“The most important thing is that students get to the right match,” Fitzsimmons said.

Admissions officers will send personal notes and make phone calls to admitted students, and alumni will host events for admitted students across the country and internationally.

All students, whether they were accepted in the early or regular cycle, must respond to their offers of admission by May 1.

Admission rates at some other Ivy League schools decreased as well this year. Yale’s admission rate was 6.8 percent, down from 7.4 percent last year, and Princeton’s dropped to 7.9 percent from last year’s record-low 8.5 percent.

—Staff writer Elizabeth S. Auritt can be reached at eauritt@college.harvard.edu.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

CORRECTION: March 29, 2013

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Harvard’s admissions rate dropped for the seventh consecutive year in 2012 for the Class of 2016. In fact, 2012 marked the sixth straight year in which the rate had fallen.