Harvard Application Number Dips as Other Elite Schools Break Records

Fewer students applied for Harvard after controversies ranging from a loss at the Supreme Court to the resignation of its president.

The Harvard University campus is shown in Cambridge, Massachusetts on March 23, 2020. Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

Harvard University this year received about 3,000 fewer undergraduate applications than last year, a modest drop that follows months of turbulence on the Ivy League school campus.

The prestigious Massachusetts school received 54,008 applications for the incoming freshman class, representing just over a 5 percent decline in applicants overall. Still, the university said this year marked the fourth in a row for which more than 50,000 students applied.