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Online Information Sessions

In these hour-long sessions, an admission officer and an undergraduate student will present information and answer questions about academics, student life, admissions and financial aid at Harvard College.

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Online information sessions calendar and registration.

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Eddie Nesmith ‘20

Concentration: Molecular and Cellular Biology House: Dunster Employer: Harvard Admissions and Financial Aid Office

Eddie knew he was meant for this job before he even had any experience with it - his bubbly and open personality was just that cut out for what the job’s responsibilities called for. “I never had a college tour experience as a high school student, but it’s just one of those things I knew I wanted - that wherever I ended up going to school, it was something that I would want to do.” And once hired as a tour guide for the Harvard Admissions Office, Eddie discovered that the role was everything he had hoped for and more.

Reflecting on his time at Harvard, Eddie shares how it has been an incredible experience - one that he’s eager to share as tour guide with all the prospective students. “I’m really enthusiastic about my Harvard experience, and I find that this is a really good opportunity to share that experience. I talk about my friends and how much I’ve learned from them, how Dunster House is the best, about academics and my favorite professor Rob Lue and how he’s so corny. I love sharing how positive my Harvard experience has been.”

But more than that, Eddie believes it’s important to communicate an accurate representation of Harvard students and student life that dispels any assumptions about this school that prospective students may have. “I’m really excited about that process of sharing with prospective students, and dispelling preconceptions of Harvard students, and I’m just like ‘No, no, no. Everyone’s different.’ I would not classify every Harvard student under one stereotype. Everyone’s individual, everyone’s super friendly. We do do work here, but we have hobbies and interests and passions that are not necessarily academic, like yes, I want to Boston and get Panera and Ben & Jerry’s, so yes, we’re normal people as well, so I just like to convey that sentiment.”

As Eddie sums up, he recommends that everyone should work as a tour guide for the Admissions Office, overbrimming with enthusiasm for the job. “I like my job a lot, and I actually enjoy it. I like to interact with people, I love talking to people, so like this was a perfect fit for me. I truly believe that you can make anything out of your experience at Harvard, and I get to share that. I feel like it has been a really positive experience for me, like in that respect, I enjoy talking to people about Harvard, but additionally, I feel like I’ve cultivated my own public speaking style, where I can be more comfortable presenting in general - I feel like it’s given me a life skill that I needed to ascertain.”

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• Virtual Campus Tour

Admissions Events Admissions Events    

Take a virtual seat in the case method classroom  .

Pioneered by HBS faculty, the case method presents the greatest challenges confronting organizations and places the student in the role of the decision maker.

Take a Virtual Walk through our Residential Campus

Learn how our students interact with our 40-acre campus.

Admissions Visitor Center

Class visit program  .

• You must be registered to attend a class; we cannot accommodate walk-in or stand-by visitors
• Register for a class by 3:00 PM the day before you plan to attend to secure confirmation
• You must be 18 or older to visit a class
• We encourage all visitors and guests coming to campus to be up to date on their vaccinations and boosters. We ask that you do not come to campus if you have tested positive for COVID-19 within the past 5 days. Masks are optional and available at many locations throughout the HBS campus

Campus Tours and Information Sessions  

Admissions events  , student club conferences  , campus map  , get to know the area  , keep hbs healthy.

Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Register for a tour of the harvard graduate school of design.

Online Tours

Virtually tour our campuses in Allston  and  Cambridge .

Private Tours

Harvard Student Agencies provides tours of the Science and Engineering Complex, which can be arranged using this  form   ( https://trademarktours.com/request-tour ) or by contacting  [email protected] . 

Undergraduate Tours

Take a student-led supplemental tour focused on Harvard’s undergraduate programs in engineering and the applied sciences (including applied mathematics, biomedical engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, engineering sciences, and mechanical engineering).

The tour, led by SEAS staff and students concentrating in the sciences and engineering, provides an overview of pursuing a technical degree in a liberal arts context, undergraduate research opportunities, related student groups and competitions, and support for entrepreneurship and innovation.

The SEAS tour will not cover the Harvard College (undergraduate) admissions process.  To learn more about admissions and financial aid, please visit the office of  Harvard College Admissions and Financial Aid .  You may also attend the  Harvard College general information session and tour .

Please note that registration is required for both the SEAS Tour and Harvard College Information Session & Tour so be sure to register as soon as you have a visit date in mind.

Tuesday, February 27 at 8:30AM

Thursday, February 29 at 8:30AM

Tuesday, March 5 at 8:30AM

Tuesday, March 19 at 8:30AM

Thursday, March 21 at 8:30AM

Tuesday, March 26 at 8:30AM

Thursday, March 28 at 8:30AM

Tuesday, April 2 at 8:30AM

Thursday, April 4 at 8:30AM

Tuesday, April 9 at 8:30AM

Thursday, April 11 at 8:30AM

Tuesday, April 16 at 8:30AM

Thursday, April 18 at 8:30AM

Tuesday, April 23 at 8:30AM

Thursday, April 25 at 8:30AM

Click here  to register online for SEAS Tours through Eventbrite.

• Cancellations:   If you are no longer able to attend the tour, please cancel your registration via Eventbrite or email   [email protected]  with your name and order number with at least 48 hours notice.

Tour check-in takes place in the main entrance of the Science & Engineering Complex (SEC) located at 150 Western Ave, Allston MA 02134.

Public Parking

Public parking is available at metered spots on Western Ave. Parking meters run from one to two hours, and will take quarters only. SEAS cannot make change and does not maintain a supply of coins, so please bring quarters with you.  A further advisory: Cambridge parking violations start at $25.00, and meters are monitored closely by transportation officers. We do not reimburse visitors for parking tickets. 

Daily Parking Permits for Visitors

You may purchase a Daily Visitor Parking Permit  online  for Harvard garages on Oxford Street and Everett Street (weekdays only). You will need a printer to complete this transaction.

More Parking Information

Parking policies at Harvard are the responsibility of the Harvard  University Parking Services , (617) 496-7827. For detailed parking information, please visit the Parking Services website at  www.transportation.harvard.edu/parking .

We kindly ask that you do not bring additional guests beyond those that registered for your selected tour time. Any cancellation that is made is automatically designated to the next person on the waitlist, up until the start of the tour. All tours are capped at a certain level due to the availability of tour guides and the capacity for guests in the lab spaces which make it difficult to accommodate additional requests.

For more questions about SEAS undergraduate programs and visits:

Email:    [email protected]

Phone: 617 495 3163

Visiting Campus

Planning to visit campus? We’ve gathered some information to help you plan your visit — virtually or in-person.

You can access the  Harvard University campus map to explore campus yourself.

Campus Tours

Whether you want to explore campus from the comfort of your home or you’re ready to Cambridge, MA and see it for yourself, there are a number of options for touring the Harvard University campus.

Virtual Tours

In addition to exploring campus using the campus map , you can explore Harvard from home using our Virtual Tour . On this tour, you can discover spaces that aren’t included on in-person tours, such as classrooms, laboratories, and residence halls.

Check out more, topic-specific virtual tours on the Harvard University Visitor Center website.

In-Person Tours

The official Harvard tour departs from the Harvard Information Center, in the Smith Campus Center. The tour is student-led and includes a walk through Harvard Yard, an overview of the University’s history, and a unique view on the student experience.

The one-hour tour is free, but you do need to register in advance. Visiting parties are limited to groups of 5. For groups of 6 or more, please contact the Harvard University Visitor Center to arrange a visit.

You can view the Harvard University visitors calendar for more details.

If you are interested in touring the campus on your own, you can go on a self-guided tour using the Visit Harvard mobile app, available to download on iOS and Android devices.

Harvard Division of Continuing Education

The Division of Continuing Education (DCE) at Harvard University is dedicated to bringing rigorous academics and innovative teaching capabilities to those seeking to improve their lives through education. We make Harvard education accessible to lifelong learners from high school to retirement.

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Where can i find a tour of harvard’s campus.

A tour is a great way to get to know the campus! Harvard Information Center, located in the Smith Campus Center, offers free student-led walking tours through Harvard Yard. Tours are one hour and provide a general overview of the main Cambridge camps and University history. The Information Center also has maps for self-guided walking tours. For details and schedule, as well as links to tour information at the graduate schools go here . The Admissions Office offers separate tours for prospective students.

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In a post-affirmative action world, Harvard admits its first class — discounting race

• KirkCarapezza

For the first time since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down more than 40 years of legal precedent that had said colleges can consider applicants’ race, Harvard on Thursday released admissions data for the accepted class of 2028. Remarkably, recent legal and political events do not appear to have affected the demand for a Harvard degree or the economic makeup of those students offered a seat.

According to data provided by the College, Harvard admitted 1,937 applicants from a pool of more than 54,000 students, so its acceptance rate is now 3.6%. That’s up, nominally, from 3.4% last year.

These figures give the public its first glimpse behind the ivy of how this country’s oldest college plans to build a class in a post-affirmative action world. Still, Harvard is not releasing racial or ethnic demographic data of students to whom it has offered admissions, citing potential litigation.

“Based on advice from counsel, admissions readers will not be accessing applicants’ self-reported race or ethnicity data or aggregated data about applicants’ self-reported race or ethnicity at any time until the admissions process has concluded,” Harvard spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo said in a statement.

Since the Supreme Court’s decision in June 2023, Harvard said it reworked its holistic, widely replicated admissions process, making sure that officers do not have access to applicants’ race or even their application essay answers about race and ethnicity.

In his majority decision, Chief Justice John Roberts, a graduate of Harvard and Harvard Law, wrote that nothing in the ruling prohibits universities from considering “an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.”

That means the Court allows applicants to mention their racial identity and experiences in admissions essays or interviews and that colleges may take those narratives it into account when making decisions.

This application season Harvard included new essay questions asking students to talk about, for example, how their life experiences have influenced who they are and how they might contribute to the campus community.

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The admitted class come from all 50 states and 94 countries. Fifty-three percent of admitted students are women; 47% are men.

First-generation students make up 20% of the class, mirroring previous years.

That disappointed Natasha Warikoo, a sociologist at Tufts University and author of the book “Is Affirmative Action Fair?”.

Warikoo said she’d like to see Harvard’s incoming class better reflect the U.S. population’s racial and economic composition.

Warikoo, who has long studied and researched race in admissions, said it is “disconcerting” but “not surprising” to see this fresh data without racial demographic breakdowns.

“I assumed that we wouldn’t find out until the recruiting season is over so that there’s no worry about getting sued by saying, ‘Well, you recruited these groups harder than these groups,’” Warikoo said. “But I am waiting with bated breath to see what the outcome of admissions this year looks like at Harvard and all selective colleges that used to practice race-conscious admissions and can’t anymore.”

Anthony Jack, a sociologist at Boston University and author of the book “The Privileged Poor,” said it’s troubling not to have access to racial and ethnic data.

“A lot of the inequalities that we were starting to pay attention to are now hidden,” Jack said. “We never really knew how many students [were] Black from Caribbean or African descent versus Black who can trace their legacy back to slavery.”

Jack said he’s encouraged that Harvard has continued to recruit low-income, underrepresented students. To build this class, Harvard said its admissions officers traveled to 150 cities in the United States and around the world to recruit applicants, joining a new consortium of 30 public and private colleges working to raise awareness in rural communities.

Jack suggested Harvard and other selective colleges “double down” on first-generation and rural students through geographically targeted outreach.

“Place-based initiatives will allow us to recruit not just economically disadvantaged students but also those who come from racially segregated communities because of the history of exclusion and housing in America,” Jack said. “We know how segregated America’s cities are. We know which schools support students from minority groups.”

Before Thursday’s data release, experts had openly questioned whether Harvard’s reputation and brand would be undermined by the Court’s decision and the way administrators, including former president Claudine Gay, handled the University’s response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

For now, recent events don’t appear to have affected the decisions of high school seniors to seek an education at a certain college in Cambridge.

“High-school seniors are much more likely paying attention to financial aid,” Warikoo said.

According to Harvard, nearly a quarter of students attend without paying anything and the average parent contribution for students who received financial aid this academic year was $13,000.

For students who don’t receive need-based aid, the total cost of attendance is set to increase 4.3% to $82,866 in the fall.

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Plan Your Visit

The Harvard Museum of Natural History is one of the four Harvard Museums of Science & Culture .

Open daily from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm

Closed the following days:

• Wednesday, November 27, 2024 (day before Thanksgiving)
• Thursday, November 28, 2024(Thanksgiving Day)
• Saturday, December 21, 2024
• Sunday, December 22, 2024
• Monday, December 23, 2024
• Tuesday, December 24, 2024 (Christmas Eve)
• Wednesday, December 25, 2024 (Christmas)
• Wednesday, January 1, 2025 (New Year's Day)

Museum closes early on the following days:

• Thursday, March 7, 2024 (at 3:00 pm)
• Tuesday March 26 (at 3:30 pm)
• Tuesday, May 7, 2024 (at 3:00 pm)

General Admission

General admission gives access to all exhibits including the Glass Flowers Gallery.  The museum is connected to the Peabody Museum , and admission to one museum admits you to both during regular hours.

Special Free Admission (with valid ID)

Free to holders of a current Harvard ID;  Harvard Museums of Science & Culture  members, and  Harvard Art Museums  members.

Free to Massachusetts residents every Sunday morning from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm and on Wednesdays from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Proof of residency required. This offer is not available to commercial groups. 

Free to Massachusetts Teachers (K-12).

Free for Massachusetts residents who present an EBT or WIC card, and up to five guests. We are proud to participate in the Card to Culture program.

ASTC Travel Passport Program

National endowment for the arts blue star museums program.

Free to active duty military with their families in collaboration with the  National Endowment for the Arts Blue Star Museums Program. Year-round free admission is offered to the Peabody Museum and Harvard Museum of Natural History using the Blue Star Museums guidelines.

Discounted Admission (with valid ID) 

Library Passes

Library patrons can reserve discount passes through their local, Massachusetts-based, library to visit our museums! Library pass admission includes entry to the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, and the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments. Please be prepared to show the physical library pass and proof of Massachusetts residency. Only one member of the party must be a MA resident.   T he pass admits up to four visitors. The passes are non-transferable and may not be combined with other offers.

Are you a library looking to offer passes to your patrons? Learn more about our Library Membership Program.

Save With CityPASS

Spend less, Experience more! Boston CityPASS® saves 45% on admission to top Boston’s top 4 attractions, including Harvard Museum of Natural History. Visit the attractions at your own pace, in any order, over 9-days. One easy purchase and mobile ticket delivery saves time and money.  Buy CityPASS® online and present your pass to the admissions desk for entry at the Harvard Museum of Natural History .

Go City: Boston All-Inclusive Pass

Private tour group providers

This information is for private tour providers not associated with Harvard University. If you are an individual looking for a tour, please visit our Tours page.

At this time, Cambridge and Boston tour companies who wish to lead tours of visitors through Harvard Yard are required to register with the Harvard University Visitor Center.

For further inquiry, please contact: [email protected]

Registration process

Apply to be a registered Harvard Yard Tour Provider

To register:

• Fill out the application.
• Submit a copy of a business license (in Cambridge or Boston) and proof of insurance.
• Allow up two weeks for the authorization process.

Once approved:

• The Harvard University Visitor Center will provide a physical “Welcome Packet” to the tour company.
• Sign the Harvard Yard Use Agreement.
• The tour company will be directed to the online payment system, where tour passes must be purchased at least three days in advance for the desired tour date (currently through the end of the semester).

Before the tour:

• Prior to coming to campus, the tour company must review the Harvard Yard Guidelines and go to Visit Harvard for any updated campus information.
• The tour company will use Touchnet, the online payment system, to purchases passes for the current semester at least three days in advance of the desired tour date.
• A Harvard Yard Tour Pass purchase requires a non-refundable payment of $1.50 per tour attendee.
• The tour company will receive a PDF file of the Harvard Yard Tour Pass within three business days.
• The tour company must print the Harvard Yard Tour Pass in color and it must be visibly worn on the tour group leader at all times while in Harvard Yard. Lanyards and other tour materials may be found in the “Welcome Packet.”

Keep in mind:

• Occasionally the Yard closes for University activities. If this conflicts with a tour you have sign up for, your payment will be refunded.
• Tour groups can include up to 35 people.
• The tour company may offer up to one tour per day in Harvard Yard, as space is available.
• The tour company may offer tours in Harvard Yard between 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
• The tour company must remain in good standing in order to annually renew the Harvard Yard Use Agreement.

Frequently asked questions

Who has to register to provide tours in harvard yard.

At this time, Cambridge and Boston Tour Companies who wish to lead tours of visitors through Harvard Yard are required to register with the Harvard University Visitor Center.

Schedule your campus visit

In-person info sessions and tours.

We offer two types of campus visits each week.

• Info session and student-led tour:  Our info sessions are hosted by admissions officers who share details about academics, campus life, the application process, and financial aid. A student-led campus tour immediately follows the info session.
• Student-led tour only:  One of our amazing students will take you on a tour of their favorite places on campus.

Info sessions last half an hour, and student led tours are one hour.

Reservations are required. Should you arrive without a reservation for a session, due to MIT’s Covid-19 policies, we will not be able to accommodate you.

In-person group tours

If you would like to bring a group of 6–50 people to campus, you are welcome to request a group tour . We are not able to accommodate groups of 6–50 people in our regular information sessions and tours.

Reservations are required. Should you arrive without a reservation for a session, we will not be able to accommodate you.

Please note that we can only accommodate requests for visits placed 3 weeks in advance.

Severe weather: What if MIT closes?

In case of severe weather, the Admissions Office follows the Institute emergency closing guidelines. If MIT is closed, the Admissions Office is closed and all visit programming is canceled. We will post any closures to mitadmissions.org and notify you of any cancellations by email. If you would like to reschedule your visit, it’s easy! Simply fill out a new reservation form.

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Once-coveted harvard degrees have been cheapened — no wonder applications are down.

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The Harvard degree has lost its luster.

The crown jewel of the Ivy League announced this week that undergraduate applications shrunk by 5% this year — while other selective elite schools soared to record highs. (Dartmouth, Columbia, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania all saw spikes.)

Despite a long-held reputation as the most prestigious university in the world, the news comes as no surprise after a devastating year of PR nightmares that exposed rot from within.

Since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, the Cambridge, Massachusetts, campus has erupted with antisemitism: swastikas on campus, chants of “Intifada” from student protesters, and Jewish students mobbed by pro-Palestinian demonstrators .

Things got so bad that Jewish students even slapped the school with a lawsuit , alleging violation of the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

Despite mounting pressure from alumni, donors and US congress members, former Harvard president Claudine Gay proved unable to condemn campus antisemitism — testifying on Capitol Hill that “it’s when that speech crosses into conduct that violates our policies against bullying and harassment. That speech did not cross that barrier.”

For a university that ranked dead last in the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s (FIRE) free speech rankings last year, receiving a score of -10, suddenly hiding behind the defense of free expression fell flat for many. It also, ultimately, led to Gay’s resignation in January, following a host of plagiarism accusations.

The rampant antisemitism wasn’t lost on potential applicants. As a result, some high school seniors are reportedly weighing alternative schools and even declining offers of admission from Harvard — something virtually unheard of in prior admissions cycles.

Nor was anti-Jewish prejudice lost on employers and influential voices in the corporate world — like prestigious law firm Edelson, which boycotted Harvard recruiting events this year, and Harvard alumnus Bill Ackman, who sought the names of Harvard students who publicly blamed Israel for the Hams attacks. Meanwhile, law firm Davis Polk reminded a job offer for one such student.

Even Barstool Sports owner Dave Portnoy said he wouldn’t hire from Harvard.

But campus antisemitism is not the only glaring issue driving away potential students.

Last June the Supreme Court blew the cover on Harvard’s now illegal race-based affirmative action practices, which were found to violate the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protections Clause. 

Not only did that case reveal discrimination against Asian American students — who were systemically scored lower on subjective “personality” ratings by admissions counselors — but it also exposed the school’s nepotistic favoritism toward the ultra-elite.

A shocking 43% of white Harvard students, the court’s discovery revealed, are legacy admissions, children of faculty, relatives of donors, or recruited athlete. Three quarters of them are statistically unlikely to have gotten in without that special interest status, according to analysis of admissions data by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Is it any wonder Harvard’s applicant pool shrunk from 56,937 to 54,008 this year, defying a trend of record-high applications across academia?

The school still pulled off an eye-watering 3.58% acceptance rate.

But keep in mind that, between 2009 and 2014, a legacy applicant to Harvard had a one in three shot of getting in. And a child on the “dean’s interest list” — a term used by admissions officers often to denote a relationship to donors — had a 42.2% chance of admission.

If an acceptance letter to Harvard is only as good as your last name or your parents’ bank balance, does it really hold as much weight as society lends it? Perhaps not.

Who can blame high schoolers and their families for questioning whether weathering antisemitism, anti-Asian bias and rampant nepotism is really worth the hype.

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Class of 2028 Results Will Offer the First Clues About Harvard’s Post-Affirmative Action Admissions

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When Harvard College admits the Class of 2028 on Thursday, the admissions data released by the College might raise more questions than it answers about whether the fall of affirmative action and a prolonged crisis stemming from the University’s response to the Oct. 7 attack on Israel have changed Harvard’s appeal to prospective students.

Experts intend to look at the number of applications and the admissions rate as key indicators to understanding the extent to which Harvard’s reputation has been bruised by the events of the past six months.

But observers looking to understand the full impact of the Supreme Court’s ruling last semester might have to wait until later this summer when the University is expected to release the demographic data of students.

While experts expect to see a change from past years in the racial composition of the admitted class, Harvard — in a break from precedent — will not release racial and ethnic data on Thursday. The move comes as the University is increasingly wary of litigation from anti-affirmative action groups.

Mitchell J. Chang, a professor of education at UCLA and interim vice provost of diversity, equity, and inclusion, said he anticipates that Harvard will face heightened scrutiny if the racial composition of its admitted class – especially the number of Black students – does not change.

“I suspect that there will be drops,” Chang said. “Even in the testimony that Harvard gave, Harvard expected a significant drop.”

David Card, a Nobel Prize-winning economist hired as an expert witness for Harvard during the trial, developed simulations that showed African American students would have made up 6 percent of the Class of 2019 if the University eliminated the consideration of race from its admissions process for the Class — less than half of the 14 percent that were actually represented.

Similar models by Peter Arcidiacono, an economist at Duke University hired as an expert by Students for Fair Admissions, projected a decline to 7 percent.

Dan Lee, founder of Solomon Admissions Consulting, said Harvard may also see an increase in the proportion of Asian American applicants who are accepted.

“I would predict that the percentage of Asian American students at Harvard is going to go up by about 10 percent,” Lee said.

Still, Chang said Harvard’s efforts after the decision release may work to increase the yield rate of students from underrepresented backgrounds and “offset that expected drop” in the admit rate of those students.

Arcidiacono, the Duke economist, also said that he expects to see an increase in the proportion of both Pell Grant-eligible and first-generation students admitted to the Class of 2028.

The Early Action round of admissions, released in mid-December , saw 15.5 percent of accepted applicants come from first-generation backgrounds — an increase of approximately 1.5 percentage points from the year before.

Julie J. Park, an associate professor of higher education at the University of Maryland who served as a consulting expert for Harvard during the admissions lawsuit, said the changes come among multiple shifts in focus that Harvard will turn to given the admissions team can not look at race.

“They will presumably lean somewhat more on the information that they can see, which is going to be socioeconomic background, high school context, the context of opportunity that a student is coming from,” Park said.

Harvard has kept its test-optional policies through the admitted Class of 2030 , despite a recent shift to testing requirements from other Ivy League schools . Chang said that Harvard’s test-optional policies may help to keep the application pool in a “sufficient state” and mitigate a possible fall in application numbers.

While the fall of affirmative action has some precedent — the University of California system eliminated the practice in 1995 and witnessed a sharp drop in the enrollment of underrepresented groups shortly thereafter – economist Richard D. Kahlenberg ’85 said that Harvard’s situation is unique.

When public institutions in California eliminated the practice, said Kahlenberg, who also served as an expert witness for SFFA, they were forced to compete “with one hand tied behind their back” for students from underrepresented groups with institutions that were able to consider race in their admissions processes. But now, race-conscious admissions are prohibited throughout the country.

“Harvard and all universities today will be competing on a level playing field where no one who follows the law can use racial preferences,” he said.

As a result, it will not take Harvard as long as it took schools like UCLA or the University of California, Berkeley to create a diverse class without race-conscious admissions, according to Kahlenberg.

But as decisions for thousands of waiting applicants rapidly approach, Park said that much is up in the air until Harvard releases the final composition of its admitted Class of 2028.

“Race conscious admissions has been severely restricted, but I would not say it’s necessarily dead,” Park said. “How does that show up in the numbers is anyone’s guess.”

—Staff writer Elyse C. Goncalves can be reached at [email protected] . Follow her on X @e1ysegoncalves or on Threads @elyse.goncalves .

—Staff writer Matan H. Josephy can be reached [email protected] . Follow him on X @matanjosephy .

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Important Dates

• Application Opens: April 15, 2024
• Application Deadline: June 17, 2024 at 5:00 p.m. ET
• HILS Preview Weekend: September 26-28, 2024

Please read the program description, eligibility criteria, and application instructions before beginning your application.

Program Description

The goal of the  Harvard Integrated Life Sciences  (HILS) Preview Weekend is to provide an in-person academic professional development and community building experience for prospective HILS PhD program applicants who have not previously had the opportunity to visit Harvard and become familiar with its programs and resources. Core to the mission of the HILS Preview Weekend is the promotion of equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging in STEM.

At the HILS Preview Weekend, participants will:

• connect and network with  HILS PhD program students, staff, and faculty
• gain insights into the application process and how to prepare a strong application for HILS PhD programs
• learn about resources, support, and the life sciences research environment at Harvard
• explore the city of Boston.

Lodging, airfare, and all meals are covered for HILS Preview Weekend participants.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligible applicants must meet  all of the following criteria:

• US citizens, permanent residents, or non-US citizens with DACA 
• individuals who will be applying to PhD programs in the life sciences in 2024
• must be available to attend the entire in-person program.

Individuals ineligible for the HILS Preview Weekend include those:

• who have participated in summer research, postbaccalaureate, or other outreach programs at Harvard, its affiliated hospitals and/or institutes
• who are current or former research assistants or master's students at Harvard or its affiliated institutes.

Please note that applications that do not meet these eligibility criteria will not be considered.

Who Should Apply?

• college seniors, postbaccalaureate students, research assistants, master's students, and STEM professionals

Individuals with:

• a demonstrated interest in pursuing a PhD in the life sciences
• a strong interest in  HILS PhD programs
• prior hands-on research experience in a wet lab or dry lab environment.

We especially encourage applications from students who are from  underrepresented or disadvantaged backgrounds (see also  NOT-OD-20-031 ). Applications are open to all, and HILS does not consider race, ethnicity, or national origin in reviewing applications.

Application Components

The HILS Preview Weekend application consists of the following components:

• personal, academic, and research background
• unofficial transcripts
• statement of purpose – see instructions below
• personal statement – see instructions below
• a letter of recommendation (from a faculty member in whose laboratory you have performed research) – see instructions below
• resume – see instructions below
• Note: There is no application fee for the HILS Preview Weekend.

Please note that incomplete applications will not be reviewed.

Stay tuned for the launch of the application!

Statement of Purpose (750 words max)

Your statement of purpose should be clear, concise, and coherent, including all of the following components.

• Describe your reasons and motivations for participating in the HILS Preview Weekend and pursuing a PhD in your chosen field(s), including how you will benefit from the HILS Preview Weekend. 
• Briefly indicate your career objectives. 
• the central question and/or hypothesis driving each of your research projects or research experiences
• key methods, results, and conclusions
• your specific experimental and intellectual contributions to the work.

Your statement should be free from spelling or grammatical errors, well structured with transitions, labeled with your first and last name, and comprehensible for someone who is not an expert in your field. Please upload your statement of purpose as a PDF.

Personal Statement (500 words max)

A core part of the Harvard Griffin GSAS mission is to identify and attract the most promising students to form a dynamic and diverse community. We are committed to training individuals who reflect the growing diversity of society today and who will contribute to our commitment to sustain a welcoming, supportive, and inclusive environment. Please briefly describe your personal journey to graduate education and how your experiences have impacted your decision to pursue graduate study. In addition, please describe any personal experiences in your education or upbringing—including opportunities, hardships, or obstacles—that you believe to be pertinent to your application.

Letter of Recommendation

Please have a faculty member in whose lab you have conducted research submit a letter of recommendation for you, describing and discussing (1) your work in their laboratory, (2) academic performance, (3) intellectual potential, (4) motivation for graduate study, (5) creativity and originality, and (6) other qualities that make you a strong candidate for PhD programs in the life sciences.

Note: You are responsible for ensuring that the faculty member writing your letter of recommendation submits it by the application deadline. Applications without a letter of recommendation will be considered incomplete and will not be reviewed.

Resume (1-2 pages)

Your resume should include a brief overview of the following elements, as applicable: your relevant education, research experience, laboratory skills, teaching experience, presentations, publications, honors and awards, and relevant leadership, outreach, and extracurricular activities. Resumes that are longer than two pages will not be reviewed.

Harvard Integrated Life Sciences

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Students will hear from Ivies Thursday. Will demographics change since the Supreme Court ruling against race-conscious admissions?

S tudents who applied to the eight Ivy League universities, including the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton, will be finding out Thursday whether they got in.

They will also be the first group of students to be admitted following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year to ban the use of race as a factor in admissions decisions, forcing colleges to find new ways to achieve diversity in their classes. Many other selective colleges in the Philadelphia area, including Dickinson, Haverford, Villanova and Swarthmore, have already released their acceptance decisions. The other six Ivies expected to announce Thursday are Brown, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth and Cornell.

Over the next month or so, students will decide where they want to enroll. That freshman class — and specifically its demographics — will undoubtedly be compared to prior years to gauge what impact the court’s decision has had.

Here’s what to expect Thursday, and what it could mean in light of the Supreme Court decision:

What did the Supreme Court decision say?

The court ruled in June that colleges could not use race as a factor in deciding whether students should be admitted. It overturned more than 40 years of admissions policy at many of the nation’s campuses, raising concern that it could reduce the number of Black and Latino students at many elite colleges and harm schools’ efforts to create diverse classes.

The lawsuits were brought by Students for Fair Admissions, a group founded by Edward Blum, a conservative activist who has spent years battling affirmative action policies. Plaintiffs had accused both Harvard and the University of North Carolina of discriminating against Asian and/or white students through the use of race-conscious admissions policies.

Even before the court’s decision, considering race was already barred in certain states, including California and Michigan . In those two states, some colleges have reported a decline in Black and Latino students as a result.

How did the Supreme Court decision affect the admissions process this year?

Both Penn and Princeton declined to discuss the impact, as more lawsuits are expected to be brought against colleges in the coming months and years for their admissions practices.

But Whitney Soule, dean of admissions at Penn, said in a recent interview with the school’s alumni magazine that Penn had trained staff and adapted its process to adhere to the law.

“Do we know the race or ethnicity of applicants, like we did before? No, we don’t,” she told The Pennsylvania Gazette . “Yet we’re reading every detail that they provide, and we’re trying to understand how they see themselves and how they want to contribute.”

Penn also collaborated more with Heights Philadelphia , an organization that helps Philadelphia school students get into and through college, said Sean E. Vereen, co-president of Heights. Penn’s provost, John L. Jackson Jr., also joined the Heights’ board, he said.

“There is already a long partnership there, but we’re also deepening that partnership,” he said.

Adam Nguyen, whose company, Ivy Link, advises students on getting into the Ivies and other elite colleges, said many colleges introduced new or altered essay questions to learn more about applicants.

Did students of color mention their racial background in their essays?

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. outlined in his decision a way that race still could come into play, particularly in the admissions essay portion of an application: “... nothing prohibits universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected the applicant’s life, so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability that the particular applicant can contribute to the university.”

Admissions experts said some students of color chose to write about their racial backgrounds as it related to their identities.

“There were students who spoke to it in their essays and really thought it was an important part of their identity,” Vereen said. “And I think there are some students [who had] some real trepidation ... and really did not talk about race in their application.”

Jess Lord, vice president and dean of admission and financial aid at Haverford College, said “probably more” students “made reference to many aspects of their identity including their race and ethnicity.” But he said, “not substantially more.”

“We did consider it in the context of students connecting their racial identity to experiences they’ve had and qualities and characteristics they had developed that were in some way connected to their racial identity or their experience with that identity,” Lord said.

Nguyen said students were advised to weigh whether including it enhanced their narrative.

“We have to take each student and their background and look at the race component in the full context of who they are and what they achieved,” he said.

Was it possible to see applicants’ race during admissions?

No, Penn’s Soule told the alumni magazine: “Anybody involved with application review and selection in Penn Admissions does not have access to any reporting or data fields that are related to race — in aggregate or at the record level. We just can’t see it.”

But the Common App, which many students use to apply to college, still gives students the option to indicate their race, but colleges are able “to hide (that is, “ suppress ”) the self-disclosed race and ethnicity information from application PDF files for both first-year and transfer applications,” a spokesperson said. “That means when they receive an application PDF from Common App, the race and ethnicity data will not be visible.”

Common App said it could not share how many colleges chose to suppress that information. Applications from underrepresented minority applicants increased 10% this year, Common App said.

When will we know the racial makeup of the incoming class?

It’s not clear when colleges will release that information. Some colleges may attain and release the information about their accepted students; others may wait until after May 1 when students declare whether they will accept the offer of admission and enroll; and others may wait even longer, until after the wait-list process when their final class is formed.

The Harvard Crimson, Harvard’s student newspaper, reported this week that the university isn’t expected to release its details until this summer.

Under federal law, colleges eventually must report the racial makeup of their classes, and that’s when a comprehensive look at colleges’ admitted classes will be possible.

“You will get data maybe in the fall,” Nguyen said.

When Penn issued a statement on its acceptance decisions last year, it did not give a racial breakdown. But the school said the group collectively represented “ the most diverse group of admitted students in Penn’s history in terms of racial and ethnic background, socioeconomic diversity ... and those who are the first generation in their family to attend a four-year college or university.”

What the university will say this year remains to be seen.

Do experts expect the diversity of the incoming class to be impacted?

“I’m concerned that this will have a negative impact on the racial diversity of the incoming class,” said Lord, the Haverford dean.

Heights’ Vereen, who worked in admissions at Penn from 2008 to 2012, predicted declines in diversity at more selective colleges on a national level.

“It’s a little bit of the Wild West for the next couple years,” he said. “Everyone is trying to calibrate to what is the new reality.”

Given Penn’s strong commitment to students in the Philadelphia area, those declines may be tempered there, he said.

Nguyen also predicted a dip in diversity, at least in the first year.

“When the [court] decision came out, colleges were scrambling to respond,” he said.

Cara McClellan, a Penn associate practice professor of law, said last year that the percentage of students from underrepresented groups at Harvard were expected to drop by 50% without race-conscious admissions. She worked on Harvard’s case at the appellate level for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and at that time, Black students made up 14% of Harvard’s incoming class, and Latino students and students from other underrepresented groups made up another 14%.

But John E. Jones III, president of Dickinson College in Carlisle, said he is “guardedly optimistic” that the diversity of the class will be similar to last year, when 25% were students of color. Dickinson reached out to organizations, including Heights, for more assistance in getting students of color to apply, he said. It had even started doing that before the court decision, he said.

“Anecdotally, what we believe is that has been extremely helpful in getting our name out there and connecting us with students and that will add to the diversity on campus,” he said.

©2024 The Philadelphia Inquirer. Visit inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Class of 2028 Draws Record Number of Applicants

Nearly 20% qualify to attend Dartmouth without a parental financial contribution.   

Class of 2027 Selected From Record Application Pool

Having completed its review of a record 31,657 applications for the undergraduate Class of 2028, Dartmouth extended offers of admission to 1,685 students, many of whom will benefit from expanded financial aid.

The overall admission rate of 5.3%, a record low, is nearly a percentage point below the 6.2% rate of selectivity for the Class of 2027. Applications to Dartmouth rose by 10% from last year.

Students who applied for admission in this year’s regular decision round received their decisions through the Admissions Office’s digital portal on Thursday evening.

Those offered admission will be in the first incoming class eligible for a new middle-income affordability initiative— announced on Monday by President Sian Leah Beilock —that will enable Dartmouth to nearly double its current annual income threshold for a “zero parent contribution,” from $65,000 to $125,000 for families of AB undergraduates with typical assets. That threshold is the most generous of any college or university in the nation. 

Coupled with the existing low-income threshold for a parent contribution of zero, which had been adopted last year, an estimated 19.3% of those offered admission for the Class of 2028 qualify to attend Dartmouth without financial assistance from their parents. Additionally, nearly 1-in-2 accepted applicants will qualify for a need-based scholarship. 

At the time of decision release, the average aid award is $69,152, an all-time high. The full cost of tuition, housing, meals, and fees for a Dartmouth undergraduate education in the 2024-25 academic year is $87,768, and this year’s average scholarship covers 79% of that cost. 

Lee Coffin , vice president and dean of admissions and financial aid, says that he and his admissions colleagues were struck by the “remarkable depth of quality” in the record pool of this year’s applicants. “The pool was bigger, and it was also holistically deeper,” he says.

“Accepted students demonstrate a striking degree of alignment with our institutional strengths and priorities,” he says. “They express strong interests in sustainability, in dialogue and, more broadly, in using their intellect to make a difference. It comes through loudly and clearly.”

“When we asked them, ‘Why Dartmouth?’ ” he adds, “many cited specific faculty, as well as their courses and research. There was a strong and palpable pull toward our community, with students from around the world telling us they were drawn to Hanover not just for its natural beauty but its profound sense of place and purpose.”

What else do we know about those offered spots in the incoming first-year class?

They live in all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, as well as 68 other nations. Continuing a recent trend, 55% live in the Southern or Western regions of the United States or outside the U.S.

California once again leads all U.S. states, with 12% of all acceptances. The United Kingdom, Canada, India, South Korea, and Turkey comprise the five largest international cohorts in the accepted class.

When ranked, 95% are in the top 10% percent of their high school graduating class, and more than a quarter are projected to graduate as their valedictorian or salutatorian.

Also of note: 17% are in the first generation in their families to attend a college or university; 57% attend a public high school; and 15% live in a rural environment, a record figure that follows the rollout this year of a recruitment initiative targeting students from rural communities. 

But, Coffin notes, those figures only hint at the lives and sensibilities, to say nothing of the sense of self, of those invited to enroll at Dartmouth this fall. The Class of 2028 is the first admitted to Dartmouth since the U.S. Supreme Court imposed limits on the consideration of race as a factor in college and university admissions. As a result, Coffin and his colleagues are prohibited at this stage of the process from identifying and tallying the accepted applicants by racial or ethnic background.

The Court did permit institutions to continue the practice of holistic admissions , in which students’ personal narratives—including their reflections on their accomplishments and experiences within the classroom and far beyond it, as well as their values and priorities—are taken into account.

“They’re smart and curious, and they’re kind,” Coffin says of this year’s admitted applicants. “They’re collaborative and creative.”

“We look for students who can animate a small class in Dartmouth Hall with dialogue, and who can help people think about lessons and issues in new and nuanced ways,” he adds. “And, ultimately, we look for students who can enhance and contribute to the community we are building here in Hanover.”

The Office of Communications can be reached at [email protected] .

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