Harvard graduate student discusses why college saw a 17% drop in early applications on 'Fox & Friends'
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS: The early application total for Harvard College was released on December 14, and the numbers have significantly dropped since 2022, according to Fox News.
The Ivy League institution reportedly received 7,921 early applications for 2024, which is 17% less than the previous year's total of 9,553 and the lowest in the last four years, as per CNN. Out of the applicants, 692 students have been accepted.
According to Bob Sweeney, a retired college counselor at Mamaroneck High School in New York with almost 30 years of experience, one of the factors that led to the decrease in early applications could be the rise of antisemitic sentiment.
As per Bloomberg, he claimed, "That’s possibly one of several reasons, about the concern of safety on the campus. There might be other factors as well as students are being more realistic about their expectations and chances for acceptance."
Harvard graduate student shares his take on the drastic drop in early applications
Shabbos Kestenbaum, a second-year graduate student at Harvard, appeared on the Monday, December 18 episode of 'Fox & Friends' and shared his take on the decrease in early applications.
He agreed with the narrative of antisemitism being the cause, saying that it had been brought to the forefront after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.
In order to support his stance, Kestenbaum mentioned some statistics, saying that a poll of 18 to 24-year-olds showed that "60% of young people found that the October 7 attacks could be justified in accordance with Palestinian grievances."
"79% support the ideology that Jews are oppressors," continued the student, adding, "What's remarkable is that 58% admitted that Hamas is likely to commit another attack, but 51% still said that nevertheless the state of Israel should be 'ended' and it's territory given to Hamas."
Kestenbaum expressed, "The American people are listening to this type of violent rhetoric and thinking 'I don't want to be in this type of environment.' So it is not surprising when you have a president at the top who is advocating, or enabling in many instances, antisemitism."
'Fox & Friends' host Steve Doocy broaches the topic of Harvard professors 'backing the other side'
'Fox & Friends' co-host Steve Doocy asked Kestenbaum if being a Jewish student makes him worry about getting a good grade, to which the latter responded that since a majority of the "Harvard faculty identified as liberal or very liberal, so to be a student and not sharing that ideology can be very distressing."
He added that some of his classmates supported and justified the Hamas attack, which, according to him, shows that "terrorism has found a place on American college campuses."
