http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/2/6/admissions-applications-2019-record-high/
Thanks for the article! It’s an interesting read. Wow, 37,305 applications - that’s an astounding figure. I wonder how they managed to get 3,010 more candidates to apply, because that’s a big jump. It it really all just advertising and Harvard prestige that influences them? Columbia and Penn also received record-high numbers of applications this year. It’s seems like every year, it gets harder and harder to get into college.
I wonder how long until they hit 50,000 applications and the admit rate is 4%. It’s definitely not far off.
I feel sorry for anyone applying to Harvard and other schools in the next 5 years.
Very very very interesting information about the racial distribution. I wonder if it was the first time information was revealed about the applicant racial distribution?
Of course the year I apply would be the year that that applicants hit an all-time high 
I guess that will make being accepted all the more rewarding for the students who get in!
Since this year is the first year that SAT Subject Tests aren’t required (forgive me if I’m wrong on that) then maybe that plays into it as well? I come from a super rural area and many of the kids in my school haven’t even heard of the subject tests, let alone taken them. I bet that definitely opens the doors for many kids who otherwise would not have thought of applying.
And Yale’s went down slightly from last year. Still, the admit rates for these schools is miniscule so extra kids applying just makes it worse for the few applicants that actually had a decent shot of getting in. Once you get over 30,000 applications, its a crap shoot since almost all will be valedictorians, top in sports/music/art/debate, whatever. I do so feel sorry for applicants now - definitely wasn’t his way back in the dark ages when I applied to both Yale and Harvard.
@Tperry1982 I feel sorry not only for the applicants, but for the admissions officers as well. How do you narrow down all these 30,000 candidates who probably all look similar on paper? Why are there so many more people applying to colleges now? It’s insanity. I almost feel hopeless.
@ilovethecity - they are applying because everyone is pushing every kid under every circumstance to go to college. If you don’t go, you are setting yourself up for “failure”. A undergraduate degree is becoming the HS diploma of old. It is the standard. I really don’t think its right and believe that vocational skills are good. I know for a fact that both my hairdresser and mechanic make more than I do. I’m pretty sure my plumber does too.
Because of USNWR and other such lists you have so many kids applying to schools just for the name. What kid applies to all the Ivies? When I hear that it drives me crazy cause the schools are so different. My D, who loves Yale, hated Dartmouth the moment she stepped on campus. Though her best friends are at UPenn and Harvard (and happy), she cannot see herself at either one. I guess computers and the common app make it easier. Trust me, when I was applying in 1978 with my trusty non-electric typewriter, there is no way I would have been able to do more than the 4 applications I did.
But I also know that the vast majority of kids are just not that stressed about the process. CC is a self selected group of helicopter parents (I’m guilty) and type A kids. My D’s friends always were amazed at how much effort she put into the college process. Many of them applied to state schools or others that had rolling admissions or on the spot admissions at college fairs. Bam - they were done. You don’t need “chance me” threads for schools that accept people with GPA’s of 2.5 or don’t care about EC’s, or how many times you went to a country to help them build wells for drinking water. They’ve gone off to these schools and are having varying degrees of success, but none the less, are reasonably happy.
I feel sorry for all of them and am so glad that we are done with the process.
@Ilovethecity They tend to use GPA and standardized test scores initially to group the applicants into categories. One top lac, for example, creates 7 groups–1 is likely, 7 is inadmissable. In other words, the some applications are hardly read, if at all.
That said, walking past the Yale admission building yesterday evening, Sunday, I noticed several lights burning.
@ilovethecity: One of the reasons applications to Harvard are soaring is their financial aid policy. Many middle class families – those families with incomes between $100K and $150k cannot afford to send their children to private schools without taking out loans. Due to Harvard’s generous financial aid, with more dedicated resources going to financial aid than any other college, Harvard becomes a LESS expensive alternative than sending your child to a flagship state school. I know it was for my daughter. Ditto at Yale for my son. Beyond the large endowment schools of HYPS, financial aid becomes iffy for families in the $100k to $200K bracket. I’ve said this before, but my son was also admitted to Williams, Pomona and Middlebbury – all of which would have cost us $40k more over 4 years. And schools like Brown, Boston College and Georgetown would have cost us $120k more over four years. I’m willing to bet that a large percentage of students submitting applications to Harvard, Yale and Princeton are doing so because it’s like winning the financial aid lottery – you can win it, if you’re not in it – so they are throwing in an application just to see what happens.
And, Harvard seems to be making submitting an application easier by doing away with SAT Subject Tests. While many other college’s believe more applications do not result in a better (however you want to define that) class, Harvard seems to be marching to a different drummer.
@gibby
@Tperry1982
I think you both make good points. I agree with everything you said.
I concur with @gibby. My oldest son’s first choice was Hopkins. But Harvard was 10K per year cheaper, and had no loans in the package. I personally talked to the financial aid officer at Hopkins, asking him to revisit my son’s financial aid package, but indicating I wouldn’t feel guilty if my kid had to go to an Ivy League school because of financial reasons. He looked away from me and looked at my son and said, “Enjoy the Ivy League.”
With my younger son, Harvard was flat-out the least expensive school, even less expensive than our state flagship, which gave him significant financial aid and a partial scholarship.
Acceptance rates will start going up soon as in the future, applications would probably go down.
So long as Harvard’s financial aid office is able to provide MORE aid to middle class families in the $100K to $200K bracket, I DO NOT see application numbers going down any time soon. Other colleges are just unable to match Harvard’s FA, which makes Harvard a more attractive alternative than state schools, so IMHO acceptance rates will continue to go down.
I find it interesting, especially in light of claims of discrimination against Asians and for URMs, that the ethnic make up of applicants closely mirrors that of accepted students. If 21% of applicants are Asian and 20% of admitted students are Asian, where is the basis for discrimination coming from?
https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/admissions-statistics
^^ I think this argument may be the reason that this is the first time (that I know of) Harvard is releasing this information. However, I guess the more pertinent question is what percentage of the top applications are from Asians. If, for instance, Asians represent 45% or more of the best applicants (as I recall it has been suggested), then it could be a problem that only 15-20% get accepted.
I am not maintaining that this is actually the case. I’m just trying to answer the question being asked.
Trying to imagine the cost and delivery logistics of the office supplies involved in assembling 35,000 application portfolios.
Ah, yes. Good point. I remember reading statistics that came to light the last time Harvard was sued (2004 I think) that said 45% of applicants with 2300+ were Asian. That’s believable because something like half of 800s on any given section are earned by Asians.
So, the plaintiffs are saying that since the Asians represent the majority of competitive applicants, they should be admitted at a higher rate. But they aren’t.
So…
About 7700 applicants are Asian.
If 45% have 2300+ SAT, then that’s about 3500 highly qualified by ONE METRIC applicants. If they took 20% of them, that would be 700. But they don’t. Instead, Asians make up 20% of the total, which is about 400. But that’s still an 11% admit rate for Asians with 2300+ SAT. Twice the overall rate.
But the available data is so murky that there is really no way to draw any conclusions. There are too many unknown variables.
^^ Agreed