<p>As long as this thread hasn’t died, I may as well point out for the benefit of other potential transfer students that the Harvard policy as represented by the OP is contradicted by the sensible policy on Harvard’s website (which says they will evaluate a student’s need to take Expos after he is admitted) and the experience of actual transfer students (who are regularly excused from taking Expos if they have a portfolio of the sort you would accumulate in a freshman writing course at any similar institution and it looks like they have learned what they need to know).</p>