For the eighth time in nine years, applications for admission to Harvard and Radcliffe have risen. According to the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid, 18,123 students have applied for the 1,650 places in the Class of 2003, compared to 16,818 for last year's freshman class. Applications increased almost 8 percent, nearly matching the record 18,183 applications for the Class of 2000, and surpassing the 3 percent rise in the number of high school seniors nationally.

According to Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons, Harvard's new financial aid program, announced in September by Dean Jeremy R. Knowles, had much to do with the increase. "We had a great deal of positive feedback about it during our recruiting trips this fall. Prospective applicants visiting Cambridge also heard good things from our current undergraduates about the freedom and flexibility the program offers."

The new financial aid program gave scholarship students an additional $2,000 per year in need-based grants which they could use to reduce loan and/or job expectations. In addition, students were allowed to use the full amount of scholarships won from non- Harvard sources to further reduce or even eliminate loan and job requirements. These new benefits were extended not just to prospective students but to all current undergraduates.

Approximately 60 percent of undergraduates who receive financial aid have chosen to reduce their loans, 40 percent to reduce job expectations. Nearly 2,000 students receiving outside awards have been able to use those awards to further reduce their loan and job requirements. And more than 150 have won so much in outside scholarships that they have eliminated the annual term-time work and loan requirements completely. Over four years such students stand to save $25,000 or more in loan and work expectations.

James S. Miller, director of financial aid, reported that more prospective students than ever before have contacted the financial aid office to ask about financial aid opportunities. "Since Dean Knowles' announcement in September, large numbers of students and their families have contacted us to learn more about the new program. Our current students, the first beneficiaries of the program, have also spoken with prospective students about the additional time students now have to pursue their academic and extracurricular opportunities, as well as the option of reducing loan requirements. Students appreciate particularly that their graduate school and career plans will not be encumbered by loan debt thanks to the new program."

Fitzsimmons noted that the cumulative effects of stepped-up recruiting over the past 10 years have helped reinforce the positive news about financial aid. "The new program continues Harvard's leadership in financial aid and makes a Harvard education possible for the nearly 50 percent of our undergraduates on scholarship aid, and the two-thirds who receive some form of financial aid."

Over the past decade, a variety of methods have been used to inform prospective students about the unsurpassed academic opportunities at Harvard, the many new and refurbished academic, athletic, and dormitory facilities, and the continuing attractions of Boston and Cambridge. Broader and earlier staff travel, the strategic use of College Board-based search mailings, increased faculty involvement, and the personal efforts of alumni and alumnae have combined to produce impressive results.

"We are very grateful to everyone who has been a part of this cooperative effort -- including the many students whose work with the Undergraduate Admissions Council, the Crimson Key, and the Undergraduate Minority Admissions Program is vital to successful outreach," said Marlyn McGrath Lewis, director of admissions.

Geographic distribution remained generally similar to last year's, as did the academic fields in which applicants expressed interest. Applications from minority students also remained at high levels.

The excellence of the applicant pool is even more remarkable than the number of candidates. By all the standard measures of academic talent, including test scores and academic performance in school, this year's group is unusual. For example, more than 54 percent of the candidates averaged 1,400 or higher on their SATs, over 1,900 scored a perfect 800 on their SAT verbal, a similar number scored 800 on their SAT math, and almost 2,600 were valedictorians of their high schools. Lewis observed that "we are very pleased to have attracted the interest -- again this year -- of such extraordinarily accomplished students. The Admissions Committee is very busy reading and evaluating this wonderful applicant group."

"Thanks to the generosity of our alumni and alumnae, our policy of need-blind admissions combined with need-based financial aid remains firmly in place. It is the foundation on which our recruitment program rests and it is the key element in producing such outstanding student bodies year after year," said Fitzsimmons.

Decision letters will be mailed April l.