Rapton

Hello, I have a question. I was initially denied admission this past year into graduate school. I was however accepted into Harvards graduate school for one year as a special student. During this time I am allowed to take course work in the area in which I applied (Organismic and Evolutionary Biology). My intention is during this time period to take graduate courses as if I had entered the first year of graduate school in order to strengthen my application. I graduated with a 3.38 GPA in biology with a minor in chemistry, with a 630 Verbal, 4.5 Analytical, and a 550 Quan (I am retaking the GRE). My question is, Harvard is an expensive school to do a year of coursework without funding, would demonstrating success in graduate coursework from a name university substantially strengthen my graduate application enough to justify the cost? I am applying for phd programs in ecology. Thank you for our itme and energy.