Admission
Given that 35 is the average age of our students, SAT scores and high school grades are not relevant indicators of success. Therefore, the most important predictor is your ability to do honors-level work at Harvard. While the admission requirements are less restrictive than a traditional Ivy League program, the coursework at Harvard Extension School is intellectually rigorous. As one student wrote in her application, “The course was challenging, so I asked the instructor if I belonged. He said, ‘If you can do the work, you belong.’ He made me realize that here I would be accepted by who I am now.”
Note: The undergraduate program is not open to students who already have bachelor’s degrees or who are already enrolled at another institution. The AA degree is not available to students with more than 16 credits of transferable courses completed at other schools. The undergraduate program does not provide I-20s for student visas, but international students interested in the program should review Undergraduate Distance Education.
Admission Criteria
To be accepted into the program, you must meet the following criteria:
Complete three 4-credit liberal arts courses with at least a B− grade.
Courses must be taken at the Extension School or Harvard Summer School. Upon admission, the 12 credits count toward the degrees.Meet the expository writing prerequisite:
Have a 2.5 cumulative grade point average and a 2.5 GPA during the previous term at Harvard.
English Proficiency
If your native language is not English and you did not attend a high school for four years with English-language instruction (see below), you must take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and earn at least one of the following scores:- 250 on the computer-based test and 5 on the essay
- 600 on the paper-based test and 5 on the Test of Written English
- 100 on the Internet-based test.
Your official score reports should be sent from the Educational Testing Service (ETS) to the program office. The Harvard Extension School TOEFL institution code is 3458 and the department code is 00.
If you have a four-year high school diploma from a school with English-language instruction, you must submit a transcript that can document this information with your admission application.
The TOEFL requirement for admission to programs is different from the proficiency requirement for registration in Extension School or Summer School courses. If you meet the requirement for courses, you must still meet this requirement for admission to a program.
Financial Aid
The Harvard Extension School welcomes financial aid applications from candidates who would not meet their study expenses without financial assistance. Before you are admitted to the program, you can work with Student Financial Services to secure private sources of funding to cover the cost of the first three courses required for admission. A limited number of Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) Scholarships are awarded to eligible community college graduates who have earned an associate degree and who wish to join the ALB program. Once admitted, you will be eligible for a number of loan and grant programs, including Harvard Extension School Scholarships.
