79 'Critical' Grad Fields Eligible for AROTC Plan

Graduate students in 79 fields which the Department of the Army has decided have "direct military application" will still be eligible for admission to the Army two-year Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program.

Until further clarification from the Pentagon, law students will be ineligible for the two-year ROTC course. No graduate students are eligible for the four-year Army ROTC program, according to First Army Headquarters.

Technical Fields

A spokesman for the First Army said yesterday that "a number of technical and engineering fields are included." Various business administration majors are also on the list.

A complete list of the 79 "critical disciplines" will not be available until late today or tomorrow.

Even those graduate students within the special fields have no assurance of being accepted to Army ROTC. Designed as a program for undergraduates, the course gives lowest priority to graduate students in all cases.

As in the past, only if all the slots in the program are not taken by qualified undergraduates will graduates be accepted.

"This year it looks like the two-year program will be oversubscribed with undergraduates," the spokesman said. "In general, graduate students have a pretty slim chance of being admitted," he said.

Harvard's Army ROTC detachment will continue to accept all applications to the two-year program until it receives full clarification from First Army as to graduate student eligibility.