THE NEW ADMISSION POLICY

The new requirements for admission to Harvard enunciated in the circulars sent to applicants for admission to the class of 1930 contain three highly significant provisions.

In the first place the incoming class henceforth will be limited to one thousand members inclusive instead of exclusive of dropped Freshmen. In effect this ruling constitutes a reduction of from 150 to 200 in the size of the class for that is the figure which the total of dropped Freshmen has heretofore averaged.

In the second place the application of the one seventh ruling will become discretionary with the Committee on Admission, and, beginning in 1927 the privilege will be taken away from the larger endowed academies and city high schools of the seaboard East.

Finally, a modified selective system will in the future be employed in the lower brackets of the class. The ruling is as follows: ". . . much weight will be attached to character, personality, and promise, as well as to scholarly attainments. Satisfactory showing in the last of these qualifications alone is not of itself sufficient to guarantee admission." What apparently establishes a sharp departure from all existing precedents is qualified in the next sentence by the statement that "the Committee, however, will give, as heretofore, preference to all candidates qualifying in the regular way. . . whose examination average is unquestionably good (75 percent or higher). . . .". thus promptly making an exception to the ruling immediately preceding.

Clearly, the limitation in size of new classes is an exceedingly desirable restriction. It is calculated to reduce the painful pressure of numbers upon facilities, particularly in large introductory courses, to improve the calibre of instruction by reducing the number of section men and permitting a proportionate increase in salary, and to relieve the grave burden under which the tutorial system now operates.

The corollary of fewer numbers is some principle of selection. The first plan adopted is to require examinations of graduates of schools which are accustomed to prepare men for college entrance. The preference accorded western schools is undoubtedly unexceptionable. Far more significant than these changes is the final ruling, the decision to lay greater emphasis upon qualities of character personality, and promise. If the function of a college be the development of the complete man, it follows that an admission system based purely upon success in written examination is built on too narrow a foundation. The new policy is therefore a logical deduction from the Platonic ideal of human development.

There is a second phase of the problem. The discretionary provision in the ruling is susceptible to discrimination against undesirable candidates. That is its intention. If non-assimilable elements in the college tend to choke the freedom of the rest their numbers should be reduced. Commuting students are an example of this class, racial groups another. There is a danger inherent in the plan, however. Harvard's most precious quality is her heterogeneity. The balance of elements must be maintained, but an untoward restriction of any given group would be as disastrous, more disastrous even, than no restriction at all. There is no atmosphere more enervating than that of the college whose members approximate a single type. The function of the University is to produce gentlemen, in the best sense of the term, but the University needs a leaven of students who are not gentlemen.

Upon one important aspect the circulums are silent. They assert that character, personality, and promise will be given equal weight with scholarly attainment in passing upon each individual candidate,--always excepting, of course, the bracket above 75 percent which enters regardless,--but there is no direct explanation of the method by which these factors will be guaged. The unprecedented requirement of a photograph is one means; in all probability even greater importance will be attached to recommendations of headmasters of schools. But the ruling foreshadows still another innovation. Some system of personal examination, particularly in doubtful cases, appears a necessary concomitant of the new plan.

In all these respects the announced policy is admirable in its promise. The provision excepting students of high examination average from the operation of the selective system is an essential and adequate counterweight thereto, and ought, of course, to be permanent. It does not appear to be a discreet entering wedge in a more thoroughgoing selective policy.

That Harvard required a further limitation of numbers was clear. Given that limitation it was essential to choose the successful candidates upon some competitive principle. The wise solution which has been evolved by the University will commend itself everywhere to undergraduates to graduates, and to general public alike.