International Signs that Harvard University is Increasingly Unsold, This Phenomenon Appears News – 1 hour ago

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The number of prospective students applying to Harvard University fell to its lowest level in the last four years. Enrollment at top universities in the United States has decreased compared to other universities that are equivalent or included in the Ivy League group.

At the end of March, Harvard had just 54,008 undergraduate applicants for the graduating class of 2028. The previous year, the university had nearly 57,000 applicants, and for the two years before that, about 61,000 and nearly 58,000 applicants, respectively.

“It's not clear why enrollment is down, but the drop comes in a year when Harvard faced turmoil after Hamas attacked Israel last October, its president resigned and the Supreme Court restricted how colleges can consider race in admissions,” the Wall Street Journal report quoted as saying. WSJ) Wednesday (10/4/2024).

A dispute over views of the Israel-Hamas war previously broke out on the Cambridge campus in Massachusetts, leading to increased tensions between pro-Palestinian and Jewish students. Students at Harvard and other universities protested the war, and leaders were at a loss as to how to respond.

Harvard, among other universities, has faced concerns of rising antisemitism on campus. The school's former president, Claudine Gay, resigned in January after facing accusations of plagiarism and accusations of not responding to antisemitism at the university with enough urgency.

A House committee led by Republican members of Congress is investigating Harvard's response to antisemitism. The investigation is ongoing, and the committee is also looking into other schools, including Rutgers University and the University of California, Berkeley. Some Harvard donors and the alumni board say they are unhappy with the school's efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment.

In the wake of the Supreme Court's affirmative action decision involving Harvard, some high school students expressed confusion over applying to various schools.

“Confidence in higher education overall has shown signs of decline,” according to the WSJ.

Harvard's acceptance rate for the class of 2028 is about 3.6%, its highest rate in three years, according to data released by the school. The university enrolled 1,937 students, the lowest figure in at least a decade. Even so, a 5% decline in total applicants was preceded by a 17% decline in initial applications to Harvard.

Harvard enrollment peaked two years ago, according to the school. The university has received more than 50,000 applicants in the last three years. Between 2014 and 2020, the highest number of applicants to Harvard was 43,330 in 2019.

Meanwhile, other Ivy League campuses saw their enrollment numbers continue to increase. The University of Pennsylvania and Yale University said they received the largest applications in their history, with more than 65,000 and about 57,000 applicants respectively.

Dartmouth College reported nearly 32,000 applications. Enrollment at Columbia University also increased to about 60,000 from about 57,000 the previous year.

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(dce)