Early indications don’t look good for Harvard this admission cycle. While Harvard had an 8% decrease in application Brown had an 8% increase. As a result, Harvard cut back SCEA admissions by about 50 slots while Princeton increased 50 admission offers, presumably because Princeton’s SCEA was more competitive. What is going on?
No one can definitively answer the question. Last year, applications went up, even though Harvard was in the midst of the lawsuit with all the attendant bad publicity. I suspect that it’s random variation. Some other schools had drops compared to last year: Penn’s early application numbers went down by 14% this year.
Penn is a bit special case though. With Trump boasting his Penn college and Wharton credential and not being smart in so many subjects he claimed to be an expert in, the brand is taking a beating.
Its peculiar that Harvard saw the biggest drop in applications from California where most Asian American applicants happened to be at.
I’m not seeing this in my area (chicagoland)
Could be a Harvard lawsuit connection to Asian American apps (whether in toto or just as a significant part of California apps), but we will never know.
Harvard presumably tracks what demographics are applying in lesser or greater numbers, but is unlikely to want to say publicly.
It’s all speculation and can’t be resolved.
Trump has been president for three application cycles, and Penn’s applications soared last year. In any case, I don’t know anyone who mentions Penn and Trump in the same breath. Trump was a development case, and most people don’t think that he is typical of Penn. We could say the same about Jared Kushner: his association caused a drop in applications at Harvard. Unlikely.
Bill Fitzsimmons said that the California wildfires might have affected early applications from that state.
By “most,” are you saying that more than 50% of Asian American applicants are from California? Is that true? In any case, Asian American applicants are smart enough to know that most highly selective institutions have a similar process, and the slant against such applicants is not limited to Harvard.