<p>^ Possibly, I mean it's conceivable.</p>
<p>Also note that the 2000+ applications don't necessarily represent 2000+ strong contenders.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Anyone else think they might accept more people than usual because of a potentially smaller yield due to financial aid disappointment?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I don't expect anyone to feel disappointed by Harvard's financial aid offers.</p>
<p>^ Yes, but NOT because of FinAid. I think yield will drop across the board because of the huge number of applicants applying to a huge number of schools! Harvard and its alumni may claim a bit of invincibility like "A drop in yield?! HA! You know nothing of Harvard, you little twerp." lol.</p>
<p>However, I think almost all top 20 schools will admit more people this year because of that very reason. Either that, or they'll admit the same number of kids and then, when their yield drops, they'll take a bunch more off the waitlist.</p>
<p>Just my $.02
:)</p>
<p>Actually, Amadeuic, the opposite will happen. As with last year, when a (then) record 27,000 people applied, this year a smaller number of people than usual will be accepted so that in case there's a high yield, the class won't end up being over-enrolled (leading to crowded housing, bigger classes, etc.). </p>
<p>Once they know how many people accept the offer of admission, they'll move to the waitlist, which will again probably see a higher level of activity than usual (as I believe it did last year) since the first wave of acceptances will have been conservative in its size.</p>
<p>Here's a link to the Crimson article where Fitzsimmons says as much, and the relevant quote:</p>
<p>The</a> Harvard Crimson :: News :: 29,000 High School Seniors Covet Place in the Class of 2013</p>
<p>“The admission rate will undoubtedly be lower,” said Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 in a phone interview yesterday. “We only have about 1,660 places in the freshman class. We know the Houses are full to capacity and there are no places to put students in the Yard. As last year, we will be conservative in April and take more students from the waitlist in case there is a significant jump in the yield.”</p>
<p>"Harvard is overrated"
- current undergrad.</p>
<p>^ lmao. Succinct, but effective nonetheless.</p>
<p>After doing the math for HYP, Harvard is actually the -least selective- of the three in terms of the number of spots they offer; Harvard has 79% yield, so with 1668 current freshman, they extended spots to 2111 students. Looking at Yale, they have 1318 current freshman, with a 69% yield. This means they made offers to 1910 students. </p>
<p>My logic may be somewhat flawed in describing "selectivity," but more people in fact were offered a spot at Harvard than Yale and Princeton (too lazy to do the math for Pton, but I think it's around 2000). It's quite possible that many extremely well qualified applicants applied to only Harvard and got in, but it's unlikely that this amount of people accounts for the discrepancy... seems like most people apply to at least two of HYP. Also, yes I realize there are large differences in class size, but it makes sense to me that Harvard's larger class size only means less selective, simply because more spots are up for grabs.</p>
<p>^ That doesn't suggest less selectivity, that suggests a larger student body. Which makes sense, because Harvard has more undergrads than Yale and Princeton do. Selectivity is the percent of applicants who are accepted, as in: (Accepted Students/Total Applicants) x 100. </p>
<p>Over the past several years, Harvard and Yale have been swapping the #1 spot for most selective, and the percent at both schools keeps going down (from around 10% 4 to 5 years ago, to around 7% last year and now possibly 6%) because the pool of applicants is increasing, but the size of their student bodies is not.</p>
<p>Perhaps that is the denotation of "selective." For me personally, I see this as more people in the world got the YES from Harvard than from Princeton/Yale. This is what I was trying to communicate. More spots = "easier" to get in, more space for the normal, average kid in the pool to fight for. Forgive my poor word choice.</p>
<p>^ I agree with Procrastination. Harvard probably gets the most "Oh, what the hell....might as well!" applications out of the big 3 because of name recognition.</p>
<p>Procrastination - Is Amherst more selective than HYP then, because they only give the "YES" to ~1,200 students? Not sure I see the point in your logic.</p>
<p>Look again, then. The number of applicants to Amherst is drastically lower, and the pools are quite different in my humble opinion. I'm making one reasonable assumption in my argument: HYP are fighting over the same pool.</p>
<p>And, by your interpretation of my argument, a community college would be more selective than HYP. Different pools.</p>
<p>K - Understand your point.</p>
<p>I do think there are some additional nuances. For example, there was some evidence (I believe in this study: SSRN-A</a> Revealed Preference Ranking of U.S. Colleges and Universities by Christopher Avery, Mark Glickman, Caroline Hoxby, Andrew Metrick ) that the admit rate at Princeton declined as applicant SAT scores reached a certain level (suggesting a bit of "Tufts syndrome" or preemptive rejection). Not sure it would make any sense for them to do that in this wild environment, but that sort of manipulation is possible.</p>
<p>Also, anecdotally, I know quite a few kids at Harvard who didn't apply to H or P (typically people from the West Coast, international students, etc). There's certainly a ton of overlap in the applicant pools, but maybe a bit less than you'd expect, even amongst the very strong applicants.</p>
<p>So I do see your point - I just think that looking purely at # of students admitted is overly simplistic.</p>
<p>(And as an aside, I would agree with your comment that Harvard is overrated - at least in the eyes of the public. It seems pretty clear to me that HYPSM are really all on the same level broadly speaking. Which one is the "best" varies from person to person, based on personality, interests, etc. While USNews seems to get this - I'm not sure the world does... Harvard does seem to sit on a pedestal that may not be deserved. To be clear - I think the folks who say "Undergrad sucks at Harvard, but rocks at Yale" are just as misguided.)</p>
<p>I will agree that it is simplistic. However, it's the best I can do between practice sessions and it makes me feel a whole lot better! I'll probably read that link you posted tomorrow and respond with more depth later.</p>
<p>"Undergrad sucks at Harvard, but rocks at Yale"</p>
<p>"Undergrad sucks at Harvard"</p>
<p>"Undergrad sucks"</p>
<p>EVOLUTION IS EVOLUTION</p>
<p>1700/29000 = 5,9%
mh, that sucks, at least i got an offer from lse in case i'm gonna be one of the 27300 unlucky ones...</p>
<p>^german
You need to think about the yield rate.
(1700/78%)/29000 = 7.5%
This isn't accurate, either, because I used last year's yield rate.</p>
<p>Btw, did Harvard increase the enrollment for class of 2013?
There were only about 1520 students enrolled in the class of 2012.</p>
<p>Looks like Harvard's efforts to contact all rising seniors are paying off.</p>
<p>Harvard probably will not offer more than 2000 this year -- which will make the yield down below 6.9%.</p>
<p>They will most likely accept 2000 or so students and then take 100-200 off of the wait-list. Our class size is always the same.</p>