<p>Wow -- I'm glad I'm not applying now!</p>
<p>The</a> Harvard Crimson :: News :: Harvard Reports Jump in Applicants</p>
<p>Best of luck to all applicants...</p>
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<p>Wow. Going to the single-deadline system didn't hurt the number of applicants at all. 27,000 applicants is more than the number of views on the </p>
<p>thread, so I hope everyone applying to Harvard remembered to apply somewhere else too, because it looks like tens of thousands of students need a plan B this year. </p>
<p>Good luck to this year's applicants.</p>
<p>Incredible spike in apps this year. I wonder how much was due to the financial aid announcement and last-minute submissions.</p>
<p>^^^ i know i was one of those last minute applicants...well about a week and a half before the deadline i decided to apply.</p>
<p>From the story:
"More than 27,000 Harvard hopefuls applied to join next year’s freshman class, the University announced on Wednesday. It is the largest number of applicants in the history of Harvard College—at least 4,000 more than last year’s pool of 22,955. </p>
<p>Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 said in an interview Wednesday that the figure now stands at 27,278 and may increase slightly in the coming days. The number represents a more than 35 percent increase over the 19,750 students who applied just four years ago to become part of the Class of 2008. </p>
<p>The size of the entering class has held steady at about 1,650, and Fitzsimmons said his office will need to meet that target again this year. “We will probably project a very high yield, and I presume that we will take a larger than average number of students from the waitlist," he said.</p>
<p>To help deal with the influx in applicants, at least four former Harvard admissions staff members are returning to help read applications, Fitzsimmons said.</p>
<p>A little more than 50 percent of the applicant pool this year were women, the admissions office said, and a larger-than-average increase in applicants was reported from the Mid-Atlantic and the South. The admissions office said it did not yet have complete statistics on the number of minority applicants this year, "but the numbers of African American and Latino applicants already exceed last year’s totals by a considerable margin."</p>
<p>"but the numbers of African American and Latino applicants already exceed last year’s totals by a considerable margin."</p>
<p>uh oh! I'm skrewed. I wonder what the complete stats are?</p>
<p>Obviously, the article documents the phenomenal growth in application number; it doesn't prove that the number of "disadvantaged" applicants (URM's) has increased by the same percentage. Harvard reportedly sent out 75,000 recruitment letters last year to prospective applicants, apparently based on standardized test score lists (?purchased from the ETS). One adcom admitted that her job included an attempt to increase the number of applicants each year. A cynical observer would opine that Admissions Offices have become profit centers, even as they try to craft superior entering classes.</p>
<p>well... what did you expect?</p>
<p>With more females applying than males, can males now be a URM?</p>
<p>Here is the article in the Harvard Gazette regarding this astounding increase:</p>
<p>A</a> record applicant pool for the College - The Harvard University Gazette</p>
<p>27,000...wow.</p>
<p>Oh great...what does this mean for transfer students now?</p>
<p>Any estimates on approximate acceptance rate % to Harvard this year?</p>
<p>Probably about 7% and that's if they accept about 2,000 out of the 27,000.</p>
<p>If they accept 2,200 and yield 1650 that's a 75% yield rate, which makes for an 8.06% acceptance rate. In any event, the odds aren't good. Hope people have a Plan B! </p>
<p>There's probably no reliable way to know right now how many folks decided to apply after the FA initiative was announced -- but I'll bet Harvard asks their accepted students that question at some point.</p>
<p>Well, remember, with the new middle-income and upper-class financial aid initiative, H would probably expect a higher yield than its normal 80%. Harvard normally acceps 2,100 for a class of 1,675, but I figure that the 2,100 figure will go down dramatically.</p>
<p>Okay, but don't you think that people who really love Harvard would have applied SCEA (under old admissions policy), and now that step is eliminated, more students in this RD pool are not as committed to a nonbinding Harvard application? I agree that the new finaid policy will raise yield substantially, unfortunately for me. I almost wish Harvard had waited until after RD deadlines to annoounce the new policy, as Yale did for SCEA kids (though not intentionally.)</p>
<p>"Okay, but don't you think that people who really love Harvard would have applied SCEA (under old admissions policy), and now that step is eliminated, more students in this RD pool are not as committed to a nonbinding Harvard application?"</p>
<p>Nope. Harvard is the #1 choice for most students who apply, however they apply. In the past, because students know that H is always a reach, students may have chosen to apply EA elsewhere even though H was their first choice.</p>
<p>Harvard's yield has for years been #1 in the country. In the past, some students turned it down to accept lucrative offers from less competitive schools. I think that those students now will choose Harvard as will some of the students who would prefer MIT -- due to their interests in engineering. Now, however, some such students will chose Harvard because it's cheaper even though they'd prefer MIT.</p>
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Now, however, some such students will chose Harvard because it's cheaper even though they'd prefer MIT.
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<p>I don't understand this thinking. If I were an engineering student, I would choose another top (or similar) engineering school, not Harvard. Are they determined to stay in Boston, at least "close" to MIT?</p>
<p>Anyway, given such a low acceptance rate, this can't be a problem for very many students!</p>
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Nope. Harvard is the #1 choice for most students who apply, however they apply. In the past, because students know that H is always a reach, students may have chosen to apply EA elsewhere even though H was their first choice.
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<p>I didn't think so either, I was just grasping in the dark for some sliver of hope :(</p>