<p>Congratulations guys! It must be so exciting to be accepted into Harvard! I'm applying regular decision and I'm feeling insecure about my applications...mainly because my SAT scores aren't that great. I was wondering if you guys think sending in a supplemental essay would help. I'm also sending in an extra letter of recommendation. I know that some schools discourage sending extra material but isn't Harvard generous with this? I heard they allow students to send in extra resumes. Is this true? Any other advice that would be helpful is welcomed too!</p>
<p>Definitely do the supplemental essay...there's really no reason not to...just make sure it says something extra about yourself that isn't obvious from the rest of your application and make it interesitng.</p>
<p>An extra letter (and a resume) is fine, but when you say supplemental essay, anything beyond the Common App supplement (optional second essay) is NOT A GOOD IDEA. Unless you were an EA deferree, a third essay isn't recommended unless it's absolutely essential. Many got in with just one essay.</p>
<p>do the common app essay and the additional essay on the Harvard supplemental form. Resumes are good too, along with artwork or music.</p>
<p>I had 2 teacher recs, a counselor rec, a work rec (my boss), I sent in my resume, and I didn't do the optional essay, but like all4thesport said, there's no reason not to write one.</p>
<p>why did you guys send in resumes when you can just put resume stuff down on the online common app?</p>
<p>Not enough space.</p>
<p>A separate CV is a much more flexible medium. One can expound upon any of one's activities in as much detail as one desires.</p>
<p>Exactly; not enough space for all the activities. To answer the original question, if you feel you have something meaningful to say and you can say it well, then definitely do it. The thought exercise I went through during the process, however, was this; as much power as words can have, there is just as much power in silence. If your second essay doesn't match the caliber of the first, it might just detract from your application and bore the adcoms to tears/cause them to collapse from the stress of 20k+ students all thinking the same thing and deciding to send mediocre second essays (though I'm not saying yours would at all be mediocre!). Hope this helps!</p>
<p>If I could do it all over again, I would do the supplemental essay. The extra essay allows you to give the admissions committee a better picture of who you are. I, for one, would rather be rejected as a person rather than for my scores, etc...that sounds really weird, but think about it and you might understand where I'm coming from...:)</p>
<p>In my supplemental essay I kind of want to take an essay I'm writing for another college which explains what I want to do at the school and what my goals are. If I changed it around to adapt to Harvard would this be a good idea? Because I basically won't change my goals for whichever college I get into and this will give me an opportunity to foucus on fewer essays than try to crank out another essay.</p>