4. Harvard Brings Back Early Action Admissions

This year brought early action admissions back to Harvard, reversing a policy that had once been heralded as a way to level the playing field in Harvard admissions.

Five years ago, administrators announced that Harvard would eliminate its early application program in favor of a single admissions cycle per year, claiming that early admissions programs put less privileged students at a disadvantage. Harvard administrators had hopes that colleges nationwide would follow Harvard’s lead in moving to a single-cycle admissions policy. But only Princeton and the University of Virginia did so, while universities like Yale and Stanford that often compete with Harvard for top applicants kept their early action programs.

With the return of early action to Harvard, admissions experts questioned whether underprivileged applicants would be at a disadvantage under the revived program. But when more than 4,000 applications poured in this fall, the Office of Admissions reported that the pool was more diverse than the last time the program existed. Eighteen percent of those applicants received acceptance letters in December.

3. After One Historic Season, Basketball Team Headed Toward Greater Heights

As Harvard men’s basketball coach Tommy Amaker often remarks, it’s not easy to do something for the first time at a school that has been around for 375 years. But that’s exactly what the Harvard men’s basketball program has done and continues to do.

It was a historic year for the Crimson. In March, the Crimson captured a share of its first Ivy League title ever, defeating Princeton, 79-67, in front of a boisterous crowd at Lavietes Pavilion. But the celebratory mood faded one week later when the Crimson fell to Princeton in heartbreaking fashion in a one-game playoff to determine the Ivy League’s representative at the NCAA tournament.

After turning down an offer from the University of Miami in April, Amaker returned to Cambridge for his fifth season. Even before the 2011-12 season tipped off, Harvard turned heads, hosting a star-studded group of eight high school recruits—six of whom were ranked in the MaxPreps.com Top 100—in an attempt to persuade them to commit to Harvard.

On the court, Harvard has continued to succeed. Its win in the inaugural Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in November helped propel it into the Top 25 in national rankings for the first time ever. And with an 11-1 record midway through the season, the Crimson appears poised to continue making history, likely heading in 2012 to Harvard’s first NCAA tournament berth since 1946.

2. ROTC Returns to Harvard