Boosting social media and publicizing financial aid helped Harvard University receive a record 37,305 applications for the fall freshman class.
Applications were up 9%, as interest in the Ivy League school soars. The university has seen record or near-record high application numbers for the past several years.
Harvard officials said more college-bound students applied because of its revamp website and increased focus on social media. To get a feel of Harvard life, students are encouraged to follow the school on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram.
Also attributing to the rise in applicants was publicity about a $150 million donation announced last year, mostly for financial aid.
Despite high tuition costs, the majority of Harvard’s undergraduates receive a scholarship. The university offers full rides to students whose families earn less than $65,000 a year, while families earning $65,000 to $150,000 a year pay up to 10% of their income, Harvard’s website says.
Two-thirds of students work during the school year. Harvard’s tuition and fees were $43,938 for the 2014-25 school year, according to the U.S. News & World Report.
Of the thousands who applied, less than 10% will be accepted. Of the 34,295 applicants for last year’s Class of 2018, 2,048 got in.
They came from across the United States and the world, with the largest portion coming from the middle Atlantic region, followed by Pacific states and the South. About 11% of students were international.
Located in Cambridge, Mass., Harvard is a private university founded in 1636 with a total undergraduate enrollment of about 6,700. U.S. News & World Report ranked Harvard second among the best universities in America in 2015, next to Princeton University. Yale came in third.
While Harvard set a record for applications, other schools have considerably more applicants. Among the top 10 most sought after schools in 2012, eight were in California, U.S. News reported last year.
The University of California – Los Angeles had the most applicants (72,697), followed by the University of California – Berkeley (61,731) and the University of California – San Diego (60,805).
For the upcoming freshman class, Harvard wasn’t the only Ivy League school to see record applicants. Columbia, Princeton, Brown and the University of Pennsylvania also broke records. Columbia had the largest gain, 10%.
Students interested in attending Harvard must apply through the online Common Application, a portal for more than 500 colleges and universities.
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