Harvard's Admission rate for class of '11 was lowest in its history

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
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<p>BOSTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) -- Getting into Harvard University got tougher in 2007 as more students than ever applied to the Ivy League school's undergraduate program, many drawn by an attractive financial aid offer.</p>

<p>Harvard, the world's richest university, said Thursday a record 22,955 students applied for a spot in the Class of 2011. Of those, just 2,058 were accepted -- an admission rate of 9 percent, the lowest in school history.</p>

<p>Last year, 2,109 of 22,753 applicants, or 9.3 percent, got the nod....</p>

<p>Harvard... said just over half of those admitted to the Class of 2011 were women, while the number of ethnic minorities hit a record high.</p>

<p>Nearly 20 percent of those accepted are Asian, 10.7 percent are black and 10.1 percent are Latino. The class would also be its most economically diverse, Harvard said, with 26 percent eligible for a new financial aid program....<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/03/29/usa.harvard.reut/index.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/03/29/usa.harvard.reut/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>I see the press releases are really playing up the Harvard Financial Aid Initiative, which I hope encourages more students from low-income families to apply to Harvard. Those long odds of getting in mean that most Harvard applicants had better think long and hard about a "safety" school before submitting a Harvard application too.</p>

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<p>Well, very interesting. HOWEVER, Brown's rate was 7.82% for this year. Out of more than 19,000 applications, only 1485 students were accepted.</p>

<p>Amazing!!!!! Go Brown!!</p>

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<p>wonderful...that explains a lot...too many smart people out there haha</p>

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<p>Actually, more like 2500 were accepted, 1485 is their average class size.</p>

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<p>Uh.... I am trying to compare apples to apples here. Just a question, what is the size of Harvard's class?</p>

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<p>Harvard's average class size has been about 1650</p>

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<p>Its amazing to me that Moviebuff doesn't understand how yield works. Movie, you aren;t comparing apples to apples. Brown's accept rate is 13.5% this year.</p>

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<p>2012 will be even harder; it is estimated that the Class of 2012 will be the largest graduating class in history. Interestingly, it begins to go downhill (slightly) beginning with 2013.</p>

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<p>It figures that Brown's base acceptance rate would be higher than Harvard's. Even if, in some unusual year, Brown's rate were lower, its entering class would come from a different echelon of high school students from Harvard's.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
The class would also be its most economically diverse, Harvard said, with 26 percent eligible for a new financial aid program

[/quote]
</p>

<p>i.e., 74 percent of the class exceed $80,000 per year family income, or about double the US median income. What percentage come from families below the poverty line?</p>

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<p>yea, hardly economically diverse. the aid initiative sets the bar really high, 80,000, so plenty of people qualify for it that i wouldnt say necessarily bring any type of economic diversity to the school. </p>

<p>set the bar at 50,000 and then tell me that 25% of the class was under that and i might be impressed.</p>

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<p>Harvard probably did more marketing this year than ever before, by a long shot. Glossy brochures inviting students with very ordinary SAT scores were received by bunch of students in my area. </p>

<p>Reminds me of the modus operandi of The Cheesecake Factory: Keep the lines long to make the place even more desirable.</p>

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<p>oh gosh, class of 2012 is going to be so hardcore. I'M SCARED!</p>

<p>TelleTube, I completely agree with you about the finaid and diversity. They need to lower it a bit, maybe to 60,000.</p>

<p>I'm kinda surprised at the 10.1% Latino makeup... wow that's pretty good I think.</p>

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<p>Stop Debating.</p>

<p>Columbia College was the most selective this year!!! 8.9% admit rate. 22,000 applicants, ~1600 admits. It's on ColumbiaSpectator.com if you wanan verify/look for it.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
Stop Debating.</p>

<p>Columbia College was the most selective this year!!! 8.9% admit rate. 22,000 applicants, ~1600 admits. It's on ColumbiaSpectator.com if you wanan verify/look for it.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>But when you add in the admit rate for SEAS, it comes out somewhat higher. And, if I'm not mistaken, SEAS is just as much part of Columbia as Columbia College is.</p>

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<p>Much higher? Okay 10.4%. And it's essentially a separate admit process.</p>

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<p>If you read carefully, you will note that I said "somewhat" higher, not much higher.</p>

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<p>A college isn't "most selective" unless it can be shown that its applicant pool is competitive compared to some other college with a similar base acceptance rate. I am sure that Columbia is indeed quite selective, but not as selective as Harvard.</p>

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<p>uh i think the vast vast majority of harvard applicants also applied to Columbia and vice versa.</p>