The admissions yield at Harvard University, which peaked at nearly 84% last year has dropped to 81% for the Class of 2024. While we have worried a drop was possible due to the extremely liberal leanings of the university and how it could start scaring off applicants at some point, we truly believe this drop is largely, if not fully, due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic.
The key piece of evidence that points to COVID-19 is a number of students who requested deferments. (They didn’t reject Harvard’s offer to attend a different school.) An upside, if you will, to this reduced yield is that Harvard has begun admitting a small number of applicants off its waitlist.
