She said the delay was particularly troubling for her because many of her classmates also applied early to Harvard had received their acceptances, thus forcing her to spend a weekend in ignorance of Harvard’s decision while most of her classmates already knew.

Despite her difficulties, she said she still thought the e-mail notification a good idea for future years.

“If it had worked, it would have been nice to know early,” Ross said.

However, Ross noted that because Harvard e-mailed applicants during the middle of the day, students at her school crowded into the school’s computer labs to learn Harvard’s decision, thus creating a stressful environment. She suggested in the future the admissions office should consider e-mailing after school hours,

The admitted members of the Class of 2006 are similar in demographic to their predecessors.

Women are slightly better represented in this year’s group of admitted students—making up 48 percent this year, instead of 46 percent last year. The percentage of Asian and black students in the early acceptance pool is also marginally higher than last year, while the percentage of Latino students has dropped slightly.

The admissions’ office deferred 4,677 applicants to consideration in the regular admissions process and rejected 191.

McGrath Lewis said that while the number significantly varies between years, typically a significant number of those who are deferred in the early action process are eventually accepted in the regular admissions process. Last year over 200 students were at first deferred but later admitted.

—Staff writer Daniel P. Mosteller can be reached at dmostell@fas.harvard.edu.