A FEW years ago a student appeared at Memorial Hall on fall registration day to enroll in Harvard. Unable to find his folder, officials referred him to the Admissions Office. It took less than a minute there to discover that the would-be freshman had never even applied for admission to the College.

Not so long ago, Harvard might still have accepted this student, provided he could meet the entrance requirements. Selection was simply a matter of weeding out the non-qualified applicants and accepting all the rest. This was not a particularly arduous task, since few students sought admission to the College. In 1941, for instance, 1,092 applicants were accepted from the 1,182 who applied.

But during the past decade the situation has changed completely. Applications have increased threefold and, even worse, a large percentage of candidates are qualified to do the work here--a much larger number than the College could ever accept with existing facilities. Just last month the Admissions Office revealed that more applicants were refused than accepted for the Class of 1959. It was the first time in Harvard's history this has happened.

With such a situation, it is difficult for the Admissions Office to make any definite, concise policy statement. One introductory book for prospective students, for instance, vaguely defines Harvard as "a college for those who feel the need for a broad development of their powers, for a greater understanding of their world, and for an enriched cultural life."

"Testimony of Towardlinesse"

The Dean of the Committee on Admissions and Scholarships, Wilbur J. Bender '27, is greatly concerned with this question of finding some sort of a new selection policy. In the President's Report for 1952-53, he wrote, "the problem is how much weight to attach to Harvard parentage, geographic distribution, athletic ability, creative ability in various fields, on character, personality, and on capacity for leadership."

These considerations never used to concern admissions officials. In 1655, for instance, they could state their policy in one long sentence:

"When any schollar is able to read and understand Tully, Virgil or any such ordinary Classicall Authors, and can readily make and speake or write true Latin in prose and hath skill in making verse, and is Competently grounded in the Greeke language: so as to be able to Construe and Grammatically to resolve ordinary Greeke, as in the Greeke Testament, Isocrates, and the minor poets, or such like, having withall meet Testimony of his towardlinesse, hee shall be capable of his admission into the Colledge."

It would be impossible to make such a clearcut statement of policy today. The resulting selectivity, however, has not only placed a tremendous burden on the Admissions Office, but it has also complicated life for schools, which are no longer sure what type of students stand the best chance for gaining admission to such places as Harvard.

Fortunately the College, realizing its responsibility to the country, is conducting an intensive nationwide campaign to acquaint both students and secondary schools with admissions problems, giving some general idea of what type of student Harvard wants. It is this guidance now offered to most prospective candidates which has become one of the few encouraging developments of the current rapid rise in the number of students who wish to continue their education. In the future those schools offering the most comprehensive college advising programs will be the ones which place the largest number of students in colleges of their first choice, whether Harvard, Yale, UCLA, or St. Olaf's.

Talent in One Area

Statistics for any class in the College illustrate what sort of competition applicants to Harvard must face. In the Class of 1957, for instance, 50 percent of the students scored over 609 on the verbal aptitude section of the College Board examinations; less than ten percent fell under the 500 mark. Only 165 of the some 1900 colleges and junior colleges in the United States expect applicants to take these tests. Since 500 is the median score, students here are among the best who applied to these most selective colleges. Similarly with rank in class, more than half of '57 were in the top 15 percent of their classes at public or private school. Less than ten percent were in the bottom half.

The Acting Director of the Admissions Office, David D. Henry '41, asserts that intellectual capacity is only one factor in considering applicants. His office is constantly looking for the person who stands out in some particular area, whether it be academic, athletic, musical, or some other field. The well-rounded boy, he maintains, will always have a place at Harvard. But the College is more interested in the boy with some special ability.

Many parents consider untrue this talk about a well-balanced, not a brilliant, class. They point to the statistics which illustrate the high average intelligence of the Harvard student.

If they know their children have only average aptitude, these people believe that sending them to a "good" private school is the only way to get them into a "good" college.