M.I.T. Notes 14 Per Cent Drop In Applications for Class of '61

M.I.T. Admissions Director B. Alden Thresher has reported a 14 percent drop in applications for admission to the Institute next year. Applicants totaled 2,454, a decline of 391 from last year.

At the same time, the Institute plans to accept about eight percent fewer applicants in an effort to keep the incoming class below 900 to alleviate dormitory over-crowding.

Thresher attributed the decline in applications to a ten dollar application fee instituted this year.

Although Harvard had 230 fewer applicants in 1956, when an application fee was instituted here, the decline was primarily among non-scholarship applicants and private school graduates. The admission department explained that a fee would be expected to make the least difference to those groups.

No figures were given by the Institute concerning the type of student among whom the decline occured.

Thresher said that M.I.T. had for the past few years placed less emphasis on "overmotivation" of selected applicants and has been paying more attention to "non-intellectual factors."

No major alteration was foreseen in geographical distribution in the incoming class. Foreign students make up eleven percent of the student body, making M.I.T. the most cosmopolitan educational institution in the country.