Harvard Admissions

Gaining admission to Harvard just gets harder and harder, and I can say from my own experience as an interviewer in this year's admissions process that there is no doubt thousands of stellar applicants were turned aside:

Getting into Harvard University got tougher in 2007 as more students than ever applied to the Ivy League school's undergraduate program, many drawn by an attractive financial aid offer.

Harvard, the world's richest university, said Thursday a record 22,955 students applied for a spot in the Class of 2011. Of those, just 2,058 were accepted -- an admission rate of 9 percent, the lowest in school history.

All I know is that I am glad I was an applicant in the spring of 1998 and not the spring of 2007. That said, this line from the story makes little sense:

Harvard and other prestigious U.S. universities are benefiting from a surge in enrollment as children of the baby-boomer generation graduate from high school.

I don't know about other universities, but Harvard is not benefiting from a "surge in enrollment." Enrollment continues to hold steady at 1600-1700 students per year for an undergraduate enrollment of ~6500. There has perhaps been an increase in applications, which is partially responsible for the continuing decline in the overall admissions rate, but I don't think this represents an overall increase in the quality of the applicant pool. It is simply a numerical increase due to population growth. The country just keeps getting bigger, while Harvard has not (and apparently will not).

The other major factor in the admissions rate is the expected "yield," which is the percentage of admitted students who actually enroll. As Harvard's yield has risen to nearly 80%, the school only has to make ~2000 admission offers to fill its student body. That has as much to do with the admissions rate as the number of applicants.