Applications to Harvard Drop Following Months of Antisemitism and Plagiarism Reports
“In December of last year, the Harvard early application pool saw a 17% decline from the year before, receiving 7,921 early applications, compared to 9,553 applications in 2022.”
For months now, Harvard has been allowing its brand to be tarnished by instances of outrageous antisemitism and a plagiarism scandal that forced out former president Claudine Gay.
Now the school is reaping the predictable outcome of all this by seeing a drop in applications.
FOX News reports:
Harvard sees dip in applications following antisemitism, plagiarism controversies
Harvard University suffered a 5% drop in admission applications following its highly publicized antisemitism and plagiarism controversies.
The Ivy League school published data on its incoming Class of 2028 on Thursday, announcing the acceptance of 1,937 students from an application pool of 54,008.
This marks a small downward tick in applications from last year — approximately 3,000 fewer.
In December of last year, the Harvard early application pool saw a 17% decline from the year before, receiving 7,921 early applications, compared to 9,553 applications in 2022.
The November 1, 2023, application deadline came before Harvard’s then-President Claudine Gay’s congressional testimony that ignited discussions about institutional leaders’ reluctance to adequately condemn antisemitism.
The scandal only got worse after Gay was accused of plagiarism in her academic work.
Caroline Downey of National Review breaks down the numbers:
For the class of 2028, Harvard received 54,008 applicants, representing a 5 percent decrease from the 56,937 who sent in applications the year before. The 3.59 percent acceptance rate was the highest in four years for the school, according to the Harvard Crimson. The drop in prospective students comes on the heels of President Claudine Gay’s removal following mounting pressure from Jewish donors and students. Gay received intense condemnation for her alleged mismanagement of exploding antisemitism at Harvard following Hamas’s invasion of Israel on October 7.
The drama snowballed after over 30 Harvard University student organizations issued a joint letter holding Israel “entirely responsible” for the brutal violence perpetrated by the terrorists. Prominent alumni such as businessman Bill Ackman and others denounced the students’ conduct as well as the school’s refusal to strongly condemn it.
Will Harvard course correct on this?
#Harvard applications are down because the schools has become widely known as toxic toward free speech and intellectual inquiry. As @sapinker told me in a new @reason Interview podcast, America's oldest and most influential college can coast on its reputation for only so long.… pic.twitter.com/Psqqua68wJ
— Nick Gillespie (@nickgillespie) March 29, 2024
Alarm bells should be going off in various Harvard offices right now, particularly admissions and development.
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Comments
At this point harvard should just own it, and award scholarships to blacks for plagiarism in the field of DEI/CRT.
Harvard is such a fraud.
Correct!! But the question remains, for how long has its fraudulent behavior gone beneath the radar?
Existing Harvard graduates should sue Harvard for devaluing valve of their degrees.
Only a 5% drop? So the other 95% is Ok with antisemitism I guess. I wonder if this drop is primarily Jewish students also? If so, then from Harvard’s perspective it’s a win, as they will end up with fewer Jews attending, which is probably what they want (their version of DIE doesn’t apply to non leftists). Not a big enough dent in the numbers to force a course correction. It actually saves them work in reviewing and sending out reject letters. And the tiny loss of application fees won’t even be a rounding error in the budget. Academia is like a deadly bacteria infecting western civilization, to the point where it may kill its host that funds it.
Harvard wants jewish students to feel “unwelcome” and give up their seat in class to blacks or muzzies? Claudine gay is smiling.
Wow! That’s only 28 applicants per opening.
Ridicule. Typical. However, the NYT and other outlets saw fit to write about the 5% dip, and the reasons. It shows too many chase privilege and fake status, and that more people are unwilling to expose themselves to a environment of illiberal monotone and hatred.
oldschooltwentysix: Ridicule.
It’s a small change in a single year. For comparison, there were 39,041 applicants in 2020, before applications surged to 61,220 during the pandemic. The numbers also show that Harvard remains a highly selective school, admitting less than 4% of applicants.
Of course it’s highly selective. That is not the point, however. It’s less popular and even the mainstream media acknowledges. If you think Harvard is on the right track, so must explain away what is an OBVIOUS CHANGE, that says enough.
oldschooltwentysix: That is not the point, however. It’s less popular and even the mainstream media acknowledges.
Ignoring the context—even when provided—doesn’t make for a strong argument that “Alarm bells should be going off”. The change is too small; and there are a number of other possible factors, including falling off from overinflated pandemic admissions, to reach any strong conclusions.
What remains, however, is that Harvard has far more applicants than available positions. And that means Harvard is still one of the most sought after colleges, and it gets to pick among the best students.
The number of early applicants has fallen because Harvard has added a new requirement that each early applicant must have one or more swastika tattoos observable on their body. That takes time, and is holding up the early application process.
Hire a recent Harvard grad at your peril. Due diligence is critical.
The Class of 2028 early decision applicant pool began submitting their applications in August of 2023, long before Harvard’s Claudine Gay’s congressional testimony. Granted the January 1st regular decision applicant pool could have been affected by the fallout, but it’s fair to assume that high tuition and enrollment costs are also key drivers.
Other factors are at play here. Many are looking to understand the full impact of the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling last semester and might have to wait until later this summer when the University is expected to release the demographic data of students.
While some expect to see a change from past years in the racial composition of the admitted class, Harvard — in a break from precedent — will not release racial and ethnic data on Thursday. This move comes as the University is increasingly wary of litigation from anti-affirmative action groups.
It will be interesting to see the numbers, applicants who saw all this happen before sending out applications. It won’t fall too much, because it’s common that if you think you have a chance to get into an Ivy, you apply to a lot of them, even all 8. Would be unlikely to leave Harvard off the list. It’s the richest, it gives the best financial aid or tied for best, and you will say you can put up with some PC crap for 4 years for the sake of all the rest and such a luxurious campus.
“Will Harvard course correct on this?”
It depends on whether having fewer applicants bothers them, or if they are happy with sort of people who are still applying. I’m not accusing them of an institutional bias, but if the shoe fits…
Doubt this is going to help their numbers, and it might provide a few more hints into the institutional bias question:
‘Harvard Law School Passes Resolution Accusing Israel of Genocide, Calling for Divestment’
https://www.algemeiner.com/2024/03/29/harvard-law-school-passes-resolution-accusing-israel-genocide-calling-divestment/
The public remains largely unaware of how bad Harvard and other universities have become. The understanding is like a small plant in spring, just starting, and will continue to grow, spurred on by the pronounced hatred toward Jews and the hypocrisy of privileged elites.
Gay was removed but despite actions that would get an undergrad thrown out she is still pulling in close to seven figures as a professor of something or other. No wonder serious people are looking elsewhere as Harvard’s Golden Diploma now appears to be made of zinc.
Harvard began, and remains, a seminary for the unofficial religion of the elite. All of the applicants are clamoring for a vanishingly small number of sinecures, and Harvard chooses the most fanatical applicants. They won’t be hurting for numbers.
What we should hope for is a downward trend of college attendance nationwide. It’s been almost 13 years since Occupy Wall Street, after all. Kids should have gotten the message by now.