In spite of the stiffening of requirements to be met during the Freshman year, the class of 1927 in Harvard College has only 246 men on probation. This is approximately 26 per cent, of the 940 men who were admitted to the class in September. As a result of the mid-year examinations this year, 67 men were placed on probation, as compared with 39 who went on probation at the same time last year in the class of 1926.
Fifty of the 940 men who entered the Freshman class in September have been dropped on account of deficient Scholarship. Of this number, 45 were required to leave as result of the mid-year examinations. This compares with last year's figure of 24 of the 834 men entering the class of 1926 who were required to leave in February, 1923.
Have Increased Requirements
The failure of the present Freshman class to make a better showing is due to a large extent to the new rule, which requires one-quarter, instead of approximately one-sixth of the satisfactory grades necessary for a degree, be secured during the Freshman year. Hitherto, of the 16 to 17 1-2 courses needed for graduation, only three had to be passed during the first year, whereas now a Freshman must pass in four courses to remain in good standing.
In the upper classes, the records of unsatisfactory grades show that 40 Sophomores, 31 Juniors, and 9 Seniors were placed on probation after the mid-year examinations, these figures being approximately the same as last year, when 39 Sophomores, 24 Juniors, and 18 Seniors were placed on probation in February.
20 Upperclassmen Were Dropped
Similarly, 15 Sophomores, 3 Juniors, and 2 Seniors were required to leave college this year after mid-year's, as compared with 13 Sophomores, 6 Juniors, and 3 Seniors who left last year.
In the figures for the "Dean's List," which comprises men having at least a B average, and who are included in the first three groups of the Rank List, are 89 members of the Freshman class, or approximately 9 per cent, of the total membership. Since the percentage for an four classes in college is nearly 16 per cent, this figure of the Freshman class is, proportionally, small.
The only Freshman to achieve a high enough rank for the first group, which requires an A average, was Henry Franklin Williams '27, of Cambridge, a graduate of the Cambridge High and Latin School.
Quarter of Seniors on Dean's List
The representation on the "Dean's List" from the upper three classes was as follows: 101 Sophomores, 134 Juniors, and 139 Seniors. This latter figure represents more than a quarter of the graduating class.
The Freshman class may be divided into three major groups: 826 regularly admitted new freshmen of whom 214 were admitted without examination under the new "one-seventh" method of admission; 32 men admitted by transfer from other colleges and provisionally classified, and 83 dropped freshmen, including those readmitted. Of the group admitted without examination, 16 per cent, were placed on foe "Dean's List," as compared with 9 per cent of the class as a whole; and 12 per cent of the men so admitted were reported for unsatisfactory records, whereas 23 per cent of the class as a whole were reported.
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