Early Admissions Rise

Getting a jump on Harvard College’s class of 2018

The College announced today that 992 applicants from a pool of 4,692 had been granted early-action admission to the class of 2018, entering next autumn. In 2012, early-action admission was granted to 892 of 4,845 applicants; and in 2011, when the program was made available after a four-year hiatus, 774 of 4,228 applicants were granted early-action admission. Such admissions are not binding on the applicants, who can decide next spring whether to enroll; thus, the offer of admission differs from early decision—an option not extended by Harvard—which is binding on accepted applicants. (The prior-year data reported here vary slightly from the figures given in earlier accounts; they reflect the numbers distributed with the College’s news announcement of today.)

As the Crimson has pointed out, early-action applicants’ strong inclination to enroll if offered admission (a high “yield” rate) means that members of the regular application pool face an extraordinarily low admission rate—heading toward 3 percent. If all of the 992 early-action applicants offered admission were to matriculate (as is unlikely), there would be about 650 openings left in the class. Some 3,197 early applicants were deferred this year; they and regular-deadline applicants may total some 30,000 or so, competing for those remaining spaces.

Read the news announcement here.

You might also like

Veteran MIT Administrator Named University Secretary

Suzanne Glassburn will manage the work of the Corporation and Board of Overseers.

FAS Dean Outlines Preparations for Loss of Federal Funding

“To preserve our mission, we must act now,” Hoekstra says at faculty meeting

The 2025 Pulitzer Prizes Announced

Winners across five categories, from commentary on Gaza to criticism on public architecture

Most popular

Harvard President Responds to Secretary of Education

Alan Garber outlines steps University has taken, emphasizes compliance with the law.

Jodie Foster at Radcliffe Day 2025

Actress and director discusses her film career and her transformative time at Yale.

Danielle Allen Debates Far-Right Blogger Curtis Yarvin

Popular monarchist debates Allen on democracy.

Explore More From Current Issue

The Trump Administration's Impact on Higher Education

Unprecedented federal actions against research funding, diversity, speech, and more

Why Taxi Drivers Don’t Die of Alzheimer’s

Explaining taxi and ambulance drivers’ protection against Alzheimer’s disease.

Chinese Immigrants in Early America

Michael Luo ’98 on the first great wave of immigration—and of nativist anti-immigrant reaction