"In Physics, [the number of women concentrators] went up considerably in the late 1970s and early 1980s," says Margaret E. Law, head tutor of the physics department.

From 3 percent in the mid-1970s, the number his risen to around 20 percent in recent years, Law says.

However, there are still many more male than female concentrators in most science departments. And female students are affected as much, if not, more so, by the same factors that turn male students off the sciences.

Minna M. Jarvenpaa '93, co-president of the Radcliffe Union of Students, says that there definitely exists a problem with the number of women science concentrators. "There are very few women in the hard science," she says.

She suggests that Harvard attempt to address this issue by increasing the number of women faculty members in the sciences. "We need women professors as role models," she says.

Strengths and Misconceptions

Administrators says there is still a great deal of work to be done, not only in keeping students in Harvard's science department but in attracting them there in the first place.

Dean of Admissions William R. Fitzsimmons '67 says that misconceptions about Harvard's science department have discouraged a number of highly qualified science students from enrolling at Harvard.

"Most people are not aware of the strength of our science department," says Fitzsimmons. "We need a constant outreach to inform them."

But Fitzsimmons says the rising number of intended science concentrators has not been the result of any preferential treatment on the part of the admissions office.

"We have the luxury of not admitting people on concentration quotas," he says.

McGrath-Lewis says she believes it is "a reasonable hypothesis" that if not for the admissions office's attempt to recruit more science concentrators, the percentage of students concentrating in science fields might have declined rather than remained steady.

Experimenting With Solutions

Faculty members say they believe that the provision of solid curricula and programs that attract students may be the key to the University's future in the sciences.

"For quite some time, the University considered critical the role science played in the role science played in the future strength of the country," McGrath-Lewis says. "If we were not able to offer competitive science programs, we would be at a severe disadvantage."