Undergraduate Admissions Council

At its core, the Undergraduate Admissions Council (UAC) is a hospitality corps of enthusiastic Harvard College students who, through conversation and other communications, wish to offer a tangible example of life on campus for prospective students and their parents. Many were inspired by their own experiences with Harvard a year or two ago. They remember how their personal interactions with undergraduates softened the image of this centuries-old institution and made it attractive; indeed, fascinating. Almost every one of them spoke with a Harvard student and many visited campus before deciding to enroll. They recall how the testimony of those students, only a year or two older than they were, highlighted the day-to-day, manageable, and enjoyable Harvard Experience and separated it from the intense and often intimidating experience of myth.

UAC members host visiting students in their dormitory rooms, return to their high schools to relate their experiences at the College to others, and call, congratulate and serve as mentors for admitted students a few days after they receive the good news from Harvard. They also play a major role in greeting, hosting, and entertaining more than a thousand admitted students who are invited to campus for three days for the April Visiting Program. Through opportunities like this, admitted students can begin to build their personal Harvard "community" long before they set foot in a classroom. The Visiting Program, for many current undergraduates, marked their "aha" moment of decision making; those three days were what made Harvard real, inviting, and most importantly, a place that could become a future home.

The UAC also monitor the Admissions Message Boards. These students are available to answer your questions and help you learn more about the Harvard community.