Harvard College saw a 5 percent drop in undergraduate applications this year, while other Ivy League schools, including Yale and Dartmouth, boasted a record 10 percent increase.
Harvard received 54,008 undergraduate applications, about 5 percent fewer than last year, following the resignation of former president Claudine Gay amid accusations of plagiarism and backlash over anti-Semitism events.
Applications to Brown University were also down nearly 5 percent from last year, but other Ivy League schools saw a record increase in the number of applicants, according to The New York Times.
Yale University and Dartmouth College received applications 10 percent more than last year, while MIT, which also made headlines for anti-Israel protests on campus after the Oct. 7 attack, and experienced its own plagiarism, saw a 5 percent increase in applications.
Columbia, which declined an invitation to testify before Congress along with the presidents of Harvard, UPenn and MIT, also saw a 5 percent increase despite repeated accusations of anti-Semitism on campus.
Cornell and Princeton decided not to disclose the number of applicants or admission fees for this admissions cycle.
Harvard College saw a 5 percent drop in undergraduate applications this year, while other Ivy League schools, including Yale and Dartmouth, boasted a record 10 percent increase.
Harvard received 54,008 undergraduate applications, about 5 percent fewer than last year, following the backlash over anti-Semitism scandals. Protesters are seen at Harvard on October 14, 2023.
Yale University (left) and Dartmouth College (right) received applications 10 percent more than last year.
Early applications to Harvard were down 17 percent and regular applications were down nearly 3 percent this year. The school accepted 1,937 students for its class of 2028, about 3.6 percent of applicants.
Despite the decline, it was the fourth consecutive year in which it received more than 50,000 applications, according to harvard crimson.
The drop in applications follows accusations of anti-Semitism on Harvard’s campus, which began with a letter from a student claiming that Israel was “fully responsible” for the October 7 attacks.
The group’s student branch, Students for Justice in Palestine, published the controversial letter blaming Israel for the Palestinian extremists’ terrorist plot.
The letter sparked an outcry from many Harvard alumni and led to dozens of top donors withdrawing their tens of millions from the school.
It was that series of events that set the ball rolling toward the ultimate overthrow of Harvard president Gay, 53, who only lasted six months in office.
Former President Claudine Gay resigned from office following accusations of plagiarism and disastrous testimony before Congress that failed to condemn campus anti-Semitism.
MIT (left) and Columbia (right), which also made headlines for anti-Israel protests on campus after the Oct. 7 attack, saw applications increase by 5 percent.
His resignation in January came just a month after his shocking testimony before Congress on campus anti-Semitism, where he refused to categorize calls for Jewish genocide as harassment or admit that Jewish students had a right not to feel safe in colleges. the Ivy League.
In her resignation, Gay wrote that she was resigning after “consultation” with the school board, which has been under pressure to replace her after defending her comments.
“It has become clear that it is in Harvard’s best interest to resign so that our community can confront this moment of extraordinary challenge by focusing on the institution and not any individual,” Gay wrote, adding that she had been the victim of racist threats.
UPenn President Liz Magill said the school had demonstrated its “unwavering commitment to combating anti-Semitism” but also refused to categorize calls for the genocide of Jews as harassment or a violation of the school’s code of conduct.
MIT President Dr. Sally Kornbluth was also questioned about her school’s response to the protests. She also did not openly condemn calls for the genocide of Jews.
During a congressional hearing in December of last year, the presidents of Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania all erred when asked whether calls for the genocide of Jews counted as hate speech.
During the five-hour hearing, Gay, UPenn’s Liz Magill and MIT’s Sally Kornbluth were questioned about their response to anti-Semitism on their campuses.
The trio agreed that rebuking students who call for Jewish genocide was not paramount, but instead said blatant anti-Semitism is “context” specific.
Magill, a lawyer by training, even smiled and smiled as she refused to categorize calls for genocide as bullying or a violation of the school’s code of conduct in front of Congress.
House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx announced the formal investigation into Harvard, along with UPenn and MIT days after the hearing.
Criticizing the school presidents in the announcement, he said: “The testimony we received earlier this week from Presidents Gay, Magill and Kornbluth regarding the responses of Harvard, UPenn and MIT to the rampant anti-Semitism displayed on their campuses by students and teachers was absolutely unacceptable.
Magill also resigned from his position following fierce backlash to his congressional testimony shortly after the Dec. 5 hearing.