Standard for Deferment Raised in Grad Schools

Seniors applying to any graduate schools except medical or law schools will have to achieve scholastic standing in the upper quarter of their class, or else have scored 80 or more on the draft test in order to be eligible for deferment, according to a directive just released by the Defense Department.

Previously, a graduating student needed to be in the upper half of his class, or have scored 75 out of 100 on his deferment test to gain draft exemption in graduate school. But under the new ruling most graduate school bound students will have to have between an A-minus and B-plus average for the senior year, Sargent Kennedy '28, Registrar of the College, explained yesterday. In the past, a senior year average of between B and B-minus guaranteed draft deferment.

The directive, an Executive Order, does not affect students applying to medical or law schools.

As in the past, selective service will consider the medical student separately and guarantee him deferment if he graduates in the upper half of his class or achieves a score of 70 out of 100 on the qualification test.

Toepfer Explains

The new ruling will not apply to the Law School, because it is not considered a graduate school, Louis A. Toepfer, Dean of Admissions at the Law School, said yesterday.

"Selective Service Headquarters consider us as the fifth, sixth, and seventh years of undergraduate education," he pointed out. "Actually, of course, we are a graduate school, but we benefit from the ruling because most students in law schools throughout the country have not received college diplomas."

The Registrar said the Department of Defense had included no explanation of its move, but had just sent the deferment amendment to the College.

And in Washington, D.C., Carter L. Bridges, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Personnel, from whose office the directive came, expressed unfamiliarity with official reasons for issuing it. He promised to look further into the matter.

Need for Men

"We are facing increased manpower needs," he then went on to explain. "And we also don't want the graduate schools to become excuses for avoiding military service. We want to be sure people are not using the schools as a means to escape doing their duty."

Expanding on the need for more men, Bridges pointed out that "when we actually get to the killing, we are going to need more than just an air force to do the fighting. We've got to supply manpower for the Marines, Army, and Navy, as well as the Air Force."

At the Business School, Stanley F. Teele, Dean of Admissions, said his school already took the majority of its students from the top quarter of graduating classes, so expected the new ruling to have little effect on admissions.

Teele also pointed out that already over half of the Business School's students have served in the armed services