Applications to Harvard College fell by about 5 percent this year, a small decline that comes after a tumultuous year at the school marked by the dramatic downfall of its president and a Supreme Court defeat. Some 54,008 students applied to be in Harvard's class of 2028, the college said, down from 56,937 last year. The 3.59 percent acceptance rate was the highest the college has recorded in four years, according to The Harvard Crimson. It comes amid intense scrutiny around the college's handling of antisemitism allegations on campus in the wake of Hamas " Oct. 7 attacks in Israel. richest university came even as other elite schools saw their applications increase. Dartmouth and Yale enjoyed record application rates, both increasing their tallies by around 10 percent from last year, according to The New York Times. Columbia University, which also came under pressure over student protests, saw its applicant numbers increase by about 5 percent, while the University of Pennsylvania, M.I.T., and the University of Virginia increased their applicant pools. It's not clear what may have caused the decline at Harvard. Applications to Brown University also fell by around 5 percent, which was nevertheless the third-largest number the school has received in its history. The Harvard application dip comes as the school's leadership has been forced to respond to a string of potential threats to its reputation in recent months. Claudine Gay resigned from her post as Harvard's president in early January amid plagiarism allegations that surfaced in the aftermath of a congressional hearing on antisemitism that had itself sparked uproar. Her tenure as president-the shortest in Harvard's history-had been plunged into crisis when a coalition of pro-Palestine student groups issued a letter soon after the Hamas attacks saying it held "the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.". Powerful alumni and donors strongly criticized the university's response to the matter. Gay's resignation came after Elizabeth Magill, UPenn's then president, stepped down just four days after she also testified at the congressional hearing on antisemitism. Harvard nevertheless celebrated a "fourth consecutive year" where the school has received more than 50,000 applications. The class of 2028 is the first admissions cycle since Harvard's defeat in a Supreme Court ruling which ended affirmative action in college admissions.

Harvard said it received 5% fewer undergraduate applications this year compared with a year earlier, a dip that follows a tumultuous year for the Ivy League school that included the resignation of President Claudine Gay and a backlash over antisemitic incidents on the campus. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based school received 54,008 applications for the class of 2028, according to the Harvard Crimson, the campus newspaper. The undergraduate college at Harvard University accepted 1,245 of those applicants, giving the incoming freshman class an acceptance rate of 3.59% - the highest admission rate in four years, the publication noted. The decline at Harvard stands in contrast to rising student applications at other Ivy League establishments, with Yale's admission pool jumping 10% and Columbia University reporting an increase of 5.4%. Because of their larger applicant pool, Yale said its 3.7% acceptance rate was its lowest ever, while Columbia's admission rate narrowed to 3.85% from 3.9% a year ago. Harvard has drawn ferocious public criticism over the past year, including from some alumni and major donors, over its handling of antisemitic incidents tied to the Israel-Hamas war. At the same time, the dip in applications comes after Harvard lost a Supreme Court case over using race-conscious admissions policies, a ruling that has affected college admissions policies after effectively ending affirmative action in higher education. The university didn't release data on race and ethnicity for its incoming class, data that it has provided in previous years, the Harvard Crimson noted. Harvard didn't immediately return a request for comment about the decline in applicants. Although Harvard's acceptance rate is its highest in four years, the college remains one of the most competitive universities in the U.S. Some wealthy families are now paying consultants as much as $750,000 to prepare their children for college admissions, hoping that the extra expense will pay off with an acceptance letter to a top-ranked university. There's some evidence that a bachelor's degree from a competitive college can boost a person's lifetime earnings. Graduates of Ivy League and other elite institutions are 60% more likely to have incomes among the top 1% compared with those who didn't attend those colleges, Harvard economists found in a 2023 study.

Applications to Harvard College were down this year, even as many other highly selective schools hit record highs. The drop suggests that a year of turmoil - which went into overdrive with a student letter that said Israel was "entirely responsible" for the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks - may have dented Harvard's reputation and deterred some students from applying. Harvard's announcement on Thursday evening came as all eight Ivy League schools sent out their notices of admission or rejection, known as Ivy Day. While Brown University also saw a drop in applications, applications rose at many other elite colleges, including the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, Columbia, M.I.T., Bowdoin, Amherst, and the University of Virginia. Harvard focused on the positive. "Beyond another strong applicant pool, we are delighted by the stunning array of talents and lived experiences the class of 2028 will bring with them from throughout the United States and around the world," William R. Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions and financial aid, said in a statement. College counselors and admissions experts said that it was difficult to pin down the factors behind the decline in Harvard's numbers, but that the scrutiny has been intense and, by some accounts, the reputational damage severe. It began with a historic Supreme Court decision on June 29, striking down decades of affirmative action policy at Harvard that had become a model for higher education across the country. It culminated in the resignation on Jan. 2 of Claudine Gay, who was not just Harvard's president, but its first Black president. At that point, she faced accusations of plagiarism in her scholarly work, which she stood by, on top of complaints about her evasive testimony on antisemitism in December before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.