Applications Up By Nearly 20% At Med School

The number of applications for the Harvard Medical School class of 1972 has risen 19 per cent over last year.

Most of the change is due to a sharp increase in the birth rate 21 years ago and does not reflect increased draft pressure, Dr. Perry J. Culver '37, Associate Dean for Admissions in the Faculty of Medicine, said yesterday.

Under the new Selective Service Act effective this July 1, medical students are the only graduates deferrable by local boards. But Culver said that this could not have affected this year's applications. Pre-med science and math requirements force students thinking of attending medical school to make plans several years in advance, he said.

Culver added that if the present draft system and war needs continue, the promise of deferments will probably attract applicants two or three years from now.

Other Harvard graduate schools, which expect the same reflection of the post-war "baby boom," are anticipating that the new draft law will have a much greater effect on their first-year classes.

Nearly all are counting on more applications than last year, but several foresee a change in either the composition or the sizes of the classes which finally register.