1,487 Gain Admittance To '62 Freshman Class

There will be no change in the size of the Class of 1962 over the five preceding Freshman classes, Dean Bender announced yesterday. Letters of acceptance were sent out to 1487 of this year's approximately 4200 applicants late yesterday afternoon, in anticipation of a class totalling about 1100 men.

Slightly fewer candidates have been accepted this year than in former years. The Admmissions Committee hopes to be able to take about forty people from the waiting list, according to Bender. In the past two years, no one on the waiting list has been admitted over the summer. This tends to encourage the best people to accept their admission to other colleges rather than to take the slim chance of getting into Harvard after a summer of waiting.

Since it is difficult to estimate accurately the rate of attrition, the Committee would prefer to have too few rather than too many acceptances. The new policy allows more leeway in getting the correct number in the Freshman class.

Fifty-one candidates have been admitted on the condition that they commute for at least part of the year. This is only about half as many as the number accepted under similar stipulation last year. Some students who live nearby have also been asked to live at home, but are not under obligation to do so.

In past years, the Admission Committee has accepted as many as 1800 candidates. The fact that a higher percentage of those accepted decide to come to Harvard reflects the growing pressure on students trying for college admittance.

There was some discussion earlier this year of Harvard's expanding to help meet this pressure, but the unchanged size of the Class of 1962 indicates at least a temporary postponement of this policy.