Harvard’s Early Apps Rise as Yale’s Plunge

As Harvard’s early-admissions chapter comes to a close, a plot twist has emerged: the number of early applicants for the Class of 2011 actually increased by 3.5 percent over the previous year.

The early-applicant pool saw increases in the number of international students and aspiring engineers vying for spots in the Class of 2011.

In addition, the number of Mexican-Americans seeking admission increased by 25 percent, while the number of Hispanic-Americans jumped by 13 percent. The number of African-American applicants increased by 6.4 percent, according to Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67.

Harvard’s increase in early applicants comes as the College plans to end its early-admissions program beginning with the Class of 2012. The move was announced in September as a way of making the admissions process fairer for low-income and minority applicants.

This year, 4,005 Harvard hopefuls applied for single-choice early action, compared to 3,869 applicants last year.

The 33-percent rise in international applicants relates to an improved perception of American hospitality to international students, Fitzsimmons said.

Fitzsimmons said that an increased visibility of the engineering program at Harvard has contributed to the 18-percent jump in applicants interested in engineering.

The rise may be due to the University’s toying with the transformation of the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences into a separate school, Fitzsimmons said.

“There are also very good engineering prospects internationally, so it is possible that some of the international students are particularly interested in this aspect,” he said.

Additionally, Fitzsimmons said the College’s three-year-old financial aid initiative has encouraged more students to apply.

“Even if we made a change by giving up early action, news articles across the country usually noted the generous financial aid and the new initiative, and this message certainly has to help draw more applicants,” Fitzsimmons said.

Fitzsimmons attributed the rise in applicants to aggressive recruiting efforts by the College over the past decade, which have taken admissions staff members all over the world.

Fitzsimmons said that the College would not change its attitude towards early applicants—even in its last year of early admissions.

“There is no particular set percentage [of early admits],” he said. “If a majority of us feel 100 percent certain that we will take a person in April, then we just go ahead and admit them now.”

Last year, the number of early-applicants seeking spots in the Class of 2010 saw an 8-percent decline when compared with the previous year.

While Yale topped Harvard’s early-application number for the first time in recent memory last year with 4,084 students, it faced a significant drop of 13 percent in this year’s early admissions pool, according to the Yale Daily News.

—Staff writer Aditi Banga can be reached at abanga@fas.harvard.edu.