Students from 38 foreign countries, comprising the largest undergraduate contingent from abroad in College history, helped crowd classrooms in the Yard yesterday as Cambridge settled down to another academic year.

With four men still expected, registration in C. H. J. Keppler's Foreign Students' Office has reached a peak of 124, topping last year's enrollment by 42 students.

The biggest single group, 14 English students here on visas, heads a list that includes men from practically every part of the world. Nine refugee scholars from Germany came here with the intention of eventually becoming citizens.

From Every Nation

Representing almost every nation on the Continent, 59 men from Europe are enrolled in the College, another 41 travelled from Latin America, and a total of 13 are here from the Near and Far East areas of the terrestrium.

The geographical distribution of foreign students closely follows the pattern established last year when 82 men from other countries were in Cambridge. China, with seven students, has climbed closer to its normal position at the head of the numerical list. Canada has nine in the College, and Guatamala and Mexico closely follow the leaders with seven apiece.

Many of the foreign-born undergraduates are veterans of the armed forces of their own countries, although Canadian vets are the only ones benefiting from a native brand of the G.I. Bill. The age runs from 16 for the most youthful freshman to over 26.

While the chosen fields of concentration roughly approximate the College norm, the sciences are favored by undergraduates from abroad, the Foreign Students' Office said last night.