Harvard Gets Record Number of Applicants

The Harvard Crimson reported this week that Harvard received more than 29,000 applications for spots in the class of 2013. That's over a 5% increase from last year's 27,462 applicants. Thus, the most selective college in the country just got more selective. The Crimson also reports that Yale saw an even bigger increase in applicants, and the University of Virginia had a 17% increase over last year.

The reasons for these big increases aren't entirely clear, but the current financial crisis is likely to drive students to apply to less expensive public universities like Virginia, and to wealthy schools like Harvard and Yale that can offer excellent financial aid packages. Harvard, for example, requires no contribution from families that make less than $60,000 annually.