LETTERS ON HOUSE ADMISSIONS WILL BE MAILED TODAY

Letters of acceptance or rejection from the House Masters will be sent out to all who applied for rooms for 1936-37 today.

Two hundred and thirty-two men will be rebuffed while 572 Freshmen and 58 upperclassman, a total of 640, will receive congratulatory letters of acceptance. The figures for this year show an increase in the number of applicants, particularly in rooms over the $300 mark, in spite of the fact that the Freshman class as a whole is smaller by 45 men.

Last year there were 819 applicants and this spring 824 applied. However, due to the higher price which many students were willing to pay this year, the number of assignments has risen from 550 to 640, thus reducing, the number of rooms unfilled in the Houses from 66 to 33. There are also 24 Freshmen who preferred not to apply but will live outside. Last year all Freshmen except those commuting applied for rooms in the House units.

In dealing with the 824 applications submitted for only 673 places, three things chiefly influence the House Masters and the Central Committee. They are: the widely spread price range, the various school groups, and the scholastic standing of the applicants. In recent years this last has taken on an importance which many of those applying have failed to recognize for the majority of room requests fall into the lower middle range and the House Masters are naturally prone to select those in higher standing among the Freshmen.

The admission of the so-called "St. Grottelsex" group, coming from certain schools, is complicated by the fact that here, where large blocks apply, financial considerations as well as complications over splitting up the group, make the fair treatment of all the individuals involved, both within the group and outside, slow and difficult.

A statement by Dean Hanford was issued as follows:

"The principal change in the method of assignment this year was the result of information about second choices of applicants which House representatives obtained in their conferences with students. If a Master was unable to admit the applicant, he referred the student's application to the Master of the House of second choice. Only those applications which were not accepted by either the House of first or second choice were sent to the Central Committee. The Central Committee compared the records of the men not placed with the records of the men in the various price categories accepted by the House of first or second choice and called to the attention of the Masters the applications of men who seemed to have prior claim to admission to a House over these first accepted. As a result, certain adjustments were made. The final lists of admissions submitted by the Masters of the various Houses were approved by the Central Committee this year without the necessity of a single change.

"Although it is still an unfortunate fact that the Houses are unable to accommodate all undergraduates in Harvard College who would like to live in them, the number of rejections this year is less than last year. With a continuance of strict limitation of the size of the Freshman class, it is hoped that the number of rejections may be further reduced next year.

"It should be remembered by those failing to secure admission to a House now that a number of places will become available before September by changes in plans on the part of some of the men for whom rooms for 1936-37 are now reserved. Some of these men will not return to College for personal reasons, and those Freshmen who fail in June to receive promotion to the Sophomore class will not be eligible for the House.

"Students who wish to be considered for vacancies as they occur should fill out an application for the Waiting List at C University Hall. A number of rooms in College dormitories outside the Yard are available for 1936-37. Applications for these rooms should be made at Lehman Hall immediately. Students who have reserved a room in the College dormitories will be allowed to cancel their reservations without change in case they later receive assignment to a room in a House.