Freshman Class Sets Application Records

The Harvard class of 1992 has done to matriculation what the 1927 Yankees did to baseball--broke all the records.

Not only did the College receive a record 14,430 applicants, but the number it admitted was one of the lowest in years, with an acceptance rate of only 14.6 percent, according to figures released by the Admissions Office.

The number of those admitted who chose to enter the University also hit a record high of over 73 percent, with the incoming class of 1605 students exceeding last year's admission yield by 3 percent.

The class of 1992 has also set records for the number of minority applicants deciding to enter the College. Next year's freshmen will be 14 percent Asian, 9 percent Black and 5 percent Hispanic.

The yield for Black students this year is 65 percent, while the number of Hispanic students deciding to attend Harvard jumped 10 percent this year, with 59 percent of all those admitted accepting the offer. The percentage of Asian students choosing to come to Harvard exceeds the College's overall acceptance yield, with 79 percent electing to study in Cambridge for the next four years.

The percentage of women entering the College isalso the highest since Harvard and Radcliffecombined their admissions boards in 1975. Thenumber of men entering the freshman class stillexceeds the number of women, but with theRadcliffe contingent climbing to 43 percent nextyear, the percentage of female freshmen will becloser to 50 percent than it has ever been.

The number of students who applied to theCollege's Early Action program exceeded formerrecords as well, with 2075 freshmen applying toHarvard by the November deadline. Harvard's earlyapplicant pool was larger than the group whoapplied to other Ivy League Early Action programsat Princeton, Yale and Brown. The number admittedearly to Harvard was the largest number as well,with 651 students gaining early acceptance to theUniversity.

The students entering the class seem to comefrom a wider variety of states than in the past,with only 19.6 percent coming from New England.While almost 30 percent of the incoming class isfrom the Mid Atlantic states, that percentage isslightly down from past years as more students areapplying and gaining acceptance from the PacificNorthwest and foreign countries than ever before.

According to Dean of Admissions and FinancialAid William R. Fitzsimmons '67, the number offoreign and Pacific Northwest students has risenbecause of more extensive recruiting efforts inthose areas. He added that the number of 18-yearolds in the Pacific area has grown over the pastfew years.

Fitzsimmons said he feels the combination ofHarvard's solid educational offering, theneed-blind admissions policy, and minorityrecruitment policies have contributed to the highnumber of applicants and admissions records set bythe class of 1992.

The dean also attributed the boom inapplications to the publicity the school receivedduring the 350th anniversary celebration in thefall of 1986