The College's long, slow return to "normalcy" begins tomorrow at 8:30 o'clock. For the first time since the war more men will leave Cambridge this term, diplomas in hand, than are expected to plow through the traditional registration line at Memorial Hall.

The 320 undergraduates who are candidates for the Bachelor of Arts degree this February balance against the 127 men returning from leave of absence to depress total enrollment below last term's highwater mark of 5600. No new men have been allowed to enter this term.

5400 This Term

Since the Corporation will not vote the bachelors degrees until March, the exact size of the College cannot be accurately determined at present, but the Registrar's Office predicts an undergraduate student body numbering about 5400 when the post-registration shrinkage has finished.

This mid-year shrinkage is the first experienced by the College since February of 1946, when the initial wave of veterans hit the College. In his annual report for 1947, released two weeks ago, President Conant urged that College enrollment be cut back to between 3500 and 3800 by the end of 1950, leaving the total University figure at approximately 8000.

Since mid-years of 1946, the enrollment has shot from 2700 to 4800 to 5400, and finally to 5600 this fall.