Harvard Applications Hit Record High

Harvard accepts just 7% of applicants

(NEWSER) - Acceptance letters from the nation's top colleges will begin to arrive on prospective students' doorsteps today, but far more rejection letters are in the mail than ever before, reports the New York Times. Harvard and Yale accepted only 7.1% and 8.3% of applicants, respectively, both record lows as schools struggle with changing demographics. More»

Protests spread across Ivy League campuses

(NEWSER) - Half of those surveyed in Harvard's class of 2010 went into finance or consulting; at the University of Pennsylvania, the figure was even higher—and some students are fed up with the "brain drain." Inspired in part by the Occupy movement, students have launched protests against recruiting by big banks, consulting firms, and hedge funds at top universities ranging from Princeton to Stanford, NPR reports. "You've got 20% to 30% of some of the top talent in this country going into a sector that is not necessarily contributing to economic and social productivity," says movement leader Teryn Norris. More»

Elite universities profit from acting interested in unqualified students

(NEWSER) - Ivy League schools cram high school students' mailboxes full with glossy recruitment packages, only to greet them weeks later with far less appealing rejection letters. Critics say elite universities like Harvard and Columbia set up potential applicants for disappointment by wooing them with pamphlets, posters, and promise, pocketing hefty application fees of up to $90 from students who have little chance of actually getting accepted, Bloomberg reports. More»

Top schools see no application shortage despite economy

(NEWSER) - Sure, a lot of people are cash-strapped, but don’t get your hopes up that the recession will boost your shot at an Ivy League school. Harvard got a record number of applications this year—29,112, a 6% jump from last year. And pricey universities like Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, Columbia, and Stanford all saw application numbers soar, the New York Times reports. Still, some top smaller schools did see a decline in applications. More»

(NEWSER) - Yale's endowment is performing like those of other major universities: miserably. The Ivy League school said today that its fund had plunged 25%, or $5.9 billion, to $17 billion since July, the New Haven Independent reports. Yale's president warned of a $100 million budget shortfall in the 2009 school year and said belt-tightening would be necessary. More»