PUBLIC SCHOOLS SUPPLY HALF OF FRESHMAN CLASS

Private schools and public high schools contributed almost equally to the membership of the present Freshman class, it was disclosed yesterday in the report of the Committee on Admission which is issued annually through the committee's office. Public schools sent 48.4 per cent of the class of 1928 to the University, while the remaining 51.5 per cent received their preliminary training either in private or endowed schools, or from private tutors. These percentages are practically the same as those of the class of 1927, the public school group having graduated 16.1 per cent of this year's sophomore class.

Nearly 70 per cent of the men entering the College this year from private schools took the College Entrance Board examinations under the Old Plan of yearly examinations for three years. The New Plan of one comprehensive group of examinations was preferred by high school graduates 66 per cent of whom gained admission in this way. Of the men who took advantage of the Honor Plan which enables men who stand in the first seventh of their preparatory school classes to enter without examination, over 77 per cent came from public schools.

One of the main purposes of instituting the Honor Plan this year was to enable men from the West and South who may not have had special preparatory school training to enter the College. The Honor Plan does not seem to have had any immediate effect on the class' geographical distribution, since only 20 per cent of the class live outside the New England and North Atlantic States.

There are 613 freshmen from New England, 471 of these being from Massachusetts, and 119 from the four Middle Atlantic States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. The North Central group of states comes next in order with 86 members of the Freshman class. The two largest divisions so far as territory goes, the Southern and Far Western groups, total only 23 members of the class each.

The wide distribution of the ten Freshmen who live outside the United States gives the class quite a cosmopolitan atmosphere. They come from Cuba, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Spain, England and Hawaii.

Of the candidates who were refused admission slightly over 53 per cent were graduates of public high schools while the remaining 44 per cent received their preparation in some private institution. This would seem to indicate better chances of admission for the private school graduates. When compared with last year's Freshman class, the percentages of men failing to gain admission this year from the two classes of schools are shown to be still more in favor of the private schools than in the class of 1927.

The statistics included in this report will be part of the annual report of the President of the University which will be published some time in January.