College Uses Letter Rank To Evaluate Applicants

An A-B-C ranking system is being used by Harvard to classify students seeking admission to the College. These rankings go out to the various schools in the Fall and tell of the students' chances of being admitted. Whether or not the students are told of their ranking is a matter of school policy.

An "A" classification means that a boy will definitely be accepted if he maintains his present scholastic record. A "B" classification tells a school that on the basis of existing information Harvard can make no statement on his chances of admission but will have to wait until later in the year. A "C" classification means that a boy will probably not be admitted to the College.

These rankings are made on the basis of the junior-year scholastic aptitude tests and after talks with the dean of students at the school in question. If a definite "yes" or "no" answer cannot be given, the College waits until the January aptitude test and March achievement test of the student's senior year.

The College cannot give these rankings to all schools with Harvard applicants. Wilbur J. Bender '27, Dean of Admissions, points out that any preliminary evaluation of a candidate requires that Harvard "sit down with the school and go over the students' record on a very frank basis." Thus, in practice, this ranking system is often more concentrated in private rather than public schools, although this is not a general policy.

Harvard, Yale and Princeton all use this ranking system, and other colleges are, in effect, doing the same thing, although not necessarily on an A-B-C basis. In general, according to G. Grenville Benedict '23, dean of students at Phillips Academy, the Big Three colleges agree on the letter rank of an applicant in about 90 percent of the cases.

Benedict called the plan "a tremendous simplification of a very difficult problem, which has greatly reduced multiple college applications in cases where they are unnecessary."