Placement Office Report Gives '51 Plans for Future

The lack of definite manpower policies of the federal government has created uncertainty in the minds of most seniors about long-range career planning," the Office of Student Placement concludes in a report issued yesterday.

At spring term registration this year, the office handed out a questionnaire to all seniors listing 20 questions on their occupational plants. Seven hundred fifty three of the 1,000 members of the class of '51 returned the forms, whirh have just been compiled and published.

The housemasters, department chairmen, and other interested faculty members, have all received their copies by today.

One Fourth Without Plans

The report draws numerous conclusions from statistics ranging from the percentage of seniors in the various draft classifications to the number who will enter graduate schools.

Ninety-five percent of the senior class is between 19 and 26, the age group eligible for military service. Of these, 40.5 percent is 1-A, while 12.5 percent is 1-D, deferred by taking reserve training. Marriage deferments go to five percent, while another 13 percent is exempt from the draft because of previous service. A final 24.5 percent of the class is example because of work "essential to the national interest."

Over one-fourth of this year's seniors do not have definite occupational plans yet, the survey shows. Law, medicina and manufacturing and production are the most popular choices for those who are fairly sure of their future careers. The placement office found, however, "that most men change their plans at least once before they settle on a course of action."

In comparing this survey with one taken of seniors in 1949, the office notes that engineering has dropped in popularity from fifth to eighth among the professional occupations, though "the demand for engineers is at present greater than it has been since World War II . . . . "In general, however, occupational plans of this year's graduates are not substantially different from those of seniors two years ago."

Out of the class of '51, 61 percent plan to take graduate studies with business a very popular field. More than half of them are now majoring in the Social Sciences, while only 27 percent compared to 35 percent in 1949, are concentrating in the Natural Sciences.

The placement office attaches great interest to its graphs showing the relation of rank list groupings to the men planning graduate study. The greatest number of students who intend to go to the advanced schools is in Group III, though 55 percent of Group VI is also considering graduate work. All the students in Group I plan to study after graduation.

G.S.A.S. Favored

Arts and Sciences, the choice of twentyeight per cent of those seniors planning to go on to graduate study, regained the lead it hold two years ago. Next most popular was the Business School, selected by twenty-four per cent of the graduating class.

The Law School is the third preference today. Three-quarters of those planning graduate work intend to enroll at the University with only three percent Preferring Yale. Another two percent want to study abroad.

The occupational plans report opens with a chart showing the age of distribution of seniors. Two 19-year old seniors and one who is 34 form the extremes of the class of '51, whose median is the age of 31