A 1.9-1 Surprise

"The reason we were so surprised," Mary Ann Schwalbe, director of admissions for Harvard and Radcliffe, said yesterday, "was because we all felt it would take longer, that people would discuss applicants as men and women, and that alums would push strongly for one or the other."

And surprised they were when the male-female ratio for the Class of 1980--the first class in the College's history to be admitted under a policy of equal access--turned out to be 1.9 to 1. That's an all-time low ratio resulting from an all-time low ratio resulting from an 18-per-cent increase in the number of women admitted to the College.

Members of the admissions office attribute the dramatic increase to stepped up recruiting efforts resulting in nearly an 8 per cent increase in female applications.

The Strauch Committee report, approved last May, recommended a reduction of the present 2.3-to-1 sex ratio through just this process, as corollaries to the major recommendations of access and a merger of the admissions offices.

While the substantial increase in women admittees leads you to question whether Radcliffe has all along been refusing qualified women with set ratios working against them, admissions officers hesitate to agree, emphasizing instead the unique qualities of this year's pool.

The number of black male applicants to the College also increased substantially this year, from last year's 295 to 379, and the number of acceptances rose from 101 to 112. The number of black women accepted declined slightly, reflecting a small drop in the number of applicants.

The application increase--reversing last year's 25-per-cent decline--is in part a result, L. Fred Jewett '57, Harvard-Radcliffe dean of admissions, of another new feature of the admissions office--the minority recruiting plan.

The plan identifies ten cities as targets for intensified recruiting efforts. Jewett has said some of the areas--New York City, Baltimore, Atlanta and Philadelphia among them--did especially well this year, while others--Chicago, New Orleans and Detroit in particular--did not.

Jewett is not worrying about the decline in black women applicants, preferring to see if a trend develops before attempting to define a problem.

He attributes an increase this year in applications from Spanish-speaking women to intensified recruiting efforts of Chicanos. The number of Puerto Rican applicants declined slightly this year.

Jewett expects about 1575 of the 2152 accepted students to enroll next fall, and he thinks the sex ratio will rise slightly to about 2 to 1 if fewer accepted women choose to attend Harvard, as they traditionally do.

Dean K. Whitla, director of the Office of Instructional Research and Evaluation, said yesterday Radcliffe's yield was "unbelievably high" for a long time, with about 90 per cent of those admitted choosing Radcliffe.

That yield has dropped considerably, falling below Harvard's yield at one time, and is only now beginning to creep back up.

Harvard's yield percentage now hovers in the high 70s, while Radcliffe's is presently around 75 per cent.

Contrary to the national trend, the average SAT scores of the students admitted to the Class of '80 are substantially high than last year's, with both the verbal and math averages of both men and women rising.

Although the admissions office refuses to disclose actual scores, the average verbal score this year rose 16 points, and the average math score increased by 10.

Jewett declined to admit that the rise indicates an increased emphasis on SAT scores by the admissions office, explaining instead that it reflects a higher average in the applicant pool. He did not have available figures on the averages of the pool.

Alberta Arthurs, dean of undergraduate affairs, former dean of Radcliffe admissions and a member of the Strauch Committee, yesterday said it "has clearly been a good year" for the admissions office, and especially for women.

"In a sense I gave up my job for equal access," she explained, "because there were certain changes that had to be made to work together."

"I'm very pleased with the results, and I probably would have been the hardest one to convince," she added.