Applications rise by 3.5 percent for 2012–2013; applications from underrepresented minorities up 23 percent
Applications to Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for the 2012–2013 academic year increased by 3.5 percent, setting a record for the most applications ever received by GSAS.
The total number of applications was just under 12,400, up from almost 12,000 for the 2011–2012 academic year. Domestic applications were up 2.5 percent over the year before, and international applications were up 5 percent, although they held roughly steady at approximately 46 percent of the total applicant pool.
Interest among potential students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences has risen every year since 2005, when 9,237 applications were received for the 2005–2006 academic year. Prior to that, the record for applications received in a given year was 10,118, set in 2003.
“The sustained growth of our applicant pool over the past five years, even as severe economic challenges arose, speaks to the vital importance of research education in addressing the complex problems facing the world today,” says Margot N. Gill, the administrative dean for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. “Rising interest in our PhD and master’s programs suggests a desire on the part of many of our brightest global citizens to explore these problems deeply, across all disciplines, and to find new knowledge and new solutions. This is an optimistic sign amid challenging times.”
Applications from members of underrepresented minority groups were up sharply for 2012–2013, from 538 to roughly 664, for a gain of approximately 23 percent. [Note: numbers are approximate, based on data analyzed in January 2012.]
“It’s encouraging to see that efforts to reach out to prospective minority graduate students — by faculty, students, alumni, and those of us in the Dean’s Office — are translating into a higher number of applications,” says Sheila Thomas, the assistant dean for diversity and minority affairs at the Graduate School. “Increasing the applications is the first step toward diversifying our programs — and, ultimately, diversifying the academy at large, with positive ramifications on leadership in both the public and private sectors. We hope we’ll sustain last year’s progress in admitting a greater number of minority students, and then in successfully recruiting those candidates to accept the offer of admission.”
In the disciplines, applications in the humanities were down by a little more than 6 percent. Applications in the social sciences and natural sciences were up by 6 percent.
This year marked the first year in which GSAS adopted an entirely online application process, meaning that faculty in the degree programs could read applications as soon as a prospective student hit “send.” Over the next month, as admissions decisions are sent to applicants, accepted students will, for the first time, use an online response form to indicate their decision, giving programs a real-time indication of who has accepted their admissions offers. These and similar advances will make for shorter, more streamlined GSAS admissions cycles in the future.