哈佛的高接受率意味候補的希望渺茫

Katie and Fluffy, Photo courtesy: Hypathway

Hypathway's Notes: 憑 借2015年新生近77％的入學率，哈佛大學無可爭議的是最受歡迎的美國大學。哈佛深紅報的兩篇文章聲稱，哈佛近年來的入學率一直居全國之冠。這意味著 100名被錄取的學生中隻有23名學生拒絕接受哈佛的錄取而選擇去其他地方。如果他們能夠提供更多交叉錄取的數據，那將有利於我們了解各校競爭的狀況，特 別是哈佛對耶魯或哈佛對斯坦福或普林斯頓。相對於其它影響他們未來四年的大學生活的因素，學生仍然最看重學校的品牌。這種現象在華裔或亞裔社區表現得更為 突出。發表於五月初有關入學率的第一篇哈佛深紅報文章指出，“哈佛新生中非裔占9.8％，亞裔18.9％，拉美裔10.3％以及美國印第安裔占 1.6％... ...”，而第二篇（四月初）有關哈佛發榜時的數據的文章指出，“17.8％為亞裔，11.8％非裔，12.1％拉美裔，1.9％是美國印第安裔和 0.2％為夏威夷土著”。我們並不需要是一位統計學家來解釋這些數據並得出此結論：在不同種族的學生中亞裔接受哈佛的錄取而入學的比例（也就是入學率）是 最高的。

With nearly 77% yield rate for its incoming class of 2015, indisputably speaking, Harvard is the most popular university based on the two articles from Harvard Crimson claimed that Harvard's yield has been the highest in the nation in recent years. It means only 23 students out of 100 accepted declined Harvard's offers and chose to go elsewhere. If they could release more data on the battle for cross-admits, it will be more interested to learn the outcomes when it comes to Harvard vs Yale or Harvard vs Stanford or Princeton. Students are still choosing the brand name over other factors that will be affecting their future four years of college lives. The phenomenon is even more prominent among the Chinese or Asian community. In the first article on yield, Harvard Crimson reported that "The new class is currently 9.8 percent African American, 18.9 percent Asian American, 10.3 percent Latino, and 1.6 percent Native American.", but when Harvard announced the acceptance result last month, the data from the second article pointed out "17.8 percent of the accepted class is Asian-American, 11.8 percent is African-American, 12.1 percent is Latino, 1.9 percent is Native American, and 0.2 percent is Native Hawaiian. ".  We don't have to be a statistician to interpret these numbers showing that Asian students who were accepted by Harvard have the highest yield for matriculation among different major ethnic groups in this country.

Higher Yield Means Few Waitlist Admissions

By Justin C. Worland , Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

 

Published: Thursday, May 12, 2011

 

The yield for Harvard College’s class of 2015 increased to nearly 77 percent, up slightly from 75.5 percent last year, the University announced Thursday. Harvard’s yield, which measures what percentage of accepted students choose to attend, is typically among the highest in the nation.


In the same announcement, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 said that he anticipates his office will admit approximately 10 to 15 students off the waitlist this year, with some decisions potentially coming as early as Tuesday. This number is far lower than the 50 to 125 Fitzsimmons has said his office generally hopes to admit each year.

“We try to create a class that will educate each other in dorms, in dining halls, in classrooms, and in extracurricular activities. [In this sense,] this class has the potential to be the greatest class in the history of Harvard,” he said, pointing to the ethnic, economic, and geographic diversity of the class of 2015.

The new class is currently 9.8 percent African American, 18.9 percent Asian American, 10.3 percent Latino, and 1.6 percent Native American.

Nearly 12 percent of the incoming students are citizens of other countries, making it the most international class in the history of the College. At over 90 percent, the yield for these international students was especially high this year, according to Fitzsimmons.

He also said that his office has beenespecially diligent about recruiting international students, writing personal notes to each of them this year.

Overall, Fitzsimmons attributes the high yield to a number of factors including the attention students and faculty members gave accepted students, financial aid, and a successful Visitas, the visiting program for admitted students.

“It was really a team effort,” he said.

Every waitlisted application will get a second look, according to Fitzsimmons. The admissions committee, he said, began meetings earlier this week to reevaluate applications.

“We’ll admit some, we’ll hold on some, and, for anyone who doesn’t have a chance at this point, we’ll let them go,” Fitzsimmons said of his office’s handling of the waitlist at this juncture.

With nearly 35,000 applicants, this March the College accepted a record low 6.2 percent of first-year applicants for the class of 2015.

More than 60 percent of the students in the class of 2015 have been offered need based financial aid. The average scholarship totals more than $40,000.

Peer institutions have not yet released their yield numbers. In past years, Harvard has had the highest yield of its Ivy League peers.

—Staff writer Justin Worland can be reached at [e-mail].
 

Harvard Accepts Record Low 6.2 Percent of Applicants to the Class of 2015

By Justin C. Worland , CRIMSON STAFF WRITER

Published: Thursday, March 31, 2011

An all-time low of 6.2 percent of applicants were offered admission to the Harvard College Class of 2015, beating records for the sixth consecutive year in what reflects a trend of increasing selectivity both at Harvard and at other top-tier universities.

Notification letters were mailed yesterday afternoon to 2,158 students, who were selected from a pool of 34,950—the largest number of applicants ever.

“You can’t help but feel optimistic when you look at an applicant pool like ours,” said Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67. “It’s a big sign that American higher education has democratized.”

Next year’s freshman class will have an acceptance rate that’s nearly one percentage point below next year’s senior class, which had a rate of 7.1 percent. Ten years ago, 10.7 percent of applicants—an all-time low at the time—were admitted to that year’s incoming class, the Class of 2005.

Harvard’s admissions rate, down from 6.9 percent last year, is the lowest in the Ivy League, below Columbia’s 6.9 percent rate and Yale’s 7.35.

Those accepted to the Class of 2015 represent an increasingly diverse spectrum of students from around the country and the world: 17.8 percent of the accepted class is Asian-American, 11.8 percent is African-American, 12.1 percent is Latino, 1.9 percent is Native American, and 0.2 percent is Native Hawaiian.

Harvard said in a press release that the number of Latino and African-American students in the Class of 2015 will most likely be these groups’ highest representation in any class yet.

“The fact is the demographics of America are changing very rapidly,” Fitzsimmons said of the increased outreach to minority students. “This part of Harvard’s mission to produce future leaders.”

Approximately 20 percent of the admitted students are either foreign citizens, U.S. dual citizens, or U.S. permanent residents. Together, this group represents 85 countries.

“The world’s very best students now feel that it’s possible to be admitted to a school like Harvard,” Fitzsimmons said.

The budget for financial aid increased to more than $160 million for next year, and more than 60 percent of the Class of 2015 is expected to benefit from an average need-based scholarship of more than $40,000. Under the provisions of the Harvard Financial Aid Initiative, students from families with a household income of less than $60,000 are able attend Harvard at no cost.

While Fitzsimmons acknowledged that this year’s class boasts higher test scores than in previous years—3,800 applicants were ranked first in their class—he said that he was impressed by the response of the faculty to supplementary academic materials submitted by applicants.

“The quality [of these submissions] seemed to be different. It seemed to be better,” Fitzsimmons said.

The College did not disclose the number of students placed on Harvard’s waitlist.

While Fitzsimmons said numbers vary from year to year, he said his office generally hopes to accept 50 to 125 students off the list.

The decline in the acceptance rate is consistent with the numbers at peer institutions. The acceptance rate for Princeton University’s Class of 2015 was 8.4 percent, down from 8.8 percent last year. At Stanford University, 7.1 percent of applicants gained acceptance—a slight decrease from 7.2 percent the year before. Columbia University saw the most dramatic drop: 6.9 percent were admitted to the freshman class this year compared to 9.2 the year before.

Admitted students are expected to converge on Cambridge in about two weeks for Visitas, the College’s visiting program for prospective freshmen. Accepted students must notify the College whether they intend to enroll by May 1.

—Staff writer Justin C. Worland can be reached at [e-mail].