On the transfer application, it asks me how I’ve learnt about Harvard and list them in order of influence.
But if you’ve learnt about Harvard through an alumni or harvard student contact, it asks you to name the alumni if possible.
Does anyone know why they ask me to name alumni? I’m assuming it’s just to keep track of how people are hearing about Harvard. But I’m slightly confused why they want names.
It shouldn’t affect my application in anyway if I do name a Harvard Student Contact, right?
It’s a question used to help evaluate their marketing. It’s not a trick question, nor is there a right or wrong answer.
@skieurope ok.
Can I ask though what they do with the names for marketing purposes?
Do they give the person named some kind of reward for telling someone about Harvard? Lol.
My guess is that is helps understand the impact of alumni groups by region. But there is no toaster awarded to the alum with the most mentions. 
I usually don’t do this, but please watch the spelling in your app. It’s learned, not learnt.
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/usage/learnt-vs-learned
I’m British lol.
These are alternative forms of the past tense and past participle of the verb learn. Both are acceptable, but learned is often used in both British English and American English, while learnt is much more common in British English than in American English.
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https://www.grammarly.com/blog/learned-learnt/
Learnt and learned are both used as the past participle and past tense of the verb to learn. Learned is the generally accepted spelling in the United States and Canada, while the rest of the English-speaking world seems to prefer learnt.
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@skieurope Ok. Good. I’m glad it’s not important lol.
I’m going to put a Harvard Student Contact down because that’s how I learned about Harvard but I don’t know the Harvard Student Contact well. Don’t want them to ask him about me lol so it’s a relief that it’s just for marketing purposes.
Although, if he did get a toaster, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.
I believe we’ve had this discussion already in the “whilst” vs. “while” conversation.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21872427#Comment_21872427
Not all of us learned English in America, and although it is the nation with the most English-speakers, the US does not set the standard on spelling rules, which every admissions officer will (or at least should) know. “Learnt” is a perfectly acceptable synonym for “having acquired knowledge.”
Understood! I knew about whilst, but not learnt. I will exit the conversation whilst you discuss what you learnt. 
lordrohan, are you telling us you had never heard of Harvard until this acquaintance, whom you barely know, told you about it? I would think you could answer the question differently anyway
Gasps.
I don’t like what you’re insinuating … I’d never heard of Harvard before this contact, you know? As someone who’s obsessed about the college admissions process, Harvard was totally just unknown to me…
I wasn’t insinuating anything. Sorry if my post was misunderstood. Harvard is so well known throughout the world that I was saying you could make it simple and avoid the whole issue of the contact. But if you had never heard of it, that’s different.
@lordrohan731 So, um, how did you first hear about Harvard? Not that I really care that much, but the question seems to be hanging in the air. I think I’ve known about Harvard for as long as I’ve known about colleges. The only schools I knew of outside of the US as a child were Cambridge and Oxford.
@damon30 @compmom Apologies if it wasn’t clear. I was joking. I mean your insinuation was pretty much right lol. I mean everyone’s heard of Harvard.
I wouldn’t have applied though if it wasn’t for him.
Here’s my take on the situation: Looking through your post history you’ve posted the following
In the process of asking all these questions, you’ve been given advice by Harvard students, Harvard parents, and one poster who works in the admissions office at one of the ivies – and you’ve disregarded much of the advice. IMHO, you have absolutely no idea what Harvard is looking for from a transfer student – and you’ve demonstrated all of that from the questions and comments you’ve posted.
Here’s the question you need to answer for yourself (and please don’t try to respond here): What can Harvard offer you that you are not getting from your current university and can be found ONLY at Harvard (not at Stanford or any other university)? Transfer students who can successfully answer that question will be put at the top of the Harvard Admissions transfer acceptance list.
Right, and your OP question is well-taken. Maybe it’s something that they only ask foreign transfer applicants for marketing purposes, as skieurope said above. Still, I think Harvard asking that is odd considering that they are so well-known.
^^ I don’t think it’s an odd question at all. What Harvard really wants to know from it’s transfer applicants is what Yale succinctly says on their website: https://admissions.yale.edu/transfer-details
In other words: “Put up or shut up.” And IMHO, the OP has not done that from any of his posts.