Harvard sees dip in applications following antisemitism, plagiarism controversies

Applications were down by approximately 3,000 — around 5% compared to last year

Harvard University suffered a 5% drop in admission applications following its highly publicized antisemitism and plagiarism controversies.

The Ivy League school published data on its incoming Class of 2028 on Thursday, announcing the acceptance of 1,937 students from an application pool of 54,008.

This marks a small downward tick in applications from last year — approximately 3,000 fewer.

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Harvard University gate

People walk through the gate to Harvard Yard at the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  (Getty Images)

In December of last year, the Harvard early application pool saw a 17% decline from the year before, receiving 7,921 early applications, compared to 9,553 applications in 2022.

The November 1, 2023, application deadline came before Harvard's then-President Claudine Gay's congressional testimony that ignited discussions about institutional leaders' reluctance to adequately condemn antisemitism.

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Harvard president testifies

Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned from her position in January amid simultaneous antisemitism and plagiarism controversies at the Ivy League school. (Haiyun Jiang/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The scandal only got worse after Gay was accused of plagiarism in her academic work.

After facing dozens of plagiarism allegations, Gay released a letter to members of the Harvard community, saying she was stepping down as president but will return to the Harvard faculty.

An antisemitism task force was assembled from faculty and staff at Harvard, but that group has been plagued by resignations and internal complaints that it cannot properly undertake initiatives.

Harvard banners

Harvard banners hang outside Memorial Church on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Photo by Michael Fein/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Major donors to the school have pulled their contributions amidst the chaos, including hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and philanthropist Leonard Blavatnik.

Fox News Digital's Taylor Penley and Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.

Timothy Nerozzi is a writer for Fox News Digital. You can follow him on Twitter @timothynerozzi and can email him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Authored by Timothy Nerozzi via FoxNews March 29th 2024