Overseas applicants

1. We offer a high quality academic education leading to entry to the best universities in the UK and USA.

2. We are one of the only boarding schools in the UK where all the pupils are full boarders and we do not have a mass exodus at the weekend. At the weekend all of our pupils are at the School and are engaged in a wide range of worthwhile activities. In too many UK boarding schools the overseas pupils are "left behind" at the weekends.

3. We offer the highest quality boarding education - strong academic teaching allied with a rich menu of activities available outside the classroom.

These notes are relevant to you if the child's first language is NOT English or he is at a school which does NOT operate under the UK education system.

We are unable to accept any further applications for places for entry in 2008.

General advice for overseas applicants

• Although it is best to apply before your son is 11, some applicants who apply later than this are successful.

• We cannot accept pupils whose English is not good enough.

• If you are in the UK and would like to visit Harrow, we will do our best to arrange a tour and to meet you.

• About half of our overseas pupils went to a UK prep school before coming to Harrow, most between the ages of 11 and 13. This gave them three advantages: their English was good, they had studied the right curriculum, and the prep school was able to help to find them a place at Harrow.

• You do not need to study subjects such as French, Latin or History in order to obtain a place at Harrow. Our main concerns for admission are Mathematics and English.

• We are keen to take boys who play a musical instrument such as cello or violin very well.

• All pupils for whom English is an additional language are assessed without charge to determine the level of assistance they need. The teacher in charge of Extra English determines how many extra lessons each boy needs per week and makes a recommendation to the parents and House Master. Extra English lessons are charged to parents. The teacher in charge arranges timings of lessons - these do not clash with other lessons as they are held outside the academic timetable or in the boy's free periods.

Applications from Hong Kong

We take an average of five boys a year from Hong Kong at age 13 and an additional five at age 16. Out of 800 boys currently at Harrow, 35 live in Hong Kong; ten of these are English and 25 are Chinese. Half of the Hong Kong entry came to us from our agent, Academic Asia, whom we use less for recruitment than the preliminary assessment of applicants. In recent years half of our Sixth Form entry from Hong Kong have been awarded Music Scholarships to Harrow and several of the others have been awarded Academic Scholarships.

20% of our Hong Kong pupils come to Harrow from UK prep schools, 80% direct to us from Hong Kong schools.

We receive about 80 applicants a year from Hong Kong. The successful applicants are usually academically strong and are either good at music or have an interest in sport.

Click on the links in the left hand menu for more information about applying to Harrow from overseas either at age 13 or for the Sixth Form at age 16.

If after reading this page you still have questions about Harrow or Admissions, go to the Frequently Asked Questions page (FAQ) to see if the information you need is there. Alternatively, you can email webadmissions@harrowschool.org.uk