60 Per Cent of applicant Group Seek Financial Aid, Glimp Reports

The proportion of scholarship applications among admission candidates has risen 10 per cent since last year, Fred L. Glimp '50, Dean of Admissions, said yesterday. It is expected that 60 per cent of the candidates for the Class of 1966 will seek financial aid.

Fifty-five per cent of the applicants for the Class of 1965 were financial aid candidates, and the figures for 1964, 1963, 1962, and 1961 were 55, 51, 49, and 47 per cent respectively. Glimp said the 10 per cent jump was "not wildly significant," but did represent "a sharp continuation of a trend."

As a result, Glimp predicted, the "admit-deny" category (applicants admitted, but denied financial aid, even though the need may exist) may increase for the Class of 1966. Roughly 25 per cent of recent freshman classes have been awarded scholarships.

Rising Costs

The principal reason for the rise, according to Glimp, is the "we're getting more expensive." He added, however, "This may be the result of more $15,000-$16,000 income families thinking they need help--but we won't think so."

Former Dean of Admissions Wilbur J. Bender '27 predicted last fall in his controversial final report that rising coasts could make Harvard a college for the rich.

Glimp is no longer anticipating a total applicant group of 5700, as he and Humphrey Doermann '52, Director of Admissions, were doing a week ago. As of yesterday, the Admissions office had tabulated 4400 applications. Last year, the 4400 mark was not reached until Jan. 26.

But, Glimp said, this does not mean applications are running two and a half weeks ahead--necessarily. For one thing, the deadline for applications has been changed this year from Jan. 10 to Jan. 1, and for another, admissions officers have been nagging candidates to expedite proceedings.

"Now, I'd guess 5200," Glimp said yesterday. "The total will probably be about the same as last year, within 100 either way." But, he admits, 5700 is still a possibility.

Replies to Stainaker Charges

Glimp also replied to recent charges by John M. Stainaker, president of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, that a few private colleges control most of the scholarship money available, and use it to compete for the best students.

"Harvard's scholarship money didn't fall as manna from heaven," Glimp said. "People left it." He pointed out that Harvard needs a large amount of scholarship funds because it is expensive to attend.

"State universities can provide first-rate education at low cost," Glimp said. "Harvard asks students to pay for it." The University of Indiana, for example, "has the legislature and the tax-payers of Indiana as supporters of its financial aid program, in effect. But they don't call it that--they call it low tuition."

Answering the charge that scholarship funds are used to compete for students, Glimp said, "We do not give money to people because we want to embellish the college with them." He noted, "We're not paying students who don't need the money."

Erstwhile math whizzes who think the CRIMSON has erred are wron. A Jump from 55 per cent to 60 per cent is (approximately) a 10 per cent increase. You can work it out on your own electric slide rule: the five percentage point rise divided by the old figure of 55 per cent equals the per cent of increase, namely 090909...or roughly 10 per cent.