DivEx Program Admissions FAQ

DivEx is intended to provide participants with exposure to graduate-level education. As a result, if you are currently pursuing, or have already obtained a graduate-level degree, you would be ineligible for this program. 

HDS welcomes any candidates who are in college or recently graduated with a bachelor's degree. Provided you obtained your undergraduate degree within the past year, you would be eligible for DivEx and we encourage you to apply! There is no maximum age limit to apply and participate in DivEx. Preference is given to seniors and students one year after graduation regardless of age.

International students who will be traveling within the contiguous United States are eligible to apply.

Preference is given to seniors in college or those who are within one year of graduation.

Applicants will be asked to provide:

• Completed DivEx online application form
• Personal statement describing your interest in the program 
• Résumé 
• Letter of recommendation from a professor, career mentor, or faith-based leader
• Academic transcripts

No. Please double-check all documents you include with your application before submitting it. Once an application is submitted, no further changes can be made. Additionally, we cannot return submitted documents for re-use in a future application or for personal review.

You’ll need to provide HDS with unofficial transcripts for all post-secondary institutions where you have completed, or are currently pursuing a degree, unless the courses and grades from a previous institution are listed on your current, degree-bearing institution’s transcript. You don’t need to submit a separate transcript if they were courses completed at the college level while you were in high school, although you are welcome to submit those if you would like to. If you have any questions about your transcript(s), please contact our office at admissions@hds.harvard.edu.    Transcripts must be legible and should include: 

• Course names 
• Dates of attendance 
• Grades, course credits, GPA (if applicable) 
• Transcript legend/key (often found on the back page of the transcript or on the Registrar's website)

 

All recommendation letters must be submitted electronically through the online application system. We will not be able to accept any hard copy materials.  

If you have any questions about this process after reading the application instructions, please reach out to admissions@hds.harvard.edu for more guidance.   

No. Your recommender will still be able to submit their letter once you have submitted your application up until the application deadline.

Our application processing system can take a short while to refresh after an application has been submitted. We recommend you check back in 30 to 60 minutes from the time of submission, which should allow the system to properly refresh. If documents are still shown as missing at that time, please email us at admissions@hds.harvard.edu so we can look into the issue. 

While going slightly over the limit by a few words is acceptable, we do ask that you adhere as closely as possible to the 500-750 word limit for your Personal Statement.