Harvard Rejection Rate Breaks Record

March 29, 2007 — -- Nearly 23,000 of the most talented high school seniors in the United States -- and around the world -- will rush home from school Thursday to find out whether they are Harvard material.

Just 2,058 will open their mail with a smile.

Harvard this year broke its own admissions record by accepting the smallest percentage of applicants, selecting about 9 percent of a supercharged applicant pool.

By contrast, the average selectivity rate in 2006 among the 2,530 U.S. four-year colleges was 70 percent.

It's not just Harvard that's sending out the news, good and bad. Colleges and universities across the country have begun notifying students, keeping 1.8 million college-bound teenagers on edge.

"This is a particularly stressful time," said Joyce Smith, chief executive of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. "Good kids are going to get rejected."

In Harvard's case, that's 20,897 good kids, to be exact.

"Parents will be outraged when their kid gets a rejection," Smith said. "But the idea that you failed because you didn't get into Harvard when you have six other totally viable options? We feel like parents should use it as a teaching moment."

The Harvard admissions department also set new records for the number of minority students accepted -- with never-before-reached levels of black, Asian-American, Latino and American Indian students getting the nod.

The prestigious university is also touting increased economic diversity in this year's acceptance pool: An estimated 26 percent of those accepted will qualify for Harvard's financial aid initiative, a program begun three years ago that requires no tuition payments for families whose annual incomes are less than $60,000, and substantial breaks for families whose incomes are between $60,000 and $80,000.

That's a considerable boon, considering tuition at Harvard is $43,655, including room and board.

Harvard is just one of a growing number of private colleges using monster endowments -- for Harvard, almost $30 billion -- that lets schools offer middle- and low-income families a tuition break.

On top of that, Harvard's acceptance letters went out to 79 countries this year, another statistic the school is eager to trumpet.