The Harvard College Office of Admissions has just over three weeks left to review its largest applicant pool ever.

The mail has brought 19,010 applications to the doors of Eight Garden Street, up from 18,693 last year and marking an all time high, William R. Fitzsimmons '67, dean of admissions said yesterday.

"We're very pleased, but what's more important than the numbers would be the quality of applicants," Fitszimmons said. "Though every year we say this may be the best one yet, it certainly feels that way right now."

Fitzsimmons said that number of minority applications was about the same as last year.

"You have, across the various minority groups, a large increase in a number of groups, somewhat similar numbers in other groups and, in others, a slight decline," Fitzsimmons said, "On balance, the numbers are somewhat similar to last year."

The largest increase in a minority group is among Puerto Ricans, who had a 26.3 percent increase in applications to the College.

Although African-Americans only make up 5.9 percent of this year's applicant pool as opposed to 6.3 percent of last year's pool, Fitzsimmons says he is not concerned about the small decline.

"It's still a very high number and one of the largest we've had in our history," he said.