Harvard Application Number Dips as Other Elite Schools Break Records

Harvard University this year received about 3,000 fewer undergraduate applications than last year, a modest drop that follows months of turbulence on the Ivy League school campus.

The prestigious Massachusetts school received 54,008 applications for the incoming freshman class, representing just over a 5 percent decline in applicants overall. Still, the university said this year marked the fourth in a row for which more than 50,000 students applied.

Harvard’s undergraduate college accepted 1,245 of those applicants, who will join the 692 students who were accepted in December in early action, reported student newspaper Harvard Crimson. In total, Harvard offered admission to 1,937 students, giving the class of 2028 an acceptance rate of 3.59 percent—the highest in four years.

William Fitzsimmons,…