Admission Office Will Curtail Use Of ABC Ratings

The Admissions Office has reduced by two-thirds the extent of its "ABC rating" system.

Only at about 40 schools, all but 11 in the Boston area, will applicants to Harvard be given A, B, or C ratings this December. An A rating means an automatic admission in the spring; a B rating means "keep trying," a C rating means "give up."

About 125 schools received ratings for their students last year.

Fred L. Glimp '50, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aids, said a "manpower pinch" caused the cutback in the system.

Few Advantages

"The rating system has only marginal advantages to us anyway," Glimp said. "It lets us make early decisions in a few cases and thus cuts down slightly on our work during the spring rush. We do it mostly as a favor to the schools." He said that more than half of the schools cut out from the system had written him to ask for a change.

Glimp said that since the system was instituted in 1957, applications to Harvard have increased by 2200. Meanwhile, "the rating system really hasn't done the job it was supposed to. It was intended to cut down on the number of multiple applications by giving a fellow some idea of his chances for getting in. But because there's always some risk in applications, I don't really think there is a solution to the multiple applications business."

Most Applications

The 11 schools outside greater Boston that still receive ratings are those who normally send the largest number of applications to Harvard. "Cutting out the 80 schools will probably reduce the number of A's we give by only a third or so," Glimp said.

"The rating system is quite an economical way of handling large numbers of applicants," Glimp explained. "Take Exeter, where we'll probably get 130 applicants and give about 30 A's, if the class is of the same quality as last year's. That's 30 people we don't have to worry very much about come March."

Glimp denied that the system is "undemocratic," a charge that has been raised against it. "As long as we're strict enough in giving A's, there's no discrimination against people who don't come under the system," he said