Will I be at disadvantage if I reapply to Harvard a year after I graduated from high school?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

I’m an international student from Syria, I’m 19 years old and I’ve applied to Harvard class of 2022 and got rejected.
I think I can improve my application by doing TOEFL, doing a lot of online courses and sending an impressive research portfolio.
I’ve graduated from high school among the top 1% of students in my country and I’ve scored 1420 on the SAT and 780 on the SAT subject math2 and 790 on the SAT subject physics. So, is it worth it to reapply? and will I be at disadvantage because of my age or because I’ve previously applied?

2

Unless you have some tremendous accomplishment in your gap year it is unlikely that Harvard (or any school) that rejected you one year would accept you the next year. Harvard accepted under 5% of applicants this year and is a reach for any unhooked applicant.

3

Are you currently IN Syria or are you in the US… ?
Did you ONLY apply to Harvard?
Are you in a us high school?

4

I’ll save you some time - these will not improve your application.

@happy1 is correct with one clarification; while the overall acceptance rate is 5%, the international acceptance rate is probably closer to 2-3%. Many talented applicants get rejected from Harvard (and its peers) every year. Accept it and move on to Plan B.

No, but the application would need to be substantially stronger to get a different result.

5

@MYOS1634 Yes ,I’m currently in Syria and I’ve applied to 3 colleges in the us but all of them are very competitive.

6

@skieurope How can I make my application substantially stronger ?

7

You probably can’t make yourself substantially better. Leadership, service, and community impact accomplishments are things that build upon themselves over the high school years. You start with smaller roles and projects in the early years and build to something more complex and substantial with time and experience. Trying to cram that into a few months before applications are due again would be very hard.

If you really want to go to school in the United States you should focus on schools with higher acceptance rates.

8

I agree, you should change your application list and focus more on less competitive schools as well as colleges in your home country.