Harvard Studies Graduate School Admission Shifts

The University is taking a broad look at admissions figures for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Since the early sixties, both the number of applications and the number of students attending GSAS has been rising steadily. For 1960-61, for example, 3636 applications were received. Last year, the figure had jumped to 5432, and another large increase is expected this year.

Broad Changes

Humphrey Doermann '52, a special assistant to Dean Ford, and John P. Elder, Dean of the Graduate School, will conduct the study. He said yesterday that he would attempt to see whether there were any broad changes in the pattern of applications. Examining the last five years, he will try to find out where the applicants come from and what fields they apply for.

Doermann will also send questionnaires to those students who were either rejected by Harvard or decided not to come. He will attempt to find out from the schools they eventually attended and the total number of schools to which they actually applied.

Examine Ph.D.'s

As a part of his study, Doermann will also examine Harvard's Ph.D. recipients of the last two years to find out where they went after receiving their degree and how they supplemented their formal degree studies while at Harvard.

Doermann will also ask chairmen of the 47 individual programs, who are responsible for admitting students to GSAS, for their assessments of rising application and entrollment figures.