Finances Keep Some Blacks Out Of Harvard

The majority of those African Americans who were admitted to the Harvard Class of 1997 but decided not to attend did so for financial reasons, according to a survey by the admissions office.

Fifty-two of the 65 Black high school students who got into Harvard but will go elsewhere responded to the phone poll, which was conducted from the middle of May through this past Tuesday, Senior Admissions Officer David L. Evans said.

For the second year in a row, Evans said, each respondent was asked specifically why they chose another school rather than Harvard. He said that few named only one reason.

"Twenty-nine students said financial reasons," Evans said. "Ten students [mentioned] geographical reasons...Nine said campus atmosphere."

He said the survey results were of special interest to the admissions department this year. "Last year we lost more students than any time in 25 years. We wanted to know why," Evans said.

Eight students mentioned academic reasons, four said they felt Harvard undergraduates were ignored and three said they had special extracurricular needs that Harvard could not fill.

Dean of Admissions William R. Fitzsimmons '67 said he will be talking to faculty and administrators about the survey results over the next several months, but said that the University has no plan to depart from its need-based financial aid policy to more aggressively recruit Black students.

"While African-Americans are perhaps the most highly sought students in the country, we feel that in a very, very difficult market we do end up having the strongest group of African American at Harvard," Fitzsimmons said. "One looks at where the strongest African Americans in the country go to college."

He said the results of the survey are consistent with what admissions officers have heard from admitted students during the past decade. Yield percentages, Fitzsimmons said, tend to fluctuate a great deal from year to year.

But he added that the office will continue to work hard at retaining Black applicants once they are admitted. "We intend to continue the strong recruiting effort, to continue the second search, to continue to use telemarketing," Fitzsimmons said. "We will explore better ways to reach out to students."

Some students turned Harvard down because of misconceptions, Evans said. One student thought a ROTC scholarship could not be used at the college, while another was uncertain as to whether the ROTC scholarship would remain valid. One student feared being restricted to two extracurricular activities.

Evans said the high percentage of respondents was unusual. "Getting them to talk to you when you are no longer in the picture is very difficult," he said. "But very few were hostile.

He said the results of the survey are consistent with what admissions officers have heard from admitted students during the past decade. Yield percentages, Fitzsimmons said, tend to fluctuate a great deal from year to year.

But he added that the office will continue to work hard at retaining Black applicants once they are admitted. "We intend to continue the strong recruiting effort, to continue the second search, to continue to use telemarketing," Fitzsimmons said. "We will explore better ways to reach out to students."

Some students turned Harvard down because of misconceptions, Evans said. One student thought a ROTC scholarship could not be used at the college, while another was uncertain as to whether the ROTC scholarship would remain valid. One student feared being restricted to two extracurricular activities.

Evans said the high percentage of respondents was unusual. "Getting them to talk to you when you are no longer in the picture is very difficult," he said. "But very few were hostile.