Applicants to Ivy Schools Decrease for Class of '65

As late applications continue to pour into the admissions office, it appears that nearly as many students will seek to enter the Class of 1965 as the record 5200 who applied last year, even though applications were lagging four or five per cent behind last year's figures until this week.

In the rest of the Ivy League, however, there has been a considerable drop in the number of prospective students. Yale and Princeton report a decrease of five to ten per cent, while Amherst's applications lag more than 20 per cent behind last year. Cornell was hardest hit of all, with reportedly 3000 fewer applications than in 1960.

Edward T. Wiloox, Harvard's acting Director of Admissions, explained the unexpected drop in Eastern school applications as a reaction to last year's unusually high percentage of rejected applications. Noting that the University has received virtually no "irresponsible or ill-prepared applications," he suggested the drop is "probably the result of more cautious guidance" by secondary school counsellors for College admission.

While this was the most generally accepted explanation, the Directors of Admissions at other eastern schools had their own theories, varying wildly from one college to the next. According to Arthur Howe, Jr., Director of Admissions and Student Appointments at Yale, colleges are dealing more realistically with applications. "Consequently we are not accepting as many late applications as in the past."

Howe also suggested that pressure from smaller Eastern schools, such as Amherst, Wosleyan, and Williams, has influenced the drop in applications. While the larger Ivy League schools anticipate multiple application, the "Little Three" will not consider an applicant unless he has indicated his intention to attend if accepted. Students applying to smaller colleges are thus discouraged from turning in applications to the Ivy League.

Amherst Shows Drop

But it is not only the large Ivy League schools whose applications are decreasing, for Amherst's figures show the sharpest drop of all. Eugene Wilson, Amherst's Dean of Admissions, felt that many prospective applicants were aiming toward the larger eastern schools, since Amherst has had such a low percentage of acceptances in the past. "An applicant feels his chances are better if one in five is accepted for a class of 1200 than if the same percentage is accepted for a class of only 250," he said.

T.W. Elgin, assistant Director of Admissions at Princeton, attributed Princeton's ten per cent decrease to the smaller size of this year's high school senior classes across the nation.