Reuters

Boston, Mar 30: Getting into Harvard University got tougher this year as more students than ever applied to the Ivy League school's undergraduate program, many drawn by an attractive financial aid offer.

Harvard, the world's richest university, said yesterday a record 22,955 students applied for a spot in the Class of 2011.

Of those, just 2,058 were accepted -- an admission rate of 9 percent, the lowest in school history.

Last year, 2,109 of 22,753 applicants, or 9.3 per cent, got the nod from the university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Boston.

Harvard and other prestigious US universities are benefiting from a surge in enrollment as children of the baby-boomer generation graduate from high school.

Harvard, whose former president Lawrence Summers was criticized for controversial remarks about women, said just over half of those admitted to the Class of 2011 were women, while the number of ethnic minorities hit a record high.

Nearly 20 per cent of those accepted are Asian, 10.7 per cent are black and 10.1 per cent are Latino. The class would also be its most economically diverse, Harvard said, with 26 percent eligible for a new financial aid program.

The Harvard Financial Aid Initiative, announced in 2004 by Summers, slashed the amount low-income students must pay to attend the oldest US institute of higher learning.

Under the program, students from families earning less than 60,000 dollars a year do not have to contribute to the cost of tuition. Those from families earning between 60,000 dollars and 80,000 dollars pay far less than they would have in previous years.

Since the program began, aid for students from families with incomes under 60,000 dollars has risen 34 per cent, Harvard said.

More than two-thirds of Harvard's entering class receives financial aid, including scholarships and loans, while more than half qualify for scholarship assistance and an average total aid package of close to 34,000 dollars.

Many badly need the help. Annual undergraduate tuition will rise 3.9 per cent next year to 31,456 dollars, increasing at a pace nearly double the US rate of inflation, a Harvard statement showed this month.

Throw in room, board and services fees and the cost jumps to 45,620 dollars, almost double the average at a private college in the United States.

Summers, a former US Treasury secretary whose confrontational style led to a faculty vote of no confidence, resigned last year.

Historian Drew Gilpin Faust, Harvard's first female president, has been appointed to replace him.