HELLO READERS ….. Today I have come with a different article from my previous ones altogether.
Today’s article is about some Scholarship related facts regarding the university, none other then, The Harvard University.
Harvard University happens to be one of the top and most promising universities in the world, belonging to an elite group of universities called the Ivy League. I mean, everyone knows what Harvard University really is. A graduate from Harvard means someone with a top-class intellectual ability along with a sure-fire aptitude of success in his short or long lived life. And there is a reason behind that. This university was established way before any of us would remember, or our fore-fathers and their fore-father’s fore-father would; 1636 (year when Harvard was established) happens to be eons ago for us. Since then this university happen to pass out graduates like Mark Zuckerberg (though he was a drop-out), Conan O’Brian and many more, not to mention US presidents like Barak Obama, Franklin Roosevelt and J. F. Kennedy.
Though university educations, specially for a top-ranked university such as Harvard happens to be a business called “education business”, Harvard University happens to be one of those universities where both merit based and need based scholarships available. This is a known fact that many students go to Harvard without a penny, and gets out by being made of money, pun intended.
So without farther ado, let’s get into it.
WHAT MAKES ME QUALIFIED TO WRITE ABOUT IT
Guyz, I am not a Harvard graduate. Though I have every intention to be one and the process is already on its way (a boy could always dream, right). However, I happen to be a person who is resourceful as well as a great researcher, and now-a-days, my real research topic happens to be “Scholarship at Top Universities”. The article that I am writing as of this moment happens to be full of authentic information extracted from the real source (the university website itself or known from personal email, phone as well as education fair conversations with the representatives of the University itself). So, the thing is, the research that you would have done to learn about these top universities and scholarships, a part of that research is being done here by me. Which means, reading this article is going to make you a little bit advanced than before regarding this scholarship topic (hopefully) and even if you are going to do some farther researches yourself, it will definitely facilitate, in the near future, to show you the way and give you some directions about “how to proceed with the scholarships”.
SOME FACTS REGARDING FINANCING HARVARD EDUCATION
Harvard is a top-notch university in the world. This institution happens to be one of those universities from where, after students get their degrees, they earn six-figure executive level salary from the start of their career. Those who know about Harvard, know that this university has absolutely no alternative in comparison to any other. So, the question emerges that, if that is really the case, if you are really going to earn the chunk load of dough right after you graduate from here, then how come you won’t pay the premium fee for the premium education?
That being said, every undergraduate student faces a fee of above sixty thousand USD per year, where living and others are excluded. And for Masters or Post-graduate degree, some courses (for instance MBA) takes as high as Ninety Thousand bucks. So the question is how do the students afford these payments, specially the ones I say who are not from the royal families or was not born with a silver spoon in their mouth; because trust me when I say that there are people that I know of, who could NEVER afford these kinds of payment, yet they are Harvard graduates.
The reason being, ample amount of scholarships at Harvard. USA is known best for being the “land of scholarships”. Universities like Harvard has a big amount of contribution to give this land a name as such. There are some facts regarding Harvard that we all should learn such as:
- This is one of very few universities in USA that offers both merit and need based scholarships.
- Almost all students, more than 60% of them receive some form of scholarship at Harvard, if he/she gets selected.
- Among the 60% – of scholarship receiving parties, 20% have full-ride scholarships, which means they don’t have to pay a single dime to complete their study.
- Many of them even receive accommodation and other allowances as a form of stipend or scholarship.
- Those who have a family income of less than that of 65K a year, happens to be eligible for a need-based scholarship. However, don’t get excited yet. Being eligible does not ensure you’re the scholarship. There is an amount or a certain number of students who receive this scholarship, which is selected based on many other factors apart from yearly income of the students.
- There are a lot of myths that flows around regarding Harvard that without a strong family connection, no one gets to be here, or without a huge amount of influence scholarship is impossible. There are not simply true. All you need is to prove that you are worthy by someway or anyway, and you will not only get into Harvard, but also get financial aid in many forms.
- Harvard, just like any other top ranked universities in USA, ensures that the students who gets selected here gets to afford their education. That’s why this institute arranges various campus jobs as well as other financial activities for the students (within the legal ranges off-course) so that they can afford the education.
- There are three funding cycles each of the academic year.
- There will be a stipend and/or research support during the completion year of Harvard studies for any student.
- Every academic faculty would be eligible to receive the research grants or stipend.
Dear readers, please don’t get me wrong, I am not in any way possible trying to give you the expression that getting a scholarship into Harvard is so easy. Trust me when I say it is not. The rate of getting selected at Harvard happens to be 5.4% (according to Google) which is very very tough. However, in my opinion, I think Google is being somewhat modest about the statistics, not that I am complaining or claiming in any way that Google has it wrong. But a statistics in the screen of google never expresses the full scenario of what is really going on or how difficult something truly is. For those who are highly qualified, it is easier to be qualified anywhere in the world. However, those who are not qualified in some way or even in a single way, the chances for getting him into Harvard gets very very low. Keeping that in mind, only those who are confident enough that he should be selected or his profile is that rich in every contest, should apply for Harvard. Otherwise the application money will go to waste.
APPLICATION CRITERIA FOR SCHOLARSHIP
- For Undergraduates, application deadline for summer session for early action is on 1st of November (notification by mid-December) and regular decision is on 1st of January (notification by late-March). [fas.harvard.edu/pages/academic-divisions]
- Please know that every students who are applied here are considered for an option of Financial Aid, right after they submit a Financial Aid Application, in the form provided in the portal. The Financial Aid decision is not informed up until 1st of May.
- For undergraduate application, there are different sets of applications for Freshmen, Transfer or Visiting students. Different sets of applications are required for different sets of applicants, which are available at the website.
- For graduate scholarship information, please visit this link: https://rcc.harvard.edu/rcc-graduate-scholarships
- There are some university based apps such as We Make Scholars (https://www.wemakescholars.com/university/harvard-university/scholarships) or Common App (https://www.commonapp.org) – where more thorough information can be obtained regarding the scholarship criteria of Harvard University.
WHAT DO HARVARD LOOK FOR IN ANY CANDIDATE
Harvard, unlike many universities who only focus on CGPA or GRE/GMAT scores, focuses on the over-all aspect of a candidate’s profile. This university has a way of finding scholars out of a bad CGPA just like finding a leader from reading just as essay. There are several traits that a Harvard admission councilor may look at a student such as:
- CGPA (this parameter actually expresses that how focused an individual candidate truly is in his work)
- SAT/GRE/GMAT (this expresses the reasoning aptitude of any student)
- Leadership skill (common thing that all top universities in USA wants to know about of a candidate)
- Admission Essay (this is a great way to judge a person’s psychology)
- Other achievements (this is the place where a person can show his/her creativity; the more the merrier)
There are a number of extension colleges” under the administration of Harvard (such as Harvard-Kennedy School, based on Harvard-Kennedy Research Center), some of them even have online programs. A candidate should also check these whether they fit the bill or not.
Please know that there is no magic bullet to get into Harvard with a scholarship. However, if you have enough leadership skills and you have evidences to prove it, in that case you may have a chance to get into here. However, if you want to “fake it till you make it”, just remember, the admission council have seen it all, and you won’t be able to go too far this way. Therefore, don’t even think about it.
LAST BUT NOT THE LEAST
Harvard graduates in most of the times are either entrepreneurs or some-what of a big shot in corporate world. That is why “leadership skills” are very much important for a Harvard graduate or a selected candidate. The most influential majors back in Harvard happens to be Law, Business, Medicine and International Policy/Administration. These are the majors which highlighted Harvard so much that now all the subjects in this institution has become a gold-mine. Money or salary is sometimes not a big fact, however, the respect and honor that a Harvard degree brings is immeasurable. Now imagine that respect and honor with a fully-funded scholarship. Even though it is not easy, it is at least worth trying. Be yourself and just go for it. You never know what future beholds, may be Harvard, but who knows!!!
That’s it for today. This article has already crossed 1600 words. Any longer and readers will start fainting (but those who did not faint and could read so far, are the Harvard material after-all, pun intended !!). In my next article, I am going to discuss another Ivy League university and their scholarship criteria. Which university, that will also be revealed in my next week’s article.
For more information requirement, please contact me in this email ID (renewable.and.green@gmail.com) and I will reply at my earliest convenience.
Till then, happy reading and scholarship hunting!!!
