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Harvard College will continue to admit waitlisted students to the Class of 2029 past the traditional June 30 deadline as the Trump administration’s regulatory attacks threaten to prevent international students from attending.
The Admissions and Financial Aid Office announced the change in a Friday email sent to applicants on the waitlist who have indicated interest in gaining admission to the class.
“Our records indicate that you wish to be considered if space becomes available,” the email read. “While wait list decisions are usually completed by June 30, this year the wait list process will continue into the summer.”
The Trump administration’s threats have made it impossible for Harvard to know how many international admits will decide to enroll next year — and whether any will be able to attend at all.
Faculty of Arts and Sciences spokesperson James M. Chisholm confirmed in a Monday statement that the decision to prolong waitlist admissions was based on uncertainty around international student enrollment, though no reasoning was offered in the Friday email to waitlisted applicants.
“Given the ongoing situation regarding international students, final decisions on the wait list have been extended until later in the summer,” Chisholm wrote.
In late April, about a month before the Department of Homeland Security first revoked Harvard’s certification to host international students, the College changed its admissions policies to allow international students to accept admission to both Harvard and another, non-American university.
Students have the option to defer their acceptance to Harvard if they cannot obtain a visa by the time the school year starts. But if they enroll at other universities during that time period, they would have to reapply to transfer to Harvard.
International students compose approximately 15 percent of the College’s student body and have remained in the crosshairs of the University’s ongoing legal battle with the White House.
As Harvard seeks relief from federal judges, its lawyers have argued that preventing Harvard from hosting international students would cause irreparable harm to its student body — and throw the admissions process into chaos..
“With summer programs set to begin in June and the admissions cycle for the fall semester complete, Harvard would be forced to dramatically shrink or reconfigure its carefully crafted incoming classes in a matter of weeks,” the University wrote in a court filing in May.
The College — and the rest of Harvard’s schools — have been developing contingency plans to allow international students to keep studying at the University. On Tuesday, the Harvard Kennedy School became the first school to detail its plans, which may allow students unable to enter the U.S. to complete their degrees online or at the University of Toronto.
The College has not publicly disclosed contingency plans. However, it is likely to know less about the makeup of its incoming class than in years past until the next school year begins — including size and geographic breakdown.
Unlike many other peer universities — including Yale and Princeton — Harvard does not release specific details about the size of its waitlist. The number of students accepted from Harvard’s waitlist in the past has varied widely from year to year, ranging from zero to more than 200, according to the Harvard College Frequently Asked Questions page.
In October, the admissions office announced that it would break from precedent and withhold all data about the Class of 2029, including demographic and geographic breakdowns. That information will not be released until this fall, as required by the Department of Education.
The DHS announced on May 22 that it had revoked Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, which is necessary for international students to enroll at the College. Harvard sued the next day, and the revocation was temporarily blocked by United States District Judge Allison D. Burroughs — who has since granted a preliminary injunction until a decision is reached in the lawsuit.
On May 28, the DHS said that it would still move to revoke Harvard’s SEVP certification — giving Harvard a 30-day period to demonstrate compliance with federal requirements. That window closed on Friday.
Harvard spokesperson Jason A. Newton wrote that the University submitted a reply to the May 28 notice of intent to withdraw and was “engaging in the administrative process in good faith and as required by law.” He promised that the University would “continue to provide support to our international students” but declined to comment on the future of Harvard’s SEVP status.
United States President Donald Trump has also directly intervened to limit Harvard’s international student population through executive authority. On June 4, he issued a proclamation barring foreign students from entering the U.S. to attend Harvard.
Burroughs also blocked that order a day after it went into effect and granted a preliminary injunction on June 23. Despite quick relief from both of the Trump administration’s actions, many international students faced significant disruptions in the days that followed. Several affiliates were denied visas outright, and others were held in isolation at Boston Logan International Airport after the proclamation was issued.
As late as Tuesday, a U.S. embassy in South Asia cited a nonexistent section of the Immigration and Nationality Act — in what appeared to be a typographical error for the section granting legal authority to Trump’s proclamation, still blocked by a judge — to deny a visa to an incoming Harvard College freshman.
On Friday, the White House filed an appeal challenging the injunction for Trump’s proclamation, arguing it encroached on executive authority. The case will now be sent to the First Circuit Court of Appeals.
—Staff writer Samuel A. Church can be reached at samuel.church@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @samuelachurch.
—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.
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