Early estimates and such figures as are now available indicate that when the University opens its gates next Monday, September 22, for the 283d year of its existence, the enrollment will be approximately what it was before the war, although it may not be quite as great as in the big years just before the outbreak of hostilities. From the rental of college and private dormitories, the entrance examination figures of the incoming class, and other sources, it is estimated that the enrollment will be well over 4,000.
The office of Charles F. Mason, the Bursar of the University, which is in charge of renting college rooms, reports that for the first time in over fifteen years, every room in every dormitory owned by the University has been rented with the exception of a few rooms in one or two small houses in Holyoke street that have just been opened. The offices of the agents for the privately-owned dormitories say that there are few rooms left which have not been taken by students.
It is difficult to estimate the size of the incoming Freshman Class--the Class of 1923. June examination figures do not tell the entire story, for 200 or 300 men will take their examinations in September. Also, it is impossible to figure the total from the number of applications for rooms in the Freshman dormitories, as many Freshmen live at home. The office of the Dean in charge of the Freshman Class reports that there are still a few vacancies in the Freshman Halls, but these will undoubtedly be filled by applications coming in during the next week or two. Probably a total of 400 or 500 new first-year students will not be far from the mark.
The past summer has been practically a special term as far as the number of men in Cambridge was concerned. The first special session of the Summer School included 1,729 men and women students, and the second term had 647 registered. Both the Law School and the Graduate School of Business Administration had special sessions, the former with 307 men and the latter with 127; the work of the Medical School and the Engineering School also ran over into the summer months, to make it possible for those men who had dropped out to enter the army or navy during the war to make up a full year's work from January, 1919, to September. Altogether, more than 3,000 Harvard students have been taking the special summer courses since the college and the various schools formally ended their 1918-19 year last June. It is by far the biggest summer record of the College's history.
When the College opens on Monday there will be many undergraduates who will never have seen Harvard as it is in a normal fall term. For example, only the Senior Class will ever have attended a football game where there was organized cheering, for there have been no regular football games since that class entered its Sophomore year. There will also be certain important changes in the college itself. Athletics for Freshmen will be compulsory, according to the plan devised last spring by the Athletic Committee and approved by the Faculty and the Governing Boards in June. In addition, Harvard, which, during the war, trained so many infantrymen for the government, will for the first time see the establishment of an artillery R. O. T. C. For the most part, however, the University will for the first time in three years, be back on its old footing
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