Deluge of Applications Floods Summer School

The summer school is reeling under a flood of early outside applications. Non-Harvard applicants are up 300 per cent from last year at this time, Thomas E. Crooks, director of the summer school, said yesterday.

"I don't know what to do about it," Crooks said. "Several courses are already full. If applications continue to rise, we'll really be in trouble."

Harvard-Radcliffe applications--there are now 247--are down slightly from last year, but outside applications have soared to almost 2000.

Crooks said he couldn't explain the increase. The summer school sent out its final catalogue a month early this year, which might have prompted people to apply early. "I hope to God that's it," Crooks groaned.

He said that the summer school could probably handle up to 5000 students, 300 more than last year's record enrollment of 4700. "Housing is not really the problem." Crooks said, "Since about two thirds of the students live off-campus." "The squeeze comes in finding section men and laboratory space."

The rush has already put pressure on courses with limited enrollment. Laboratory science courses and language courses are filling fast. Two courses, French D and German E. are already oversubscribed.

Selective Admissions

Crooks said that if the applications continue to pile in at the present rate, the summer school would probably have to devise a policy of selective admissions to many of the courses. "It probably wouldn't work on the first-come, first-served principle," Crooks said, "but I'd sure hate to disappoint a fellow who had come all the way from Omaha and had filed his application in January."

Higher Standards

If the increase in applications continues, the summer school may have to raise admissions standards for the summer of 1967. In 1960, when Crooks became director of the summer school, he introduced a set of lenient requirements and the enrollment fell by almost 500 students. Since that time, the student body has grown steadily each year.