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<p>Fee Waiver Requests Rise
By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
Crimson Staff Writer</p>
<p>"In a promising sign for Harvards efforts to attract more low-income students, the fraction of this years early applicants requesting fee waivers jumped nearly 50 percent from the previous years pool.
Byerly Hall received 215 requests to waive application fees for the Class of 2009, compared to 136 in the previous cycle. The total number of early applications rose to 4,165, up 7.2 percent from last year, when the College changed to a single-choice early action program." </p>
<p>"The increase in fee waiver requests comes nine months after University President Lawrence H. Summers announced that the College would no longer require parental contributions from families earning less than $40,000 a year. The initiative, budgeted at $2 million, also reduced payments for students from families with annual incomes under $60,000."</p>
<p>[We know from past experience that people requesting fee waivers is a pretty good indication that they will be eligible for the new initiatives, said Dean of Admissions William R. Fitzsimmons 67. Were encouraged, obviously were encouraged. It certainly is an indication at least that we have more students from the bottom quarter, the bottom half of the American income distribution in the early pool.]</p>
<p>"The only significant demographic change was a 20 percent increase in African-American applicants, up to 198 from 164 last year. Otherwise, geographic and demographic breakdowns remained consistent with numbers for the Class of 2008 early pool."</p>
<p>"On average, each Harvard class includes 250 students from families with annual incomes of less than $60,000, according to Fitzsimmons. He said that Byerly Hall is using this figure as a benchmark for the success of the financial aid initiative."</p>