If you’ve been waitlisted to Harvard University’s Class of 2029, you might wonder if you’ve got a legitimate chance of admission. You might internally debate if it’s even worth getting your hopes up and crafting a Letter of Continued Interest.

Does Harvard pull a significant number of students each year from its waitlist? Is being waitlisted by Harvard in 2024-2025 meaningful? It’s time for some inside scoop on the Harvard waitlist.

Harvard University Does Not Release the Waitlist Acceptance Rate

While many highly selective universities release the number of students offered a place on their waitlist each year along with the number of students who opt-in to the waitlist and the number of students accepted off the waitlist, Harvard keeps these figures close to the vest.

Without the number of students who accept a spot on the Harvard waitlist and the number of students admitted off the waitlist each year, any figure you find online that purports to represent the Harvard waitlist acceptance rate is false — because Harvard neither publicizes these figures nor releases them to The Common Data Set like many other schools.

Harvard University Class Year	Number of Students Waitlisted to Harvard	Number of Students Who Chose to Join Harvard Waitlist	Number of Students Accepted Off Harvard Waitlist	Harvard Waitlist Acceptance Rate
Harvard Class of 2029	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD
Harvard Class of 2028	Not Published	Not Published	Not Published	Not Published
Harvard Class of 2027	Not Published	Not Published	Not Published	Not Published
Harvard Class of 2026	Not Published	Not Published	Not Published	Not Published

Projections on Harvard’s Waitlist Activity for the Class of 2029

Instead, it’s mere conjecture, conjecture typically based on Harvard’s yield (or the percentage of admitted students who enroll). In a typical year, Harvard’s yield exceeds 80%. For the Harvard Class of 2028, Harvard’s yield was 83.6%

As our loyal blog readers know, Ivy Coach has a famously accurate crystal ball known to make sweeping — and yet rarely incorrect — forecasts about the state of higher education. And boy, does it have something in store for the Harvard Class of 2029. We predict that once the data about this most recent cohort does come out, as it is bound to do once Harvard’s Common Data Set is released this fall, it will show a decline in overall applications and, therefore, a slight uptick in Harvard’s overall acceptance rate. Nothing too extreme, of course (after all, Harvard is still Harvard!), but certainly a result that university officials will be none too excited to shout from the rooftops.

And if Harvard’s projected yield dips (inverse of the predicted increase in acceptance rate), there’s a good chance the institution will turn to its waitlist. If Harvard’s yield is spot on or under-projected, there’s a good chance the institution will not turn to its waitlist. But if you ask us, Harvard will probably soon be reeling from one of the lowest yields in recent history. If the rest of the Ivy League is any indication — Dartmouth, Columbia, Yale, and Brown have all reported higher acceptance rates than last year, and those are just the schools that have released the data! Harvard is going to have to dip pretty far down into its waitlist to fill its rolls this year for the Class of 2029.

A Brief Overview of Harvard Admission Statistics

Harvard University	Overall Acceptance Rate	Regular Decision Acceptance Rate	Regular Decision Applications Accepted	Regular Decision Applications Received	Early Decision / Action Acceptance Rate	Percent of Class Filled by Early Applications	Early Decision / Action Applications Received	Early Decision / Action Applications Accepted	Expected Number of Students to Enroll	Total Applications Received	Total Applications Accepted
Class of 2029	Not Yet Published	Not Yet Published	Not Yet Published	Not Yet Published	Not Yet Published	Not Yet Published	Not Yet Published	Not Yet Published	Not Yet Published	Not Yet Published	Not Yet Published
Class of 2028	3.49%	2.71%	1,245	46,087	8.74%	n/a*	7,921	692	1,665	54,008	1,937
Class of 2027	3.41%	2.34%	1,220	47,384	7.56%	n/a*	9,553	722	1,665	56,937	1,942
Class of 2026	3.19%	2.34%	1,214	51,814	7.87%	n/a*	9,406	740	1,665	61,220	1,954
Class of 2025	3.40%	2.60%	1,223	47,349	7.40%	n/a*	10,086	747	1,665	57,435	1,970
Class of 2024	4.90%	3.20%	1,085	33,824	13.90%	n/a*	6,424	895	1,665	40,248	1,970
Class of 2023	4.50%	2.80%	1,015	36,372	13.40%	n/a*	6,958	935	1,665	43,330	1,950
Class of 2022	4.60%	2.80%	998	36,119	14.50%	n/a*	6,630	964	1,665	42,749	1,962
Class of 2021	5.20%	3.40%	1,118	33,033	14.50%	n/a*	6,473	938	1,670	39,506	2,056
Class of 2020	5.20%	3.40%	1,119	32,868	14.90%	n/a*	6,173	918	1,660	39,041	2,037
Class of 2019	5.30%	3.20%	1,013	31,388	16.50%	n/a*	5,919	977	1,660	37,305	1,990
Class of 2018	5.90%	3.50%	1,031	29,603	21.10%	n/a*	4,692	992	1,660	34,295	2,023
Class of 2017	5.80%	3.80%	1,134	30,167	18.40%	n/a*	4,856	895	1,660	35,023	2,029
Class of 2016	5.90%	4.20%	1,260	30,054	18.20%	n/a*	4,231	722	1,661	34,285	2,032
Class of 2015	6.20%	6.20%	2,158	34,950	n/a*	n/a*	n/a*	n/a*	1,655	34,950	2,158
Class of 2014	6.90%	6.90%	2,110	30,489	n/a*	n/a*	n/a*	n/a*	1,655	30,489	2,110
Class of 2013	7%	7%	2,046	29,112	n/a*	n/a*	n/a*	n/a*	1,655	29,112	2,046
Class of 2012	7.10%	7.10%	1,948	27,462	n/a*	n/a*	n/a*	n/a*	1,675	27,462	1,948
Class of 2011	9%	6.20%	1,183	18,947	21.80%	n/a*	4,008	875	1,675	22,955	2,058
Class of 2010	9.30%	6.90%	1,305	18,881	20.80%	n/a*	3,872	804	1,684	22,753	2,109
Class of 2009	9.10%	6.40%	1,189	18,583	21%	n/a*	4,213	885	1,650	22,796	2,074
Class of 2008	10.30%	7.10%	1,123	15,861	23.30%	n/a*	3,889	906	1,650	19,750	2,029
Class of 2007	9.80%	6.80%	906	13,366	15.10%	n/a*	7,620	1,150	1,650	20,986	2,056

n/a* = not applicable since an EA policy was in place

Still, we’re not left in utter darkness regarding Harvard’s history of admissions statistics. If you read The Crimson’s recent report detailing how Harvard has withheld every last data point about the admitted students for the Class of 2029, you’ll know that Harvard is starting to take the cues from some of its elite university counterparts and refusing to give any of its friends or enemies any fodder for further discussion or scrutiny (which Harvard has gotten its fair share of over these past few years). As the chart above indicates, this decision comes amid a trend of record-low acceptance rates at the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based school.

In the meantime, waitlisted applicants to Harvard’s Class of 2029 should rest assured that this lack of data could very well indicate that the Crimson stronghold is in a position in which they must dip into their waitlist to round out their incoming class. 

Harvard’s Waitlist Acceptance History

So what do we know about the Harvard waitlist? In some years, we know that Harvard has reached deep down its waitlist — admitting more than 200 candidates out of limbo. In other years, Harvard has not turned to its waitlist.

As Harvard’s admissions committee states, “Our wait list includes the applicants whom the Committee might still wish to consider for admission if spots in the entering class open later. The wait list is not ranked. In some years, we have admitted no one from the wait list; in others, we have admitted more than 200 candidates.”

Beyond this communication, it’s not unlikely that if Harvard did share its waitlist data publicly, it would show a large degree of variation from year to year. Accounting for this likely variation is the fact that Harvard’s waitlist acceptance rate is entirely determined by its yield rate. No one, least of all admissions officers at Harvard, can predict what the yield is going to look like for the Class of 2029, but you need not concern yourself with that at the moment.

Your task at the present moment is simple: put yourself in a position such that if Harvard finds themselves dipping into their pool of waitlisted applicants, you’ll be the first student they choose.

How to Improve Your Chances of Admissions Off the Harvard Waitlist

To optimize your chances of earning admission off the Harvard waitlist, after informing Harvard that you wish to join its waitlist, you should:

• Write and submit a powerful Letter of Continued Interest. This letter should contain no brags and no updates. It should be a love letter to the institution, showcasing how you will contribute your singular hook to the school’s programs, institutes, activities, culture, traditions, and more. 
• Ask your school counselor to make an advocacy call to the Harvard admissions committee. While we’re not for you annoying Harvard’s admissions officers, we’re all for your school counselor putting pressure on the institution to offer you admission. And though some school counselors will refuse to make advocacy calls (sometimes they’ll say that it would be unfair to their other students, which is total malarkey), we’d argue that it’s their job to fight for all their students.
• Keep up your grades. Your senior year grades may indeed matter if you’re hoping to earn admission off the Harvard waitlist.

Harvard Waitlist FAQ

Q: Does Harvard conduct courtesy deferrals and waitlistings?

A: In the Early round, most elite universities will indeed defer rather than deny legacy applicants who do not earn admission, and some, including Harvard, will take it as far as waitlisting such applicants after already deferring them once! After all, what’s the point of outright rejecting an alum’s child? Instead, they can let the parent think they’re still considering their child — it’s nothing to them.

Of course, Harvard doesn’t need four months to deliberate on an applicant they will ultimately just reject. But they’re (quite suspiciously) willing to lead families on for the sake of appearing to give extra consideration to the children of legacies. As long as you take the steps Ivy Coach lists in this posts to optimize your odds of getting off the waitlist (and we of course don’t include here the secret sauce of Ivy Coach’s Letters of Continued Interest for public consumption), you need not worry about whether you or your child’s waitlist was a courtesy waitlist or not. You’ll never know for sure! All you can do is present the best case possible for admission post-waitlisting.

Q: Harvard announced they are at capacity and no longer looking at waitlisted applicants. Is all hope lost?

A: Never take an elite university at its word when it comes to waitlists. Harvard has been known to mislead applicants. For example, they say they don’t track Demonstrated Interest yet give applicants who do just that an undeniable advantage. This scenario is no different. If you’ve yet to submit your Letter of Continued Interest, don’t let their announcements stop you.

We at Ivy Coach like to tell the story of a student of ours who was waitlisted to Harvard and ended up putting down a deposit at Duke. We encouraged them not to lose hope and submit a Letter of Continued Interest anyways, and lo-and-behold, Harvard eventually admitted them, well after they said they were done considering waitlisted applicants that particular year. The student had already begun moving into their Duke dorm and had to make a speedy escape (their parents forfeited their Duke deposit)!

Ivy Coach’s Track Record with Harvard Waitlisted Applicants

Over the last three decades, there have been years where several students who first approached Ivy Coach after being waitlisted by Harvard have earned admission. There have also been years in which no students who first approached Ivy Coach after being waitlisted by Harvard have earned admission because Harvard admitted no students from the waitlist that year.

For example, for the Class of 2024, almost every student who came to Ivy Coach after being waitlisted earned admission to Harvard. Yet there are other years when no student who came to us after being waitlisted by Harvard got in.

Regardless, our approach is always the same. It’s just a question of how deep Harvard will reach down its waitlist in a given year — if at all.

So we always want students’ (and parents’) expectations in check. We believe in underpromising and overdelivering. A student never has a great chance of earning admission off the Harvard waitlist. All Ivy Coach can do is offer a student the best opportunity. And if that’s insufficient, we’re not the right fit and are not interested in taking the student on as a client.

That said, over the last 30 years, about 39% of students who first come to Ivy Coach after being waitlisted by Harvard have earned admission. Some students have earned admission within days of submitting a compelling Letter of Continued Interest, while for others, it took several weeks.

Getting Started with Ivy Coach on Approaching the Harvard Waitlist

If you’re interested in Ivy Coach’s assistance in optimizing your chances of admission off the Harvard waitlist to the Class of 2029, fill out our complimentary consultation form, indicate that Harvard has waitlisted you, and we’ll respond to delineate our go-forward waitlist service.

It’s a service led by Ivy Coach’s very own former Harvard admissions officer Chad Faber and former Stanford admissions officer and Harvard graduate Jose Magana. The San Antonio Spurs had David Robinson and Tim Duncan manning the middle. Ivy Coach has our very own twin towers in Chad and Jose as they optimize waitlisted Harvard applicants’ chances of admission.