Princeton Admissions Director To Work and Study at Harvard

The New York regional director of admissions for Princeton will work and study at Harvard next year.

Princeton administrator Theodore Bracken will come to Harvard next year on a one-year sabbatical to study administration and finance at Harvard graduate schools under the supervision of Dean K. Whitla, associate dean of Admissions here.

L. Fred Jewett '57, dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, confirmed yesterday that Bracken will join the Admissions staff on a part-time basis while he is at Harvard next year.

"This is an opportunity for the two schools to benefit from each other's experience," Jewett said yesterday. He noted that Bracken will help Harvard institute an early-indication system for its applicants next year, similar to the one which now exists at Princeton.

Bracken said he views his opportunity at the Harvard office as the beginning of a freer exchange of information and personnel between admissions departments at Ivy League schools.

"I am no Princeton chauvinist," Bracken, a graduate of Dartmouth, said yesterday. He noted, though, that he believes Princeton offers a better undergraduate education than Harvard.

Bracken said that he will not work in Harvard's New York area admissions because local administrators and teachers would feel there is a conflict of interest. He added, however, that he cannot understand the logic of people who feel that admissions officers should have "the loyalty of football players or party politicians."

Bracken will study at the Harvard Business and Education Schools to gain skills that will permit him to move up to other levels of administration. "The admissions field is limited," he said.