, we can understand students' interests and ideals, as well as their world outlook, outlook on life and values. Then the interview will examine and confirm the comprehensive quality of students' thinking and expression.
Harvard admissions staff said that they would evaluate every student who applied to Harvard University very carefully in order to select the most suitable student. Harvard University wants to admit students who have the potential not to be eliminated. Because the study life of famous American schools is much more tense than that of high schools, if they can't adapt to the pace of universities or fail in exams, the schools will advise them to take a year off or even drop out of school.
In fact, it is not only Harvard University, but also for every student who wants to study abroad, no matter which institution he applies for, his ability to adapt to the environment is very important. The new environment, new learning system, new courses and new teaching methods all need to be well adapted. Moreover, you should know that the students you apply for can come from different countries and are equally excellent. This is a great challenge to your study and life. In the face of these pressures, you need to learn to release while adapting. I hope everyone can adapt well in the new environment, actively integrate, open their hearts and accept with heart!
5. Harvard University values SAT scores.
"SAT" is a stepping stone for American high school students to enter universities. Although Harvard University now emphasizes that enrollment does not value college entrance examination scores, its origin with Harvard University is little known.
1948, the Education Examination Service Company (ETS) with Conant as the first chairman was established, and Harvard University, as a partner of the university board, provided college entrance examination services for it. Since then, the "Academic Proficiency Assessment Examination" has become an important reference for the American "College Entrance Examination" and international students applying for prestigious American universities.
SAT is very important for students who want to study in the United States. The entrance examination for American universities is a stepping stone to enter universities, so what everyone needs to do is to take it seriously and treat it with heart.