The Office of Undergraduate Admissions’ Undergraduate Minority Recruitment Program, which dispatches Harvard students to recruit at diverse urban schools, is a powerful tool Okunseinde said.

According to Okunseinde, boosting black yield for the Class of 2008 largely depends on the success of pre-frosh weekend efforts.

The Stanford Daily reported that the university mounted a massive weekend-long exposition of multiculturalism when prospective students visited campus in April.

Blacks compose 8.5 percent of Harvard’s Class of 2007, compared to 6.9 percent of the previous first-year contingent. At Stanford, 12.3 percent of the Class of 2007 are black students, the highest percentage in the school’s history, according to the JBHE.

Yale, meanwhile, has watched the percentage of blacks in its first-year class fall over the last decade.

In 1993, black students composed 12 percent of Yale’s first-year class, but only 6.7 percent of the incoming Class of 2007, the JBHE reported.

Although black students were historically underrepresented in the fall admissions round, Lewis said that this year’s early action applicants, who are racing to finish their forms before tomorrow’s deadline, are expected to reflect the overall demographics of the applicant pool.