277 Freshmen Enroll in Seminars; Applications Soar to Record 800

The Freshman Seminar program was flooded this fall with more than 800 applications for places in its 33 seminars; 277 students were accepted into the program. But its future size will depend more on faculty willingness to teach than on student demand, Edward T. Wilcox, director of the program, said yesterday.

The number of applications this year is 25 per cent more than last year. Wilcox attributed this sharp increase to the fact that "the program is better known this year, and students increasingly are accepting these seminars as an integral part of their education." Many secondary schools, admissions counselors, and Harvard clubs begun to request information about the program, he said.

The most heavily subscribed seminar is George C. Rosenwald's "The Psychoanalitic View of Man." It had 72 applicants for eight places. The five seminars offered in the humanities were also swamped with applications.

The seminars must have "a voluntary quality for both faculty and students," so there will be no drive to increase the size of the program, or to assign seminar topics to faculty. "Any program, but this one above all, is no better than the faculty willing to teach it," Wilcox emphasized.

At one point the Faculty considered enlarging the seminar plan and requiring that all freshmen participate in it, but, said Wilcox, "the best, way to kill a good thing is to require it."

Though a group of freshman seminars has been offered for three years, this is the first year they have been given as a permanent program under the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The seminars are under the immediate direction of a standing committee, which was created last spring. Chairman of the group is Frank B. Freidel, professor of History.

The most heavily subscribed seminar is George C. Rosenwald's "The Psychoanalitic View of Man." It had 72 applicants for eight places. The five seminars offered in the humanities were also swamped with applications.

The seminars must have "a voluntary quality for both faculty and students," so there will be no drive to increase the size of the program, or to assign seminar topics to faculty. "Any program, but this one above all, is no better than the faculty willing to teach it," Wilcox emphasized.

At one point the Faculty considered enlarging the seminar plan and requiring that all freshmen participate in it, but, said Wilcox, "the best, way to kill a good thing is to require it."

Though a group of freshman seminars has been offered for three years, this is the first year they have been given as a permanent program under the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The seminars are under the immediate direction of a standing committee, which was created last spring. Chairman of the group is Frank B. Freidel, professor of History.