40,246 apply to College Class of ’24

"Harvard expands financial aid to eliminate summer contribution.

Applications for admission to Harvard College’s Class of 2024 totaled 40,246, the third time in Harvard’s history that applications have exceeded 40,000. Last year, 43,330 students applied for the Class of 2023.

‘We continue to be excited by the extraordinary students from across the nation and around the world who apply to Harvard College,’ said William R. Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions and financial aid.

There are slightly more women (50.2 percent) than men in the applicant pool this year.

Biological sciences (23.6 percent) and social sciences (22 percent) remain the top interests of Harvard applicants. There was a slight increase in the share of students expressing interest in Computer Science (11.2 percent versus 10.7) and the physical sciences (7.2 percent versus 6.8). A similar share of students expressed an interest in the humanities (11.6 percent), engineering (13 percent), and math (5.8). Among applicants this year, 25.2 percent identify as Asian American, 12.6 identify as Latinx, and 11.2 identify as African American and 2.1 as Native American or Native Hawaiian." …

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/03/applications-to-harvard-college-class-of-24-reach-40246/

I graduated from Harvard and am, frankly, very disappointed that the university has not used a significant portion of its $40 billion endowment to further distributed, online education free to the world. When 42,000 people want in, with only - what, 1600 spots? - Harvard could duplicate its entire freshman class several times over without a degradation in quality. What a shame it is that they don’t open up the entirety of the university to the world.