Overview
- Internal communications reviewed by The Harvard Crimson show science Ph.D. seats cut by more than 75%, arts and humanities by about 60%, and social sciences reduced by roughly 50% to 70% over the next two admissions rounds.
- Departments must decide by Friday how to distribute their sharply limited slots, and units left with only one post-cut seat are barred from admitting, with final allocations still subject to change.
- Projected program-level impacts include the German department losing all seats and History dropping to five admits per year for the next two years, with other departments planning one-year cohorts and forfeiting the next.
- FAS Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra linked the retrenchment to financial pressures including an uncertain research-funding landscape and an endowment tax increase that could cost Harvard about $300 million annually.
- Harvard reported a $113 million operating deficit for FY2025 and has enacted a hiring freeze, flat budgets, and a halt to non-essential capital projects even as a court-ordered restoration of federal grants began in September.