Harvard College breaks the news: Who's in, out

Almost 23,000 anxious applicants checked their in-boxes yesterday for that fateful e-mail: Did they get accepted at Harvard?

For about 91 percent, the answer was no.

Harvard College accepted 2,058 students for the class of 2011. By taking just 9 percent of the 22,955 applicants, it set the lowest admission rate in school history. The admittance rate was 9.3 percent last year.

Applicants included almost 3,200 who earned perfect scores on their SAT math test, 2,500 who scored perfectly on the SAT verbal test, and more than 3,000 who ranked first in their high school class. That means that hundreds of students who were tops in their class or who nailed their SATs still didn't get in to Harvard.

The school alerted the 92 percent of applicants who requested e-mail notification, but warned students to be patient, because the message may take several hours to reach them. It also warned that about 2 percent of admission e-mails bounce back as undeliverable. The school also mails acceptance and rejection letters, which should arrive in a few days.

ANDREW RYAN