Early Action

The College accepted 906 students for early admission this year - the lowest number of early admits since 1996, but the highest early acceptance rate in the past five years.

Out of nearly 4,000 applicants, 23.3 percent were offered a spot in the Class of 2008. Last year 15.1 percent of 7,620 early applicants were admitted.

Harvard's applications decreased by more than 47 percent, from 7,615 last year to less than 4,000 this year. The numbers are likely a result of changes to early admissions policies that went into effect this year.

For the Class of 2007, Harvard implemented a program known as early action, in which -- unlike early decision -- a student could apply early but was not obligated to matriculate. However, for the Class of 2008, the school reinstituted its binding policy.

This year, for the first time in the history of the College, a majority of early acceptances went to women. Women constituted 50.9 percent of this year's early admits compared to 45.2 percent in 2002. The number of female applicants to Harvard has been gradually rising over the years. Of this year's applicants, 47.1 percent were female.

The admissions committee deferred 2,737 applicants and rejected 165. Eleven applicants withdrew their applications before receiving a decision.

Regular Decision

In the College's second highest tally ever, 19,750 students applied for a spot in the Class of 2008, 1,016 women and 1,013 men were admitted.

56 percent of the candidates scored 1,400 or higher on SATs; 2,700 scored a perfect 800 on their SAT mathematics test; nearly 2,000 scored 800 on their SAT verbal test; and 2,800 are valedictorians of their high school classes.

Records were set for the percentages of minority applicants. Asian-Americans made up the largest percentage yet of accepted applicants, at 18.9 percent. The percentage of blacks was also the highest ever, 10.3 percent, as was the percentage of Latinos, 9.5 percent.

More than 25 percent of the admitted students reside in the mid-Atlantic, 19 percent are from the Western and Mountain states, 17 percent from New England, 17 percent from the South, 12 percent from the Midwest, and 10 percent from the U.S. territories and abroad.

Foreign citizens number 166, up slightly from last year's 161. As usual, a significant number of incoming students will bring an international perspective, including Americans who have lived abroad, 81 U.S. dual citizens, and 81 U.S. permanent residents. Together, foreign citizens, U.S. duals, and U.S. permanent residents comprise 16.2 percent of the class, compared with 15.4 percent last year.

Areas of academic interest are similar to those of the Class of 2007. Just over 22 percent list biological sciences as their proposed concentration, while 9 percent are interested in the physical sciences. Nearly 9 percent lean toward engineering, 8 percent toward math, and 2 percent toward computer science. The social sciences attract almost 25 percent as do the humanities, with 1 percent undecided.

The Class of 2008 has a wide range of extracurricular interests. The major activity cited by students as an extracurricular focus is music (26 percent); followed by creative writing, journalism, and other writing (24 percent); arts, dance, and drama (21 percent); social service (19 percent); student government (12 percent); debate (12 percent); and political groups (9 percent). More than 57 percent of the class plans to participate in recreational, intramural, or intercollegiate athletics.