Harvard University admitted roughly ten times as many freshmen who identify with the Democratic Party than freshmen who identify with the Republican Party, according to a survey of newly accepted students conducted by the Harvard Crimson.
Some 52.9% of respondents said they consider themselves to be affiliated with the Democratic Party, while only 5.5% are affiliated with the Republican Party; another 12.1% said they are independent and 27.7% are not affiliated with a political party in the United States. On an ideological level, only 8.4% of students said they hold “conservative” or “very conservative” positions, while 64.0% hold “progressive” or “very progressive” viewpoints.
Even as 39.8% of students saw President Joe Biden favorably, 86.8% of students saw former President Donald Trump unfavorably, while only one-third of conservative or very conservative students approved of the most recent Republican commander-in-chief and likely 2024 nominee.
Students who identify themselves as progressive were meanwhile more likely to support various social movements at the premier Ivy League university, such as abolishing the school police department or renaming buildings named for historical figures. Elite universities, which often produce the most lucrative career opportunities and connections for their attendees, have long been criticized for allowing leftist views to dominate while censoring dissent.
The data likewise show a class that is broadly progressive and irreligious: some 48.1% of freshmen call themselves either agnostic or atheist, while only 22.5% consider themselves Protestant or Roman Catholic. With respect to self-described sexual orientation, only 66.6% of students identified themselves as “heterosexual,” while 7.9% identified themselves as “homosexual” and 13.7% identified themselves as “bisexual.”
Harvard recently lost a Supreme Court case about their affirmative action practices, under which race and ethnicity were considered alongside academic merit in admitting new students. The newest freshman class, who were admitted before the Supreme Court ruled against Harvard this summer, is approximately 11.1% African-American and 9.4% Hispanic.
