After the Ball Is Over

Two years ago, when the Office of Student Placement and the Office of Tests sent a job and future plan questionnaire to the members of the Class of 1952, a peeved man wrote back: "Who can 'realistically' project himself 25 years into the future? Perhaps men who have become attached to a governmental or business bureaucracy can do so. I cannot--and do not want the kind of career where I can."

The replies of a few others were markedly amused and somewhat deprecatory. The reason was discovered before the replies reached the mouth of University Hall's IBM machine: a full page of statistics on Carriers of Intestinal Pathogens in Four Alaskan Communities had been substituted for the usual page two (marital status and reading habits). All in all, a return of only 70 per cent was received.

Still, one favorite quasi-statistical subject for speculation is what Harvard men do after graduation, and Tests and Placement tried again with last year's Class of 1958. The survey was far more compact and immediate, and many of the questionnaires were returned before the students had left the College, jumping the return up to 94 per cent of the total class.

Graduating seniors were asked to indicate graduate study, job, military service, or other plans, and to answer to only one of these categories. Even though the questionnaire dealt with statements of intention only, from it certain definite assertions can be made, and significant implications drawn, about the immediate post-college fate of seniors.

Perhaps the most obvious interpretive correlation is between a student's undergraduate academic performance and his choice between graduate school, job, and military service. Only 44 per cent of the seniors who graduated without Honors planned to go on to graduate school, but the figure almost doubled for those who graduated with Honors, ranging from 75 per cent for those with Cum degrees to a high of 89 per cent for Magna Highest and Summa. Of the three most popular graduate schools (arts and sciences, medicine, and law), medical schools accepted the highest number of non-Honors graduates, while arts and sciences claimed the most Magna Highest and Summas.

Unfortunately, one of the most welcome implications that can be drawn from the Class of 1958 Plans Report is also one of the most indefinite, and will have to be confirmed by future Reports. On the basis of a one year period there seems to be significant trend toward graduate study of arts and sciences, which officials at the University have interpreted to mean that Harvard College is, as they would wish it to be, producing a larger number of college instructors. The fact is that last year saw an increase of 6 per cent in the number of seniors planning to attend graduate schools of arts and sciences, the normal preparation for a teaching career, and that the greatest increase is found in the non-technical fields of study. Dean Leighton also points to a recent report that the largest number of college teachers in America are Harvard Ph.D's. But whether or not there is a long-range trend of Harvard College graduates into university teaching will have to be borne out by further statistics.

The Class Plans Report also provides some ammunition for the jingoes in the Houses. Adams had the largest number of men planning graduate work, Dudley the lowest; Kirkland led the field in seniors anticipating immediate military service, while Adams was last; and Dudley came up with a high of 23 per cent ready to take jobs, compared to Eliot and Winthrop's low of nine per cent.

Since the questionnaire was given out before graduation, and was very unlike the one used for the Class of '42, there was no room for factual reports like the very readable one which must have been sent in by the '42 graduate who was employed as a white hunter for the Tanganyika Tours and Safaris Company. It should, however, be a solid addition to the Harvard library and, with followup reports, a series indicative of what the College is turning out.