For the seventh consecutive
year, a record low percentage of applicants received offers of admission to
Harvard College. A total of 5.8 percent of 35,023 applicants were admitted to
the Class of 2017, the University announced Thursday. At
5 p.m., the University sent emails to the 1,134 regular applicants receiving
offers. Taking into account the 895 students admitted to the class through the
early action program, 2,029 students were admitted this year. The
admit rate for applicants considered under regular decision, including the
3,196 early action candidates who were deferred to regular decision, was 3.4
percent, down from last year’s rate of 3.8 percent. 18 percent of students who
applied early action were accepted in December. “The fact that we agreed to be
spending $10 million more on financial aid this year has certainly caught
people’s attention,” Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R.
Fitzsimmons ’67 told The Crimson, citing what he said was one of many forces
driving the large number of applicants. “It’s proof that we meant what we said:
that we’re going to diversify Harvard economically and be reaching out to
people from a wider range of backgrounds.” Harvard recently announced a 5.8
percent increase in its financial aid budget for the 2013-2014 academic year,
providing a record $182 million to make Harvard more accessible and affordable
for students. Fitzsimmons described the diversity in the pool of this
year’s admitted students as an “encouraging” reflection of progress. Of the
students offered admission to the class, 19.9 percent are Asian-American, 11.5
are percent African-American, 11.5 percent are Latino, 2.2 percent are Native
American, and 0.5 percent are Native Hawaiian. Fitzsimmons said that
institutions of higher education have a responsibility to educate a diverse set
of future leaders. “If you’re not able to, and
again this is what we’re doing now, to reach out to the most outstanding Latino
students in the country...you won’t be educating the future leaders of
America,” said Fitzsimmons, explaining the importance of reaching out to
high-ability students within all minority groups.
Foreign citizens, U.S. dual
citizens, and U.S. permanent residents make up over 20 percent of the class and
represent 81 countries. Fitzsimmons responded to recent
reports claiming that selective schools fail to attract high-achieving,
low-income students. “No one’s being left out who has a chance
of getting in,” he said of the situation at Harvard. The issue is not reaching
these high-ability students who come from low-income families, but in getting
them to agree to enroll at educational institutions like Harvard after high
school, he argued. The College did not share the number of students placed on
Harvard’s waitlist for the class of 2017. Fitzsimmons said that although numbers
vary from year to year, Harvard has offered admission to anywhere from zero to
228 wait-listed students in recent years. Selective schools across the
nation saw similar declines in the acceptance rates this year. Seven of the
eight Ivy League schools reported lower acceptance rates. Following
behind Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Princeton Universities saw 6.7, 6.8, and
7.3 percent acceptance rates, respectively. Dartmouth College admitted roughly
10 percent of applicants, an increase from last year’s 9.4 percent acceptance
rate. see: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/3/28/class-of-2017-admissions/