A high official in the Admissions Department stated that the SAT verbal was he best predictor of performance. He also commented that fifty points showed a significant difference in intelligence unless the two educational situations had been very different for the boys tested.

Smart Pubbies

The median boards were: Pubbies--708, Preppies--659, Andover and Exeter--700 (SAT). This is very important. If the two groups were of the same intelligence, the ones with the much better preparation should score higher than, or at least as high as the others. Yet at Harvard Preppies are the ones who score lower. Whether or not they are really less intelligent, judging by Harvard's criteria, they are indeed less intelligent. They may be smarter, but they aren't showing it according to Harvard's indicators. What about narture and inheritance? It has not made them as impressive academically. It is only through long contact with Harvard that by their senior year the preppies do almost as well as the pubbies. Also, the median predicted rank group for preppies is 3.6 as compared to the Dean's List 2.9 for pubbies. This is especially significant because predicted performance ratings for students are based partly on past performance of students with the same type of education. The predictions show Harvard knows from past experience that the pubbies it admits will do better than the preppies it prefers (although preppies with poor undergraduate records often go on to do very well in graduate schools).

One explanation for this might be that just not enough to get into the Harvard bracket. Considering that the underrepresented income groups outnumber the privileged (i.e., Harvard income) in the population by about 7 to 1 in absolute numbers, the total scoring above 650 could be at least the same. The median preppie family income was approximately $26,000: that of the pubbies, $17,00: the mean for preppies was $45,000; for pubbies, $32,000. The preppie median according to Loewen's survey is three and one-half times the national median and 56 per cent higher than the rest of Harvard undegraduates. The data also show that scholarships are almost exclusively a public school phenomenon.

We have shown that a change in the student body toward a lower income average need not lower the quality of the university academically. Harvard offers two reasons for the present situation. First, economic considerations force Harvard to get a certain percentage who can pay their fees in full. This reason would disappear if it could be shown that Harvard does not need the funds from tuition, a topic to be taken up in a future CRIMSON feature page. The second reason is "inheritance and nurture." The present Dean of Admissions states "we turn down many 800's. He wanted interesting and varied people. (Which 800's usually got turned down? Those from Choate?) This implies preppies are more "interesting and varied people."

In his article in the Harvard Alumni Bulletin (9-20-61) entitled "The Top-One-Per-Cent Policy; A Hard Look at the Dangers of an Academically Elite Harvard," Bender states:

Harvard is one of the few colleges in this country which can, if necessary, fill a large entering class with able students in the present range of ability, roughly three-quarters of whom can finance their college education without scholarship help from Harvard. I belive that we can continue to do this provided we don't raise the present academic level too much and do maintain our relationship with the private schools and the Harvard family. It seems unlikely to me that we can bring this off if we adopt a top-one per cent policy with all that would imply for the relationship, atmosphere, and appeal of the college....

Harvard's wealth has come out of a special mixture of gentlemen and scholars with the gentlemen, for whatever reason, giving of their substance to support the scholar, The eighty-two plus million raised for the Program for Harvard College did not come to any significant degree from the scholars, the summas, and the Phi Beta Kappas.

Bender also said, "We ought to think before eliminating such