66% of Freshmen Gain House of First Choice

Nearly two-thirds of the class of '62 gained admittance to their first-choice House, Dean Watson announced Saturday. Over 90 per cent of Freshmen--the highest figure in four years--were admitted to one of their top three choice Houses.

Placing students in Houses was "an easier job than we expected," Watson commented. Members of the Administration had feared that a very large number of Freshmen would apply to Quincy House, which opens in the fall.

Applications were "widely distributed" among the eight Houses, Watson indicated, although Quincy did receive the largest number of first-place applications. According to a CRIMSON poll, nearly 30 per cent of the Freshmen chose Quincy first.

Only 9.5 per cent of Freshmen were arbitrarily assigned to a House--the lowest figure in four years. Last Fall nearly 18 per cent of the Sophomores entered a House to which they did not apply. The 66.1 per cent accepted by their top choice, however, represent a slight decline from last year's 67.4 per cent.

Citing the high proportion of students entering their first choice House, Watson praised the present system of House assignments. "Although it's a great deal of work, it is far preferable to the IBM method used at Yale," he remarked.

Few Low-Cost Applicants

Watson also pointed out that the "great bulk" of students applied for rooms renting for $220 or more per term. The Masters received only 534 applications for suites costing less than $220 per term, despite the 806 vacancies in this lost-cost range. Financial statements must be filed for these suites.

In the very high price range, 31 students applied for suites costing from $360 to $425 each term--although there were no vacancies in any House for such expensive rooms.

Some 60 students do not, at present, have assigned rooms, since there were only 1038 vacancies for the 1098 applicants.