Students of 'One Type' Apply to Same Houses

Groups of students with common interests have applied to the same Houses creating an unbalanced situation, Elliott Perkins '23, Chairman of the House-master's Council and Master of Lowell, revealed yesterday.

"First Indications show that certain types of students bunched pretty heavily in their applications," he said in response to a statement last Friday by Freshman Dean F. Skiddy von stade, Jr. '38, that half of the class of 1958 may not get into the House of their first choice.

Adams, Lowell, and Dunster Houses received the highest number of first choice preferences, followed by Winthrop, Eliot, Leverett, and Kirkland Houses.

In gaining the greatest number of first place applicants, Adams jumped from fifth position last year. Lowell climbed from third to second, and Dunster moved up from fourth place to third.

New System Used

The class of 1958 applied to Houses for the first time this year under a new allocation system, in which freshmen filled out triplicate applications, one copy filled out triplicate applications, one copy going to each of the three Houses of their choice. Under the old system, only the first choice House received a student's application form.

Masters, under the present system, will be able to fill their tentative lists by drawing from their first choice applicants, and by bartering with other Masters for second and third choice applicants. All the Masters will meet subsequently and attempt to eliminate any cosmopolitan deficiencies in their respective Houses by shifting students.

The purpose of the plan, Perkins said, is to give each House an improved representative spread of students within the next few years. He warned that it is far too early, however, to be sure whether or not the plan will be successful.

Perkings stated he still hopes that more than 50 percent of the class of '58 will be accepted into the House of their first choice.

The masters will meet next week in order to make their shifts of students. Final decisions will be made by May 11, and acceptances are scheduled to be mailed on May 14.