Applicants to the College's class of 2001 declined 8 percent this year from 18,183 for the class of 2000, to about 16,700.

This is the third highest applicant pool in College history, though the first decline in admissions in recent years.

Admissions officers welcomed the recession as a pleasant change from several years of unprecedented increases.

Between '91 and '96, the number of Harvard applicants increased a staggering 49 percent, according to Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons '67.

"I think it may signal a return to greater sanity," Fitzsimmons said.

College admissions officers credit the increase in students accepted under Harvard's early admission program and a greater sense of realism among high school seniors for the decline.

Last year Princeton and Yale both ended their non-binding early admissions programs, making Brown and Harvard the only Ivy League schools who maintain such early action programs.

These changes have reduced the number of colleges to which the average candidate applies, said Director of Admissions Marlyn McGrath-Lewis '70.

"A number of candidates who otherwise would have been in our applicant pool have already been accepted to [an early admission school] and can't apply to our school," McGrath-Lewis said.

The changes in the early application procedure also caused a fervor among applicants, many of whom believe that applying early is the only strategy for getting in to select schools, Fitzsimmons said.

This year there was a record number of early applications submitted to the College.

College counselors at several prep schools agree that early admission is altering college application patterns.

"Our early numbers have gone up dramatically, all of which has a result and an impact on our later [admission] numbers at other schools," said William R. Matthews Jr., a college counselor at St. Paul's School.

College counselors also find that their students are increasingly pragmatic in choosing where to apply.

"Students have been reading the newspapers and realize that 18,000 people are applying for 6,000 slots [at Harvard] and think, 'Why waste my money,'" said Wells McMurray, a college counselor at Greenhill School in Dallas. "Those are really long odds."

Last year the College Board's recentering of the SAT also increased the number of applicants, Fitzsimmons said.

Most students' scores went up around 200 points which boosted many students' confidence in applying to more selective schools.

"There's a better sense among the kids that those who are marginally qualified are just not going to make it," Matthews said.

Despite the diminished applicant pool, Harvard admissions officers still contend that the quality of applicants this year is extremely strong.

"We will be able to admit another exceptional class," said McGrath-Lewis.