Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College et al
Filing
454
DECLARATION of Michael Connolly in Support of SFFA's Opposition to Harvard's Motion for Summary Judgment by Students for Fair Admissions, Inc.. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit 262, # 2 Exhibit 263, # 3 Exhibit 264, # 4 Exhibit 265, # 5 Exhibit 266, # 6 Exhibit 267, # 7 Exhibit 268, # 8 Exhibit 269, # 9 Exhibit 270, # 10 Exhibit 271, # 11 Exhibit 272, # 12 Exhibit 273, # 13 Exhibit 274, # 14 Exhibit 275, # 15 Exhibit 276, # 16 Exhibit 277, # 17 Exhibit 278, # 18 Exhibit 279, # 19 Exhibit 280, # 20 Exhibit 281, # 21 Exhibit 282, # 22 Exhibit 283, # 23 Exhibit 284, # 24 Exhibit 285)(Consovoy, William) (Additional attachment(s) added on 7/31/2018: # 25 Unredacted DECLARATION of Michael Connolly in Support of SFFA's Opposition to Harvard's Motion for Summary Judgment (Filed Under Seal), # 26 Exhibit 262 (Filed Under Seal), # 27 Exhibit 263 (Filed Under Seal), # 28 Exhibit 264 (Filed Under Seal), # 29 Exhibit 265 (Filed Under Seal), # 30 Exhibit 266 (Filed Under Seal), # 31 Exhibit 267 (Filed Under Seal), # 32 Exhibit 268 (Filed Under Seal), # 33 Exhibit 269 (Filed Under Seal), # 34 Exhibit 270 (Filed Under Seal), # 35 Exhibit 271 (Filed Under Seal), # 36 Exhibit 272 (Filed Under Seal), # 37 Exhibit 273 (Filed Under Seal), # 38 Exhibit 274 (Filed Under Seal), # 39 Exhibit 275 (Filed Under Seal), # 40 Exhibit 276 (Filed Under Seal), # 41 Exhibit 277 (Filed Under Seal), # 42 Exhibit 278 (Filed Under Seal), # 43 Exhibit 279 (Filed Under Seal), # 44 Exhibit 280 (Filed Under Seal), # 45 Exhibit 281 (Filed Under Seal), # 46 Exhibit 282 (Filed Under Seal), # 47 Exhibit 283 (Filed Under Seal), # 48 Exhibit 284 (Filed Under Seal), # 49 Exhibit 285 (Filed Under Seal)) (McDonagh, Christina).
EXHIBIT 268
2,058 Accepted Into Class of 2011
By Aditi Balakrishna, Crimson Staff Writer March 29, 2007
4
The 2,058 students offered a spot in the Harvard College Class of 2011—some told in
December, but most in the coming days—constitute the most socioeconomically and
racially diverse class ever accepted to Harvard, according to figures released today by
the Harvard College Admissions Office.
The accepted students were drawn from a record pool of 22,955 applicants. That
makes this year’s application process the most competitive Harvard has seen, with
less than nine percent of hopeful students being offered a space in next year’s
freshman class. Last year, 9.3 percent of applicants to the Class of 2010 were
accepted.
But Dean of Admissions William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 stressed that he believed the
increased diversity of the incoming class—not its competitiveness—is the class’s
most significant attribute.
While the percentage of female admits fell by about one percent to 50.5 percent,
slight increases set record highs for African American, Asian American, Latino, and
Native American students. The pool of accepted students is 10.7 percent African
American, 19.6 percent Asian American, 10.1 percent Latino, and 1.5 percent Native
American, according to the admissions office.
Admission of foreign nationals rose above last year’s 8.7 percent, coming in at 9.1
percent this year. In total, foreign citizens, students with dual citizenship with the
U.S. and another country, and U.S. permanent residents constitute approximately 19
percent of the admitted class, about the same as last year. The geographic
distribution of students accepted from within the United States also remained
similar to previous years.
In a phone interview, Fitzsimmons attributed the increasing diversity of the accepted
class to the success of the Harvard Financial Aid Initiative (HFAI) and minority
recruitment efforts.
The admissions office estimates that 26 percent of the admitted students will be
eligible for HFAI, a program that waives the parental contribution to tuition for
families earning less than $60,000 a year and significantly lowers the expected
parental contribution for families earning between $60,000 and $80,000 a year.
Since HFAI was put in place three years ago, the number of accepted students from
families with incomes under $60,000 has increased by 34 percent, according to the
admissions office.
“The response to the new Harvard Financial Aid Initiative has been beyond our
wildest expectations,” Fitzsimmons said yesterday. “There’s often an immediate
effect…but now it has really been sustained through a number of classes—that is
really promising.”
Fitzsimmons added that the admissions office’s expanded recruiting efforts—such as
traveling information programs, the Undergraduate Minority Recruitment Program,
and alumni involvement in recruitment—have been greatly helped by the College’s
financial aid offerings.
“The fact that we can talk about new financial aid offerings creates a generally
welcoming message,” he said.
The test scores and relative academic achievements for the students accepted to the
Class of 2011 were consistent with previous years.
“We have a class that is the most diverse ever, and academic credentials are just as
they were last year,” Fitzsimmons said. “There’s always a negative correlation
between socioeconomic background and access to education for high test scores—
but we have been able to keep standards right where they were.”
Academic interests for the entering class have shifted slightly, according to the new
figures. Interest in engineering as well as related fields such as mathematics and
computer science has increased, as has interest in the biological sciences. The
number of accepted students interested in concentrating in the humanities, social
sciences, and physical sciences decreased slightly.
The College plans to have its annual visiting program for admitted students from
April 21 to 23. Until then, accepted students have access to online chat sessions and
message boards to get in touch with potential classmates. Students have until May 1
to accept or reject their offer from Harvard.
—Staff writer Aditi Balakrishna can be at balakris@fas.harvard.edu.