GETTING into Harvard University got tougher this year as a record number of students applied to the school's undergraduate programme. Many were drawn by attractive financial-aid offers during the recession.

Harvard, the world's richest university, said on Monday that 29,112 students applied for a spot in the Class of 2013. Of those, just 7 per cent were accepted, the lowest in the school's history and down from 7.9 per cent last year.

Many universities in the United States are seeing a surge in enrolment as the baby-boomer generation's children graduate from high school.

But, unlike Ivy League peers Princeton, Yale and Stanford, Harvard has not significantly expanded the size of its freshman-undergraduate class in more than two decades.

However, it has rolled out a series of financial-aid incentives in recent years. The Class of 2013 will receive the most financial aid in Harvard history, with US$147 million (S$223 million) in scholarships alone. That is up 8 per cent from last year's amount.

Seventy per cent of Harvard students receive some form of financial aid. The Harvard Financial Aid Initiative, which was announced in 2004, slashed the amount low-income students must pay to attend the oldest US institute of higher learning.

Under the programme, students from families earning less than US$60,000 a year do not have to contribute to the cost of tuition, which - together with room and board - reaches US$47,000 a year. About 25 per cent of the Class of 2013 are eligible for the financialaid programme.

Nearly 18 per cent of those accepted to the Class of 2013 are Asian; a record 10.9 per cent are Latino and 10.8 per cent are black. - REUTERS