Class of 2005 Applications Set Volume Record

The Harvard College Office of Admissions has just over three weeks left to review its largest applicant pool ever.

The mail has brought 19,010 applications to the doors of Eight Garden Street, up from 18,693 last year and marking an all time high, William R. Fitzsimmons '67, dean of admissions said yesterday.

"We're very pleased, but what's more important than the numbers would be the quality of applicants," Fitszimmons said. "Though every year we say this may be the best one yet, it certainly feels that way right now."

Fitzsimmons said that number of minority applications was about the same as last year.

"You have, across the various minority groups, a large increase in a number of groups, somewhat similar numbers in other groups and, in others, a slight decline," Fitzsimmons said, "On balance, the numbers are somewhat similar to last year."

The largest increase in a minority group is among Puerto Ricans, who had a 26.3 percent increase in applications to the College.

Although African-Americans only make up 5.9 percent of this year's applicant pool as opposed to 6.3 percent of last year's pool, Fitzsimmons says he is not concerned about the small decline.

"It's still a very high number and one of the largest we've had in our history," he said.

Asian Americans, Mexican Americans, Native Americans and Hispanic Americans all saw small increases in the number of total applications sent to Harvard this year.

Applications from women jumped by 4.4 percent this year, while total male applicants fell by less than one percent.

"There's been a long term trend over many years towards increasing numbers of women applying to Harvard. This is the highest it's been," Fitzsimmons said.

He credited minority recruiting efforts for continuing to encourage large numbers of minority applicants.

"We start the year off writing to 60,000 people, some of whom are from minority backgrounds, and follow up with application booklets," he said.

These efforts are followed by alumni efforts, recruiting visits, and phone calls, Fitszimmon said.

Geographical distribution among applicants remained about the same.

"Most of the patterns are really quite similar," Fitzsimmons said.

The number of international applications also remained similar to last year. Applications from the West saw some increase relative to last year though there were slight decreases in the central part of the country. The number of Canadian applications remained the same with 410 students, Fitzsimmons said.