Harvard Applications Rise By 19% in 'College Panic'

Applications to Harvard now total 5769--up 19 per cent over the 4859 received by this time last year.

Some members of the Admission and Scholarship Committee expect the final number of applicants for the class of '69 to total 6600--15 per cent higher than the number for the class of '68. Fred L. Glimp '50, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aids, said yesterday however, that he expects only 6200 applications, a jump of eight per cent over last year.

Applications for the class of '63 were 14 per cent higher than those for the class of '67. Although the stated deadline for applications is Jan. 1, the committee last year accepted 830 applications from then through June. Glimp predicted that the number of late applications will decline this year because the "college panic" has spurred students to apply earlier.

Fifty-six per cent of the applications received so far have requested financial aid, as compared with 55 per cent by Jan. 6 of last year. "I am reassured by the fact that this percentage is nearly steady," Glimp said, "because it indicates that applicants are not being discouraged by the University's high cost." The final number of applicants requesting financial aid will be near 58 per cent, he said.

Though the number of applications has been increasing each year, we have predicted this and are prepared," Glimp pointed out. "There is no question about the committee's being able to take a good look at all applications, even if there are 6600," he added.

The committee will read each application two or three times from now until March 17, when they will meet to begin discussing the candidates.

Acceptances will be mailed on April 17 to about 1386 applicants for a class of 1200. This is 21 per cent of the estimated number of applications. The committee admitted 26 per cent of last year's 1440 applicants, of whom 1201 registered.

He added that the size of the freshman class cannot significantly increase until the tenth house is built, and possibly not even then.