One indication of the socio-economic background of a student is whether or not his father attended college. The fathers of 32.2 per cent of last year's graduating class had not attended college. But only 20.7 per cent of '60's fathers and 19.3 per cent of '61's fathers did not go to college. "The drop in applicant numbers appears to have taken place largely among candidates from lower income families and from areas some distance from Cambridge," Dean Bender noted in his '56-57 report.

Student body is well-to-do

When one realizes that most of the real income distribution at Harvard comes through commuters rather than through resident students, it is evident that what one thinks of as the Harvard "student body" is a pretty well-off group. "Even our commuting group is not representative of the nation at large in terms of income," states King. And if fewer boys at Boston Latin consider Harvard financially worthwhile, despite the school's traditional allegiance with Harvard, and despite the possibility of commuting, then needy students in Bear Creek, Montana, are probably even less willing to apply without encouragement.

At the same time, Harvard has taken the lead in "selling" Ivy League education in the West and South. Teams from the admissions office have toured schools encouraging applications from students who might never have heard of Harvard before. In the present freshman class, there are nearly six hundred different secondary schools represented, a record number. Geographically, at least, Harvard is becoming more "national" in character. In the class of '56, 44 per cent of the students were New Englanders; in the class of '62 only 29 per cent. While New England has dropped, the Middle Atlantic States have risen slightly, as has the South and Far West.

But if Harvard has spread itself out to include more schools and schools further from Cambridge, the question remains what kind of schools and what kind of people is Harvard attracting. Professor Samuel A. Stouffer, an Admissions Committee member, notes that despite the effort expended toward attracting bright people in large high schools, the small town high school has been neglected. "We don't do very well in Hush-puppy, Georgia," Stouffer comments. The large Eastern preparatory schools continue to supply sizeable delegations, but with more schools represented and fewer from any one. Even Exeter's formidable shipments have eased off some in the past few years. Among all schools, public and private, the average is less than two students per school in each class.

But if the size of the individual school's delegation is getting smaller, at the same time the list of schools sending five or more students (including the bigger prep schools and the better public schools) has undergone a slight shift in favor of the private schools. Thirteen public schools contributed five or more boys to the Class of '58, only nine sent this many to '61. But in the same period, the number of prep schools sending five-man delegations rose from 19 to 25 (with 27 for the class of '60). Although public schools contributed more to '62 than to previous classes, there were more public schools in the running than before. As the standard of secondary school preparation goes up, the individual student can count less on an average high school education to "get him in" to Harvard. Even if he goes to one of the top-flight high schools in the country, he will probably get lost in the shuffle unless he is a proven student or an all-round "outstanding" boy.

The impact of Ivy League standards extends down to prep schools and the better public schools. "We would like to have an entrance examination," says Mr. Hopkinson at Boston Latin, "but we have to consider anyone who has a B average in grammar school." Private schools become more selective as their numbers grow. Scholarships aim toward providing economic and geographical diversity, as well as financial aid. Some schools, like Exeter, do not wait for outstanding boys to apply, but actively seek them. In Iowa, for instance, Exeter finds out the names of outstanding newsboys from the Des Moines Register and Tribune and encourages them to apply.

Other private schools, which have a tradition of admissions at the eighth or seventh grade level, find many of the same problems, slightly altered, that Harvard does. The record of a child who has reached the eighth grade is an uncertain thing at best. A boy who starts prep school this early and does not do well scholastically will be outdistanced further and further as outstanding "new boys" come in to his school.

Brown and Nichols has a lower school which starts with the first grade. "Once we accept a boy, we're going to do our darndest to get him through," Headmaster Edwin H.B. Pratt '36 says. "At the same time, when you have a lot of applicants later on, the temptation is to pick the best of the new lot and discard the though nut whom you already have on your hands."

Preparation is Key Factor

This is not to say that the transfer from public to private school enhances every student's chances of making the grade. In theory, it is only in the marginal cases, where brains and character have been measured to the best of the Committee's ability, that preparation makes the difference. "Other things being equal," reads a now-famous phrase, "Harvard will take the better prepared student."

There are those who point out that with better schooling, better homes, the "other things" cannot be equal in any final sense. But the alternative policy--taking the poorer prepared of two equally promising boys--seems even more absurd. "As the applicant group gets better," says King, "it seems foolish to turn down a boy because he's better prepared."

"We don't take as many risks as perhaps we ought to," King adds, "but a $2000 a year scholarship is a pretty high investment. There is a danger to us that we will lose our investment if a boy doesn't do well at Harvard, and there is a danger for him if he finds he can't compete."

It is common occurrence among the deans and Senior Tutors to run across "athlete insecurity" among those on scholarship. Often a student will get the idea he was accepted solely because of athletic ability, and feel an obligation to sacrifice other college values to "paying back" his sponsors on the athletic field. Thus the Admissions Committee must be very careful to choose athletes who they are sure will succeed academically, not those that can merely get by.

Tests are Fallible