Harvard applications dip slightly
After five consecutive years of record numbers, Harvard University had a slight drop in applicants this year, with 34,285 students petitioning for admission compared to last year’s all-time high of 34,950, the college said today.
Harvard is not the only elite college to experience a dip.
The University of Pennsylvania saw a 1.9 percent decrease in applicants this year, and Columbia University had an 8.9 percent drop, though the latter statistic is less telling because figures from last year at Columbia were abnormally high. (The school began offering the Common Application last year, which tends to draw more hopefuls.)
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported a one percent increase, the smallest in seven years. The slowdown at MIT may be partly due to recruitment changes; the school has cut back on marketing to students with relatively low standardized test scores.
At Harvard, the applicants are competing for a spot in this fall’s freshman class of 1,660.
Mary Carmichael can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @mary_carmichael.
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