<P> James Bryant Conant (president, 1933--1953) reinvigorated creative scholarship to guarantee its preeminence among research institutions . He saw higher education as a vehicle of opportunity for the talented rather than an entitlement for the wealthy, so Conant devised programs to identify, recruit, and support talented youth . In 1943, he asked the faculty make a definitive statement about what general education ought to be, at the secondary as well as the college level . The resulting Report, published in 1945, was one of the most influential manifestos in the history of American education in the 20th century . </P> <P> In 1945--1960 admissions policies were opened up to bring in students from a more diverse applicant pool . No longer drawing mostly from rich alumni of select New England prep schools, the undergraduate college was now open to striving middle class students from public schools; many more Jews and Catholics were admitted, but few blacks, Hispanics or Asians . </P> <P> Harvard graduate schools began admitting women in small numbers in the late 19th century, and during World War II, students at Radcliffe College (which since 1879 had been paying Harvard professors to repeat their lectures for women students) began attending Harvard classes alongside men, The first class of women was admitted to Harvard Medical School in 1945 . Since the 1970s Harvard has been responsible for essentially all aspects of admission, instruction, and undergraduate life for women, and Radcliffe was formally merged into Harvard in 1999 . </P> <P> Drew Gilpin Faust, the Dean at Radcliffe, became the first female president of Harvard in 2007 . </P>

When was the first woman admitted to harvard