Shortly after midnight this morning, a red 1963 Volvo pulled up at South Station to submit seven bags of mail to the tender mercies of the U. S. Postal Service. By the beginning of next week, 6936 applicants will know whether they have been admitted to Harvard, and the University's $300,000 annual admissions operation will turn its attention to the class of 1976.

Fifteen hundred seven students were admitted, and 100 placed on the waiting list, in order to get a class of 1200. The number of applicants is down 1000, or 12 per cent, from a year ago.

Radcliffe accepted 424 women to get a class of 330. The 'Cliffe received 2,450 applications, down two and one-half per cent from last year.

Chase N. Peterson '52, dean of Admissions at Harvard, attributed the decline in applications to rising costs. "In this recession, less expensive colleges look more attractive," he said.

Harvard's application fee rose from $10 to $15 this year, while that of other Ivy schools went from $15 to $20. Peterson said this may have caused students to apply to fewer schools. "We may have fewer applications from the same number of bodies," Peterson said.

For this reason, the number of students admitted increased only slightly even though most other indicators pointed to a rise in the number turning Harvard down.

"We held the line," associate director L. Fred Jewett '57 said yesterday, "even though breaking the $5000 term bill barrier is going to scare some people away."

Yale

Yale suffered a 17 per cent drop in applications this year, despite an increase in the size of the incoming class to include 45 more women. Princeton suffered a smaller decline. Applications to Dartmouth rose four per cent and other more scenically situated schools showed similar increases.

"Urban schools may be losing popu-larity compared to those in more idyllic locations," Jewett said. "This would be just the reverse of the trend of recent years."

Peterson said that while several scholarship requests were denied because Harvard determined there was no need, no one was rejected or refused scholarship aid because of lack of funds. Including those receiving outside help, over half the class will be receiving some kind of financial aid.

Of the Ivy League schools, Penn and Cornell have had to institute an accept/deny category of students offered a place in the class but denied the necessary financial aid.

Princeton has set up a category of students accepted but placed on a waiting list for scholarships. Yale has been forced to raise its self-help level-the difference between financial bid and costs which the student is expected to earn or scrounge up himself-to $1350. Harvard's is $850 to $1000.

Peterson estimates that the 1507 accepted include 115 blacks, about the same number as last year, of whom 98 chose to come to Harvard. Retiring Radcliffe admissions director Harriet Belin said Radcliffe accepted 55 blacks for the class of 1975 out of 306 who applied.

The greatest drop in applicants occurred among scientists and those from the midwest. The number of applicants planning concentration in math or the physical sciences fell from 1630 two years ago to 1084 today. Acceptances among this group, however, remained steady at slightly more than 300. Some areas of the midwest suffered a 30 per cent decline.

The number accepted from the northwest part of the country increased slightly for the first time in several years. Boston and Cambridge both got more men admitted this year than last, with Cambridge up two to a total of 13.

Peterson said the class of 1975 will include fewer outstanding athletes and especially fewer football players. He attributed this to "the long winter months before applications were due when other schools had a coach and we didn't."