Students
| Undergraduate | Graduate | Professional | U.S. Census | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black/Non-Hispanic | 8% | 3% | 6% | 12.1% |
| Asian/Pacific Islander | 17% | 9% | 12% | 4.3% |
| White/Non-Hispanic | 42% | 42% | 43% | 65.8% |
| Hispanic | 7% | 3% | 5% | 14.5% |
| Native American | 1% | 0.2% | 0.6% | 0.9% |
| International Students | 11% | 33% | 22% | N/A |
In the last six years, Harvard's student population ranged between 19,000 and 21,000, across all programs. Harvard enrolled 6,655 students in undergraduate programs, 3,738 students in graduate programs, and 10,722 students in professional programs. The undergraduate population is 51% female, the graduate population is 48% female, and the professional population is 49% female.
Undergraduate admission to Harvard is characterized by the Carnegie Foundation as "more selective, lower transfer-in". Harvard College received 27,462 applications for admission to the Class of 2013, 2,175 were admitted (7.9%), and 1,658 enrolled (76.2%). The interquartile range on the SAT was 2080–2370 and 95% of first year students graduated in the top tenth of their high school class. Harvard also enrolled 266 National Merit Scholars, the most in the nation. 88% of students graduate within 4 years and 98% graduate within 6 years.
Harvard College accepted 6.9% of applicants for the class of 2014, a record low for the school's entire history. The number of acceptances was lower for the class of 2013 partially because the university anticipated increased rates of enrollment after announcing a large increase in financial aid in 2008. Harvard College ended its early admissions program in 2007 as the program was believed to disadvantage low-income and under-represented minority applicants applying to selective universities. For the Class of 2016 an Early Decision program was reintroduced. The undergraduate admissions office's preference for children of alumni policies have been the subject of scrutiny and debate as it primarily aids whites and the wealthy and seems to conflict with the concept of meritocratic admissions.
Read more about this topic: Harvard University
Famous quotes containing the word students:
“American universities are organized on the principle of the nuclear rather than the extended family. Graduate students are grimly trained to be technicians rather than connoisseurs. The old German style of universal scholarship has gone.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)
“A complacent old Don of Divinity
Used to boast of his daughter’s virginity:
“They must have been dawdlin’,
The students of Magdalen—
It couldn’t have happened at Trinity.””
—Anonymous.
“It is, all in all, a historic error to believe that the master makes the school; the students make it!”
—Robert Musil (1880–1942)