Overall Admit Rate at 9%

The Class of 2009 was chosen from a record 22,796 applicants. Harvard's new Financial Aid Initiative has led to the largest applicant pool and the most competitive admission rate (9.1 percent) in the history of the College. 2,074 students were admitted. The Financial Aid Initiative has also led to the most economically diverse class.

Of those admitted, approximately 360 will be eligible for the new Financial Aid Initiative program, which requires no parental contribution for tuition from families with incomes under $40,000 and reduced contribution from those families with incomes from $40,000 to $60,000.

Academically, this year's applicant pool remained similar to the previous year's. 56 percent of the pool scored 1400 or higher on SATs; almost 2,150 scored a perfect 800 on their SAT verbal test; more than 3,200 scored an 800 on the SAT math; and nearly 3,200 were valedictorians of their high school classes.

The gender ratio was similar to last year's. 1,047 men and 1,027 women admitted.

Geographical representation was quite similar to last year. 25 percent of the admitted students are from the mid-Atlantic, 19 percent are from the Western and Mountain states, 17 percent from New England, 16 percent from the South, 12 percent from the Midwest, and nearly 10 percent from the U.S. territories and abroad. There were 175 international students, compared to 177 for the previous year.

10.5 percent of the admitted students are African American, 17.8 percent are Asian American, 8.2 percent are Latino, and slightly more than 1 percent are Native American.

Early Admission

Harvard's early pool saw a 7.2 percent increase in applications, but early statistics for the class of 2009 remained similar to last year's, with an acceptance rate of 21 percent. 885 applicants were accepted, 3120 were deferred, and 135 were rejected.

Last year's early pool was the first in Harvard's history to accept more females then males. However, the gender divide tipped back this year, and females made up 46.3 percent of the early admit pool, similar to the rate for the Class of 2007. There was a slight increase in African-American (up 1.8 percent from last year) and Hispanic admits (up 1.1 percent).