By Graham W. Bishai and Dianne Lee

As Harvard administrators have taken new steps to support first-generation and low-income students, more than 16 percent of freshmen are the first in their families to attend college, according to The Crimson’s annual survey of incoming students.

Last spring, Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana rejected a proposal to create a “bridge program” for these students to transition to college. After public outcry, the College announced in March it would hire a “First-Gen Low Income Student Advocate” to advise these students in their transition to life at Harvard.

In August, the college also announced it would pilot a new pre-orientation program—not the rejected bridge program, but a similar program to help freshmen “from historically marginalized communities” begin at the College.

In the survey, first generation students were much more likely to report a lower family income than students who did not report being first generation. Only 2.2 percent of first generation students reported that their parents earn more than $250,000 per year, while around 41.8 percent of students who had at least one parent attend college reported a family income above $250,000.

Around 41 percent of first generation respondents reported coming from a household making $40,000 or less per year, while just 5.9 percent of respondents whose parents went to college came from a family with this income level.

Each year, as incoming students prepare to travel to Cambridge to begin their time at the College, The Crimson emails each class member asking them to participate in a survey. The anonymous questionnaire asks them several questions ranging from their SAT score and religious views to their opinions of current campus and political affairs. Of the roughly 1,700-member class, 853 freshmen responded, representing roughly 50 percent of the class. The Crimson did not adjust the survey results for any possible selection bias.

This first piece of The Crimson’s three-part look into the Class of 2021 examines the the makeup of the incoming College freshman class, analyzing demographic information including ethnicity, gender, family, and secondary school of respondents, as well as financial aid and admission statistics.

Demographics

Like in previous years, the surveyed members of Harvard’s incoming class are largely white, straight, and wealthy. The majority of respondents—53 percent—identified as female, while 46.6 percent identified as male. About 0.4 percent identified as transgender.

• 52.1 percent of surveyed students said they are white, 23.8 percent of respondents identified as Asian, 11.4 percent as Black or African American, 10.2 percent as Hispanic or Latino, 1.7 percent as American Indian or Alaska Native, and 0.8 percent as Pacific Islander.
• 82.5 percent percent of respondents said they identify as straight, 5.6 percent said they are gay, and 7.9 percent said they are bisexual. Roughly 3 percent reported that they are questioning their sexual orientation.
• 80 percent of respondents who said they are gay were male, while students who identified as bisexual were more likely to identify as female, with 62 percent of bisexual respondents being female.

Harvard’s class hails from largely from the coasts, with a plurality— 39.4 percent—of students coming from the Northeast. The Southwestern states—Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma—sent fewer students than any other region, with 6.9 percent of respondents hailing from those states. One in eight students comes from outside the United States and its territories.

• Around 10 percent of surveyed freshmen come from rural areas, an increase from 8.7 percent of survey respondents in the Class of 2020. The majority—61.3 percent—of surveyed freshmen hailed from a suburban area while 28.5 percent came from urban areas.

Monetary Matters

Results from the survey show a correlation between a freshman’s ethnicity and the amount of money their parents make in a year. White students were almost twice as likely as black respondents to come from families making over $250,000 per year. Among students identifying as white, 42 percent reported coming from families making over $250,000 per year.

• Among Hispanic and Latino respondents, 24 percent reported coming from families making over $250,000 per year. 22 percent of African American respondents, and 35 percent of Asian students reported this same parental income level.
• Black and Latino respondents were also more likely than white and Asian respondents to come from a household with an annual parental income of $40,000 or less. 17.6 percent of African American respondents reported a parental combined yearly income of $40,000 or less, while this income level accounted for 13.5 percent of Latino or Hispanic respondents, 9.2 percent of White identifying respondents, and 7.8 percent of Asian identifying respondents.
• Roughly 17 percent—about one in six students—come from families who make $500,000 or more, while about 12 percent come from families making less than $40,000 per year.

Students with one or more parent who attended Harvard College reported higher parental income levels on average than non-legacy students. 17.5 percent of respondents—more than one in six—reported having one or both parents who attended Harvard College.

• Nine percent of students who reported having no relatives who attended Harvard came from households making upwards of $500,000 per year, whereas 46 percent of legacy students reported this household income.

According to the College, the cost of attending Harvard in the 2017-18 academic year is $65,609, including tuition, room, and board. Although the sticker price of attending the College may be high, more than half of the Class members responding to the survey receive some sort of financial aid from the College. In recent years, the College has initiated a three-year pilot “start-up” grant program, which awards additional financial resources to students in the Class of 2020, 2021, and 2022 who come from low-income families. Students whose parents make a combined annual income of less than $65,000 attend the College for free.

The majority of surveyed students, 55.45 percent, reported receiving some form of financial aid from the College. Roughly 66 percent of surveyed freshmen who said they attended public school reported receiving financial aid, compared to 35.5 percent of respondents from private schools.

Almost all first generation students were beneficiaries of the College’s financial aid program, with 95 percent saying they received financial aid.

High School Highlights

This spring, the College admitted 5.2 percent of applicants, or 2,056 students of nearly 40,000 applicants, into the Class of 2021. The acceptance rate was marginally lower than that of the Class of 2020, continuing the College’s downward trend in admissions numbers in recent years.

• 17 percent of surveyed students reported seeking college application advice from a private admissions counselor from outside of their high schools. Of that number, 32 percent reported that their parents made more than $500,000 in a year, while 11 percent said their parents make less than $40,000.
• 60.3 percent of respondents went to a non-charter public school, 35.7 percent went to a private school, and 3.2 percent went to a charter school. Less than 1 percent of surveyed students said that they had been homeschooled.
• Legacy students were more likely to have graduated from a private school than a public school.
• 58.7 percent of surveyed legacy students attended a private school, whereas 40 percent came from public school.
• Respondents reported an average GPA on an unweighted 4.0 scale of 3.94.
• 66 percent of students reported attending a secondary school that ranked members of their class. Of that number, 73 percent were ranked in the top 2 percent of their class. 59 percent of students who had at least one parent attend Harvard and whose schools ranked, reported being in the top 2 percent of their class.
• A majority of surveyed freshmen—53.5 percent—were accepted early to Harvard. 39.3 percent of first-generation students and 69 percent of legacy students were accepted into Harvard’s early admissions program.