Bender, Ivy Directors Seek 'Rolling Admissions' Plan

Dean of Admissions Wilbur J. Bender '27 yesterday called for a system of 'rolling admissions" an a solution to the increasing problem of multiple college applications.

"I do not know whether it will be this year or the year after," he said, "but in the near future we will have to make some very definite changes." He described rolling admissions--year-round consideration and admittance of applications--as the best existing manner by which to case the spring-time burden on admissions offices, by spreading out the load through the year.

Under such a plan, candidates would take College Board exams and make applications starting in September. As a result, Bender said, "I think there is a real possibility of abandoning the achievement tests" as a criterion of admission. These have been used, evidently, primarily for placement in the past.

Yale Director Agrees

Bender's comments drew similar statements from other Ivy League admissions directors, all concerned with the problem of students applying to as many as eight or nine schools for "insurance."

At Yale, which experimented with a two-state set-up last year, Dean of Admissions Arthur Howe, Jr., said, "My guess is that the change will come this year or next, but in any case, the change has got to come."

Yale categorized its candidates last year, and told school advisors whether their students were acceptable, questionable, or rejected. Only those turned down or in doubt then needed to apply elsewhere.

"An Autumn Sport"

Albert I. Dickerson, Director of Admissions at Dartmouth, agreed yesterday, that such a plan is essential, but warned against "making the game we play in the spring into an autumn sport." He suggested two candidate reply dates to be observed uniformly, as the present single date.

Because of multiple applications, colleges have had to admit many more students than they can actually hold. Dartmouth, Dickerson said, has come pretty close to double admission, and Brown accepts 1,200 for a class of 680.