<p>I always thought Harvard required 3 subject tests, but now, on the Harvard undergraduate admissions page, I see only 2 scores are required (Harvard</a> College Admissions § Applying: Frequently Asked Questions). Has Harvard's policy recently been changed?</p>
<p>Looks like they changed it.</p>
<p>Princeton did too.</p>
<p>i seriously thought it was 3… hmmmmm…</p>
<p>^ It WAS three for this year. I’m 100% positive because I double checked and triple checked the website when I was submitting stuff. But I guess they changed it… you lucky ducks!</p>
<p>i guess it makes sense. prior to 2005, SAT 1 was only composed of CR and M… writing was one of the subject tests required. thats why at the time, three subject tests overall were required… and 5 years later, they finally realized that they only really need two now</p>
<p>@ Handala: CONGRATS on your Stanford acceptance!! Major respect 
Do you think you’re definitely going to go there, regardless of your acceptances at other schools? (Like Harvard… :P)</p>
<p>Yeah, but I’m sure a whole bunch of people will just take Math I and II, so it won’t really be two. Three makes you work for it.</p>
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<p>Only if they’re idiots, because Harvard explicitly recommends against that.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting this. I am still probably going to take more tests because it can’t hurt, though. </p>
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<p>Yes, the acceptance rate will probably drop even further. I expect, however, that the quality of the “additional” applicants will be somewhat lower.</p>
<p>Because this thread’s title does not explicitly state the change, I will create a new thread.</p>
<p>Um, it’s not necessary that someone has to be an “idiot” to take Maths I and Maths II. I’m an international student, and my curriculum is designed in such a way that I’ve studied no other subject they offer in the SAT IIs at such a level that I can do well in those exams. Considering the heavy courseload I already have with my schoolwork, I can’t do two years work on a new subject in a few months for just one school. And it’s not necessarily a death sentence either, even if Harvard “recommends against” it. My cousin gave M1 and M2 when P’ton still required 3 tests, and he got in.</p>
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<p>Perhaps Princeton did not explicitly say that applicants “should not” use two math tests to fulfill the requirement as Harvard does (and has for a while I believe). It would be unwise to not follow the requests of the institution that will be evaluating applications. </p>
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<p>Generally, the Subject Tests do not assess as deeply as do the AP tests, so it is difficult to believe that your curriculum has not incorporated any of these subjects to a pre-AP level:</p>
<p>[ul][<em>]U.S. History
[</em>]World History
[<em>]Chemistry
[</em>]Biology - Ecological
[<em>]Biology - Molecular
[</em>]Physics
[<em>]Foreign Language[list]
[li]Spanish[/li][</em>]French
[<em>]German
[</em>]Chinese
[<em>]Hebrew
[</em>]Italian
[<em>]Japanese
[</em>]Korean
[li]Latin[/li][/ul][*]Literature (which is primarily an aptitude test and does not necessarily correlate to a class)[/list]</p>
<p>To clarify, I’m an Indian who’s in the “Commerce” stream for the past 2 years of my highschool education. After the tenth grade, based on your future career choice, you’re required to take either the sciences, the arts, or commerce, and you can’t mix and match subjects. My subjects include accountancy, economics, business studies, maths, and english. So my science and history haven’t gone far beyond 10th grade level (and history primarily focussed on Indian history over world/american history) and considering I haven’t touched french in over two years, I’m very rusty at it.</p>
<p>Also, I did look through Harvard’s website, and I did not find anything explicitly condemning sending M1 and M2 as two subject tests. Where exactly did it say so?</p>
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<p>It is the second sentence of the passage linked to by the OP. </p>
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<p>Ah, but that is for the new policy. I would agree that for 2 subject tests alone, M1 and M2 is probably not a good idea. But as far as I remember (and I did scan Harvard’s FAQs before I applied quite extensively), they did not explicitly warn against taking both the subject tests in mathematics when the requirement was still 3 tests.</p>
<p>Ah well. They never did contact me and ask me to take another test to replace the Maths I, so either I’m safe, or completely out of the running, haha. Not really expecting admission, anyway, so I guess it’s okay.</p>
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<p>Although I cannot cite it now, I do recall having read something along these lines even before the shift. It is moot now, though. </p>
<p>(I believe that it said that sending both math tests was acceptable, but that only one would count toward the three-test requirement. However, I may be mistaken.)</p>
<p>I remember having read that submitting two Math subject tests to meet the testing requirements was not advisable.</p>
<p>Hm, I wonder if Harvard would have contacted me if the subject test requirement didn’t meet up to the criteria (it’s technically a “missing document”, no?). But ah, screw it, I had a snowball’s chance in hell, anyway.</p>
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<p>Perhaps they were treating it as a recommendation more than a requirement and, thus, did not need to contact you. They recommend, for example, that AP scores be sent; but if a student does not send the scores that correspond to his or her classes, he or she will not be contacted.</p>
<p>Moreover, exceptions to these rules are made under circumstances in which students are not prepared to take the exams. Harvard tries to accommodate varying backgrounds.</p>