A rise in the number of applications to the four major concentrations has forced administrators to reject an increased number of freshman this year. About 70 students will have to seek new majors.

The two-year-old Literature Department showed the lowest rate of acceptance with only 18 of 30 applicants being admitted according to Department Chairman Dorrit Cohn. But Cihn stressed that more students will be accepted in the fall as part of the department's planned annual expansion.

The department accepted 18 students to the program last year.

Applications to the Social Studies concentration increased this year by 23 percent to 123 students and 30 applicants were turned down. Head Tutor Peter C. Jelavich said last week.

Last spring all of the 100 applicants were admitted.

Final Polts

Jclavich cited the concentration's fixed budget and staff size as the main culprits for this year's limitations. History and Literature accepted 102 applicants from a pool of roughly 140--six more than last year--and more students will be admitted this fall, administrators said yesterday.

The concentration has set a ceiling of 130 rising sophomores, so there remains a good deal of space for fall applicants, Patricia Hill, assistant head tutor, said last week.

The History and Science Department was able to admit 95 percent of its applicants primarily because of a relative abundance of graduate student teaching fellows for next year, Head Tutor Harold J. Cook said yesterday.

This year 54 of 57 students were admitted, an increase of 18 percent over last when only 46 applicants were accepted. Cook attributed the rise in acceptances to a departmental decision made after a 1978 faculty resolutions accept all "qualified students."

Three freshmen have applied special concentrations, said Carol S. Thorn, an administrator in the Special Programs Office, adding that the Standing Committee on Special Concentrations will decide their cases today.