The Class of 2008 will represent similar demographics to those of preceding classes. There is a slight increase in students hailing from the Midwest and from abroad, while slightly fewer students will come from the East and West coasts.

Prospective social science and humanities concentrators dominate the Class of 2008, with 27 and 25 percent of students, respectively, planning concentrations in those areas. Twenty-two percent of the incoming first-years plan to pursue a concentration in biological sciences. Physical sciences and math each drew 8 percent of the students, while 7 percent indicated an interest in engineering. Computer science concentrators make up 2 percent of the accepted students and 1 percent is still undecided.

While the Class of 2008 admissions program is hardly over—for instance, students are being admitted off the waitlist and some applications are being reviewed—the admissions office has already begun recruiting students for the Class of 2009.

According to Fitzsimmons, over 56,000 letters have been sent to high school students and admissions officers will soon wrap up a tour of 60 cities where they recruited students for the Class of 2009.

He also said the Office of Admissions plans to increase the number of student-led tours and expand programs for group visits to accommodate students and their families who ordinarily wouldn’t have the opportunity to visit Harvard.

Fitzsimmons said the Office of Admissions will hire five students to work during the summer for the financial aid program and around five students to work for the undergraduate minority recruiting program.

“We will be increasing recruiting over the summer both for minority students and for students who would fall under new financial aid initiative,” Fitzsimmons said.    

—Staff writer Bari M. Schwartz can be reached at bschwart@fas.harvard.edu.