Getting into Harvard just keeps getting harder.

The percentage of applicants admitted last week to the Harvard-Radcliffe Class of 2003 fell to 11.3 percent, its lowest level ever, admissions officials said.

A total of 2,055 students were admitted out of 18,160 applicants. Harvard fell short of its record number of applications, set by the Class of 2000, by just 23.

Acceptance letters, mailed April 1, trickled into mailboxes across the world this week.

Jane Yang, an 18-year-old high school senior from Saugus, said she could tell by the thickness of the letter in her mailbox that she had made it in.

"I saw it, grabbed it, tried to run into the house and fell down the stairs," she said. "I've always wanted to come [to Harvard] since I was little."

Director of Admissions Marlyn McGrath Lewis '70-'73 said she thought the College's new and more generous financial aid policy, announced last fall, had driven up the number of applications.

"The good publicity across the country helped students who might not have imagined Harvard-Radcliffe was within their reach," she said.

The new policy upped student aid about 20 percent, adding $2,000 annually to the financial aid package for students receiving scholarship grants. The new policy also allowed outside scholarships to be used to replace job and loan contributions.

"It can only have made this place seem more accessible to people who might not have thought that," Lewis said.

This year the College also tied its own record--set by the admitted Class of 2001--for the most gender-balanced class. Women comprised 48.5 percent of admitted students in the Class of 2003, Lewis said.

Lewis said the percentage of women admitted has varied slightly over the last few years, but has followed a general upward trend.

Last year, 48 percent of admitted students were women.

Final figures on minority admissions would be available later this week, Lewis said.

She said there were no significant changes from last year. Of students admitted to the Class of 2002, 18 percent were Asian Americans, 9.9 percent were African-Americans. Latino students made up 8.5 percent of those admitted.

Lewis said the admissions office had made most of its decisions by March 19, but that they were still being finalized the day acceptance letters were sent out.

"We really do make changes up to the last minute," Lewis said. "It's very satisfying to see them all done."