Radcliffe Examines Effects Of Education on Alumnae

Radcliffe College is planning a study of its alumnae to discover "which people do the most with a Radcliffe education," according to President Mary I. Bunting.

"These are the people we should admit, rather than those who will do well at the College but not use their education later," Mrs. Bunting declared. When the study is completed, admissions policies will be re-structured in line with the findings.

"If the education you get here makes no difference in your later life, obviously it isn't worth the price.," President Bunting commented. "There has been too little objective study of the impact of education on women. We need to do research to discover what it is."

She emphasized that a woman's education should be evaluated "not just in terms of professional achievement, but also in relation to how she runs her home."

Margaret Habein, Dean of Admissions, will organize the survey. Some of the research will be conducted under the auspices of the Institute for Independent study. "The purpose of the study is parallel to that of the Institute," Mrs. Bunting explained. "We care about what women do with their education."

"One ought to judge a woman's contribution from many points of view," Dean Habein stressed. She pointed out the problems inherent in determining first how a woman uses her education in seating her home and family. "It's easy to make a list of her community activities and the books she reads. Subjective data the harder to obtain."

"I'm a little hazy about how you would apply such data to the admissions problem," she remarked, suggesting that they might tell us whether or not present procedures are valid."

To Study Matched Pairs

Mrs. Bunting hopes to include a study is matched pairs of individuals, one who is a college graduate and one who is not, to discover whether or not higher education makes any difference at all in the pattern of a woman's life.

"I doubt that the results will make such difference in the composition of the average Radcliffe class," she noted, "but so far I don't know.

"We are admitting people we think are able and motivated to learn," Dean Habein explained. "The question is: does their motivation extend beyond Radcliffe!"