One of the most distinguishing parts of Harvard—its student body— is built around its admissions practices. The Early Action round of admission greatly benefits the Harvard community, enhancing the University’s ability to create a diverse, accomplished, engaged, and unique student body.
Students applying to Harvard have two windows to submit their application: the Restrictive Early Action round (whereby a student can submit early applications to Harvard and public universities, not other private ones), and the regular round, which does not limit where students can apply. One of the primary benefits of Harvard’s Restrictive Early Action (REA) program is its ability to gauge the interest of prospective students, thus maximizing yield rates. Harvard’s REA program mandates that students only apply to one private university in the early round. If a student chooses to apply REA to Harvard, they indicate a different, higher level of interest than a Regular Decision (RD) applicant.
This practice increases yield, which is the percentage of admitted students who enroll. In order to create an intentionally balanced class made up of diverse student identities, the yield rate carries a high significance. Additionally, having a higher yield raises a university’s ranking, which results in a more competitive and higher-quality applicant pool. Having a higher ranking can make a school more attractive to applicants, which can lead to a more intellectually qualified and curious applicant pool, increased alumni donations, and more faculty interest in the university. A university’s yield is heavily linked to numerous benefits that the school can receive, making it that much more important to keep the Restrictive Early Action process.
Eliminating Harvard’s Early Action system would put Harvard at a competitive disadvantage compared to other schools with similar applicant pools. For the Class of 2027, the REA acceptance rate was nearly three times as high as the RD acceptance rate. Students for whom Harvard is their top choice can indicate their preferences to the College by applying early. The early round has fewer applicants than the regular round, meaning that students may get more attention to their application than they would if they had simply applied in the regular round. Additionally, Harvard defers nearly 80% of early applicants, meaning a large majority of students’ early applications get passed on to the second round. REA gives deferred students a second look, further increasing the attention and care with which their application is treated. This virtuous circle, giving Harvard more information with which to construct its class and giving REA students more attention to their applications, would be lost with the elimination of REA.
Removing Early Action programs has had negative effects on yield rates previously. Princeton eliminated its early application program for the Class of 2012 and immediately saw a 10% decrease in their yield. After four years, when this program was brought back for the Class of 2016, the University’s yield shot up by 8%. Harvard had a similar decline when they removed early admissions for the Class of 2011. When it was brought back 5 years later, the yield immediately rose 4%. Early admissions programs boost yield, and eliminating Harvard’s early application option would reduce the college’s yield.
Furthermore, students who are admitted to Harvard early can commit to the University before regular decisions are finalized. Allowing students to solidify their place at the University earlier would help Harvard retain top-quality applicants (since they are given the decision before they know whether they have been accepted to other universities), benefitting not only the yield rate but Harvard as a whole as it seeks to create the most talented and unique student body it can.
The college application process is also an extraordinarily stressful time for prospective students, so the security of receiving a decision earlier than other applicants can encourage students to apply early. Students who choose to apply early to Harvard indicate a much greater commitment to the school. Giving both students and the admissions team increased clarity with REA is mutually beneficial.
Furthermore, creating an Early Action round allows the Admissions Office to spread its work over two separate cycles. For the Class of 2027, consistent with previous years, Harvard accepted 722 out of its 1942 total admits in the early round. Early applicants are reviewed between early November and mid-December, not only giving admissions officers more time to read applications but also distributing the workload in general. Reading files and interviewing is an enormous task of coordination for the admissions team, and admitting 35-40% of the Class before regular applications tremendously reduces the workload, necessitating only roughly 1200 (last year 63% of admitted students) new admits for the regular cycle.
This extra time and workload reduction allows the University’s admissions team to direct more attention to the merits of each individual applicant, providing more careful scrutiny than there would be if the application reading period were two months shorter. Students spend incredible amounts of time and effort on writing their applications—the least Harvard can do is make sure that their applications are given as careful consideration as they can be.
Due to the recent Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard Supreme Court case, Harvard’s admissions practices have come under heavy scrutiny in the past year. During this time, the University has been forced to grapple with who its admissions policies benefit, and exactly how specific policies impact the general makeup of a Harvard class.
In the Princeton Review’s 2023 College Hopes & Worries survey, Harvard was a top 3 “dream college” for both current college applicants and their parents. Almost 60,000 students apply to Harvard each year, a number that only continues to increase. Out of the accepted students, 84% end up matriculating, underscoring Harvard’s prestige. Harvard can essentially fill its student body makeup in any way it wants—Restrictive Early Action ensures that the admissions office can better construct a student body that benefits prospective students, current students, and the University as a whole.
Jai Glazer ’27 (jglazer@college.harvard.edu) writes Forum for the Independent.