82 Percent of Admits Plan to Join Class of 2022

UPDATED: May 16, 2018 at 10:07 a.m.

Around 82 percent of students admitted to the Class of 2022 have accepted their offers of admission so far, though more students will be admitted from the waitlist in the coming months.

This year’s yield rate represents a slight decrease from last year’s rate. A record-high 84 percent of students had accepted their offers to the Class of 2021 around this time a year ago. The final yield rate for the Class of 2021—that is, the percentage of admitted students that actually joined the class—was 82.8 percent.

In total, 42,749 prospective students applied to the Class of 2022, and the College accepted 4.59 percent of those students—1,962 in total—during the early admission and regular decision rounds.

A number of waitlisted students are slated to receive formal notifications of admission Wednesday, according to Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67. This marks a departure from last year, when the record-high yield resulted in no students being admitted from the waitlist. The Class of 2021’s unusual size prompted the College to assign 28 freshmen to overflow housing in DeWolfe apartments.

“We would love, normally, to be able to take anywhere from 30 or 40, to as many as 100 off the waiting list,” Fitzsimmons said.

He said the College would likely continue to send admissions offers to waitlisted students throughout the summer, with the assumption that some students will decline their offers.

“We finish all this by the end of June,” Fitzsimmons said. “We’ll see what happens with the ones we have admitted. We don’t know whether they’ll decide to come or not. Typically not all of them will, but we give them about a week or so to make up their minds.”

With admits off the waitlist in flux, the makeup and size of the Class of 2022 have yet to be finalized, and the final matriculation rate may change over the course of the summer. The College will obtain final numbers when students arrive at Harvard on August 27. The admissions office anticipated an estimated 1,655 students would join the class.

Fitzsimmons attributed the relatively high yield rate, in part, to the admissions officers’ recruiting efforts.

“We go to 120 locations across the country every year,” he said. “You don’t think of it as a yield thing, but, in lots of ways, it really is, because you’re trying to get people to think about Harvard as a possibility.”

He also emphasized the value of informing prospective students of the College’s financial aid program. The majority of students who currently plan to matriculate will receive financial aid, and a record-high 19.3 percent are eligible for Pell Grants, Director of Financial Aid Sally C. Donohue wrote in a press release. Additionally, as the class stands now, a record 16.6 percent will be first-generation students, compared to last year’s 14.9 percent.

A record-high 22.6 percent of matriculants to date are Asian-American. This record comes amid an ongoing lawsuit alleging the College discriminates against Asian-Americans in the admissions process, as well as a pending Department of Justice investigation into similar complaints. Also a record high, African Americans make up 14.5 percent of those planning to matriculate. Consistent with numbers in previous years, Latino students comprise 10.8 percent of the total, and Native Americans and Native Hawaiians 2.3 percent.

Also consistent with recent years, matriculating students so far are 49.7 percent female and 50.3 percent male.

Fitzsimmons praised the diversity of students’ backgrounds and said he believes this diversity will provide extensive educational benefits.

“To learn from people from every conceivable background will put you in a much better position to make a positive difference in the world,” he said.

—Staff writer Delano R. Franklin can be reached at delano.franklin@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @delanofranklin_