Early Acceptances Down Despite Rate Increase

The College accepted 906 students for early admission this year—the lowest number of early admits since 1996, but the highest early acceptance rate in the past five years.

Out of nearly 4,000 applicants, 23.3 percent were offered a spot in the Class of 2008. Last year 15.1 percent of 7,620 early applicants were admitted.

The nearly 50 percent drop in early applications from last year can largely be attributed to Harvard’s implementation of a more restrictive single-choice early action program this fall. Last year, Harvard allowed early applicants to simultaneously apply to other early action and early decision programs.

“Last year people fired them off almost willy-nilly. This year they had to think about it more,” Dean of Admissions William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 said. “It makes you really think about what you want to do.”

This year, for the first time in the history of the College, a majority of early acceptances went to women. Women constituted 50.9 percent of this year’s early admits compared to 45.2 percent in 2002. Fitzsimmons said Byerly Hall’s longstanding efforts to even out the gender gap may be responsible for the increase in female admits.

“We were aware we wanted to increase the number of women at Harvard,” Fitzsimmons said. “For whatever set of reasons, women in this year’s early action pool competed more successfully.”

According to Fitzsimmons, the number of female applicants to Harvard has been gradually rising over the years. Of this year’s applicants, 47.1 percent were female.

Director of Admissions Marlyn McGrath Lewis ’70-’73 said the admissions office uses alumnae networks and outreach to high standardized test scorers to attract strong female applicants

McGrath Lewis said that attempts to appeal to female applicants have been a priority for the admissions committee for at least 20 years.

The admissions committee deferred 2,737 applicants and rejected 165. Eleven applicants withdrew their applications before receiving a decision.

The quality of Harvard’s applicant pool this year was “virtually identical” to those of previous years, according to Fitzsimmons.

Fitzsimmons added that “80 to 90 percent of the applicants are qualified to be [at Harvard].”

Fitzsimmons said he was expecting “angry letters, phone calls and occasional threats” over the next few days from the parents of disappointed early action applicants.

Harvard’s single choice early action program this year puts the school in line with Yale and Stanford, both of which adopted the same program this year.

This year Stanford accepted 800 early applicants out of more than 4,100, for an acceptance rate of about 19.5 percent.

Yale’s decision letters will be mailed Monday.