How Harvard Gets Its Best

1.1 About business

How Harvard gets its

best and brightest

SURE, students work hard to get into this elite college. But so does the admissions committee, assures Dean Bill Fitzsimmons. In the US, few competitions are more cutthroat than the college admissions game. And every year it grows more intense as an ever-larger pool of high school seniors apply for one of the coveted spots at the nation’s top colleges. Meanwhile, the elite colleges have been stepping up their efforts to attract the best and brightest students – the prized pupils who will help increase the prestige of their campuses. You might assume that Harvard College – blessed with higher education’s greatest brand name and an endowment second to none – could afford to remain relatively aloof from this battle. But in reality, ‘There is no place that works harder than we do,’ says William R ‘Bill’ Fitzsimmons, Harvard’s veteran dean of admissions. For the new academic year, which will start in September, Harvard received a near-record 23,000 applications. Of these, it accepted a mere 2,100 – or just 9% – ranking it as the nation’s most selective college. Even more impressive, some 80% of the chosen ultimately decided to attend Harvard – a rate that is easily the highest among colleges and universities. The real surprise, however, is how hard Harvard works behind the scenes to achieve these amazing results. From his corner office in Byerly Hall, Fitzsimmons oversees a carefully considered three-part battle plan. The first phase begins in the spring, when Harvard mails letters to a staggering 70,000-or-so high school juniors – all with stellar test scores – suggesting they consider applying to America’s best-known college. Harvard buys their names from the examination boards which administer aptitude and college-admission tests. Each year, Harvard’s admissions team tours 140 US cities, as well as hundreds of other places in Latin America, Europe, Africa and the Far East. This year, 10% of the admitted...