Class of 2011 Admits Beat Lowest Odds

You now have a better chance of surviving a particularly fatal strain of the Ebola virus than getting into Harvard College.

This year fewer than 9 percent of applicants were accepted to the Class of 2011, according to figures the Admissions Office released on Thursday. Last year 9.3 percent were accepted.

The group of 2,058 was picked from 22,955 applicants, and represents the most socioeconomically and racially diverse group accepted to Harvard—an increase Dean of Admissions William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 attributes to Harvard Financial Aid Initiative (HFAI) and minority recruitment efforts.

Slight increases resulted in record highs for minority groups, with a pool that is 10.7 percent African American, 19.6 percent Asian American, 10.1 percent Latino, and 1.5 percent Native American.

Meanwhile, the percentage of female admits fell by about one percent to 50.5 percent, and the percentage of international students rose slightly, from 8.7 to 9.1 percent.

One student accepted to the Class of 2011, Cory A. Johnson of Miramar, Fla., said he waited for the e-mail from the Admissions Office in “agonizing pain.”

Getting into Harvard has been his dream since fifth grade, he said.

Johnson, who could potentially identify himself as black, Cuban, and Native American, said diversity mattered to him.

“You get people from all walks of life and mentalities that are amazing at what they do, and…will eventually do something great for this world,” Johnson said.

The Admissions Office estimates that 26 percent of the admitted students will be eligible for HFAI, a program that waives the parental tuition contribution for families earning less than $60,000 a year and significantly lowers the expected parental contribution for families earning between $60,000 and $80,000 a year.

Since HFAI was put in place three years ago, the number of accepted students from families with incomes under $60,000 has increased by 34 percent, according to the Admissions Office.

“The response to the new Harvard Financial Aid Initiative has been beyond our wildest expectations,” Fitzsimmons said. “There’s often an immediate effect…but now it has really been sustained through a number of classes. That is really promising.”

Fitzsimmons said that other recruiting efforts—such as alumni involvement, itinerant information programs, and the Undergraduate Minority Recruitment Program—have been greatly helped by the College’s financial aid offerings.

“The fact that we can talk about new financial aid offerings creates a generally welcoming message,” Fitzsimmons said.

The Class of 2011’s test scores and relative academic achievements were consistent with other classes, Fitzsimmons said.

“There’s always a negative correlation between socioeconomic background and access to education for high test scores,” Fitzsimmons said, “but we have been able to keep standards right where they were.”

Academic interests for the entering class shifted toward the sciences and away from the humanities, according to the Admissions Office. Interest rose in the biological sciences as well as engineering and the related fields of mathematics and computer science, while the number of accepted students interested in concentrating in the humanities, social sciences, and physical sciences fell slightly.

According to Fitzsimmons, this shift may be accounted for by the recent creation of Harvard’s School of Engineering. He added that changes in curriculum, including the pending curricular review, could bolster the College’s appeal in the coming years.

“I think already the fact that the Faculty has spent so much time looking at curriculum has been a plus—when [the Gen Ed report] gets announced, I think that will be enormously helpful to us in recruiting,” he said. “The fact that we now officially have a school of engineering, and really exciting plans for growth…has certainly caught people’s attention.”

In total, foreign citizens, students with dual citizenship with the U.S. and another country, and U.S. permanent residents make up roughly 19 percent of the admitted class, about the same as last year.

The geographic distribution of students accepted from within the United States remained similar to previous years.

The College plans to host its annual visiting program for admitted students from April 21 to 23. Until then, students will have access to online chat sessions and message boards to get in touch with potential classmates.

Students have until May 1 to accept or reject their offer from Harvard.

Daniela L. Noguiera of Raleigh, North Carolina received her acceptance by e-mail last Thursday, though before opening the message, she thought it would only tell her when she would receive her admittance decision.

“I actually had no idea when Harvard was going to let me know...so I just clicked on [the e-mail] very casually,” she said in a phone interview. “I was at work...I just stood up and turned around and said ‘I just got into Harvard.’ My boss couldn’t hear what I was saying, so I screamed it in the middle of the office.”

—Staff writer Aditi Balakrishna can be reached at balakris@fas.harvard.edu.