Everyone knows that success in life takes a lot of skill and talent. But it’s not just merit. It’s also luck and that may be the answer as everyone in higher ed awaits the anticipated Supreme Court ruling on the lawsuit challenging Harvard admissions.
In the meantime, let us honor not just the graduates of the season, but to the matriculates—those committing to Fall’s Class of 2027. At Harvard, it’s a record for Asian American matriculates. 
Emil Guillermo
I love the word matriculate. It sounds like it should do more than it does. But it’s just the easy part after you get admitted—saying if you’re really going to go. Yes or No. Getting admitted is the hard part.
This year, 56,937 people applied to Harvard and only 1,942 got in. That’s a 3.41 percent acceptance rate. On Friday, Harvard announced 84 percent of those offered admissions said they would matriculate, or actually enroll this fall, about 1630 students. And about 486 of them are Asian American. That’s a freshman class that’s 29.8 percent Asian, two percent higher than the record set last year.
It makes for an odd coincidence. Just as the Supreme Court is set to deliver an opinion by this summer in a lawsuit that claims Harvard’s process discriminates against Asian Americans, the school has produced a class that is more Asian, and more diverse in terms of race and class in its history.
The Black student population is down slightly but is still at 14.1 percent of the new class. Latinx students are down from 11.9 percent to 11.1 percent. Native Americans and Native Hawaiians were at 3.6 percent and are now at 2.3 percent.
White students are up from 42.5 percent to 42.7 percent. That’s still too close to 50 percent for my taste.
