By definition, “highly selective college admissions” means more applicants denied than accepted. Harvard’s admissions results put the exclamation mark on the above statement. 98% or 40,003 people, a combination of “36,119 regular decision applicants, plus the 4,882 students deferred in the early action process” were denied admissions for Fall 2018.
And, before assuming that applying Early Action gives a greater chance for admissions (with a 14.5% admit rate), think again. Only 964 people were admitted to the Class of 2022 from the Early Action pool, 34 less people than the 998 admitted during Regular Decision. No matter when a student applies to Harvard, “highly selective” means highly selective.
Image courtesy of The Harvard Crimson