Haverford is a small liberal arts college in Pennsylvania with a culture other small schools only aspire to. Students are curious, growth-minded, and collaborative, and the student body passionately protects the Haverford Honor Code, an evolving, student-led series of policies that prioritize trust and freedom. A whopping 75% of classes at Haverford have fewer than 20 students, and the most popular majors are Political Science, Chemistry, and Neuroscience. In this way, Haverford defies many people’s expectations of small liberal arts schools. Yes, the English department is exceptional, but much more is happening on campus than debating philosophy. The acceptance rate is about 15.5%.
That number, 15.5%, comes with a big, bold asterisk after it, though. The overall acceptance rate is an average of the EDI, EDII, and RD acceptance rates. The combined Early Decision acceptance rate published in the most recent Common Data Set (2025-2026) was just under 33%. This suggests that the Regular Decision acceptance rate is less than 5% to reach the 15.5% average. So, if you want to go to Haverford you really need to consider applying ED. It also makes Haverford a reach for many students who may mistakenly slot it in as a strong fit, and then apply Regular Decision.
If you are looking for a super well-respected school where your SAT or ACT scores don’t matter, Haverford may be a good option. They have formalized their test-optional policy, and about 50% of recently accepted students did not submit scores. However, remember than many of those accepted students likely applied Early Decision. For students applying RD, strong scores help you stand out against a stacked roster of candidates.
So, yes, you need top grades and strong scores help, but there is one thing Haverford is dead set on seeing in your application regardless of your GPA or prospective major: writing chops. Haverford doesn’t joke around about the written word, and getting in requires acing the supplements.
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Intro specifics of the supplement
Lonnnggg intro, but read it. What you really need to know, though, is…
Haverford’s supplement is severely top heavy. They have a reason for that, though. They want you to succeed at writing the supplement, and they don’t want to force you to dig around their website to find the tidbits that are critical to a strong supplement. Instead, they put them right at the top.
You should read the full intro and not just jump down to the questions, but to help you out we have distilled it down to the two most important points:
Asking for help is okay, but they want to hear your voice.
This underlines for us that there isn’t a perfect answer they are looking for. The ideal answer is a deeply individual thing, and so your response may look nothing like that of another strong applicant — and yet you both get in. Do not shape your response around what anyone on social media, in your class, or a sibling says worked for them. It needs to be yours to work for you.
The Honor Code is very important.
If you know one thing about the Haverford undergraduate experience, it should be the Honor Code. You should know more than one thing about Haverford — you should know a lot, especially if you are applying Early Decision I or II — but the Honor Code is paramount. Haverford has a lot of their identity as a small liberal arts college tied up in the Honor Code, which is not like most colleges.
The Honor Code at Haverford is entrusted with and upheld by the student body, so Haverford assesses every application through more than simply an academic-fit lens. They need to know that they can trust you to be part of the community which is continually upholding the values of the college. This includes entrusting you with responsibilities, like self-scheduled exams.
With the importance of your voice and the importance of the Honor Code in mind, let’s get into the two questions in the Haverford supplement.
Tell us about a topic or issue that sparks your curiosity and gets you intellectually excited. How do you hope to engage with this topic or issue at Haverford? (Please limit your response to 150-200 words.)
This first question is pure supplement gold, especially when applying to a school like Haverford which is so invested in your individual intellectual journey. They want to feel your enthusiasm for the subject you hope to pursue in college and to be able to envision how this will play out for you at Haverford.
But what if you aren’t sure what you want to study? Many students are attracted to Haverford because of the opportunity to explore and discover during their undergraduate experience, but emphasizing that uncertainty doesn’t strengthen your application. For the purpose of crafting an application that leads to an acceptance, you need to pick a potential prospective major, list it on your application, and focus this supplement on something related to that prospective area of study.
Once you have your topic, you need to zoom in further. Let’s say you are curious about psychology. You don’t want to write this supplement about the entire field of psychology. Instead, focus on a particular theory, study, or concept within psychology that you are curious about, and then write a supplement that makes the reader as excited about the subject as you are.
Remember, too, that 200 words is short. But that isn’t an excuse to skip telling a story. Each supplement for Haverford must illustrate how strong you are of a fit for Haverford in content, but also in form. That means being thoughtful, narrative-forward, and using storytelling tools like imagery and dialog.
We have highlighted for you some of the values that shape the Haverford community. What are some of the values you seek in your next community? How do Haverford’s values, as demonstrated through our Honor Code, resonate with you?
As you think about how to answer this question, you might draw from how you have been influenced by other communities you have been a part of, experiences you may have had within your communities, or opportunities you have had to shape or even change your communities. (Please limit your response to 150-200 words.)
This is a big prompt for such a short response. Again, you have up to 200 words, which is enough to tell a story but more of a bite than a mouthful. The way to make this satisfying for the reader, though, is to use sophisticated structure and storytelling. Yes, that means that you can’t pack as many points in, but making the largest number of points is much less valuable than saying less to say more. By that, we mean that picking one or two values to focus on will be far more impactful than packing 200 words full of what, to the reader, amounts to dry bullet points.
But enough on what not to do. Now, let’s focus on what to do!
You need to pick one or two values from the honor code, such as trust, integrity, or communication, to highlight through a story from your life that highlights how you have already been living out these values in the community (or communities) you are already part of and that are most meaningful to you. The way that you write this will show how you do more than just talk about the values you are highlighting. You live them.
The most important thing for this supplement is to communicate honestly, not performatively. If you write in a way that isn’t true to yourself or your experiences, they will be able to tell. Haverford wants students who are authentically themselves, so show them exactly that.
A strong Haverford supplement requires impressive storytelling, a clear sense of purpose, and knowledge of what make the school unique. If this feels daunting, get in touch. We have a proven track record of acing the Haverford application.
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