Approximately two-thirds of the entering classwill receive some form of financial aid, accordingto information the office released yesterday.About 40 percent will receive scholarships fromthe nearly $6 million in grants offered toadmitted students.
The average financial aid package will total$12,450, of which $8550 will be in scholarship aidand $3900 a combination of student loans and job,the office said yesterday.
The increase in applications caught the officeby surprise, the dean said, since all statisticsindicate that the trend is toward fewer and fewercollege age students in the general population.
"The curve halted this year," Fitzsimmons saidyesterday. "Next year there will be a sharpdecline in applicants. It should bottom off about1993-4."
This year the admissions office hopes that theycan accept students off the waiting list. "Lastyear we couldn't go to the waiting list," saidFitzsimmons."
To counter not being able to accept anyone offthe waiting list last year, Harvard accepted 41fewer students than it did last year. "Ideally, wewould like to take anywhere between 40 and 70people off of the wait list, since there are somany qualified applicants," said Fitzsimmons