Admissions to Law School Class Down 27 Per Cent From Last Year

Harvard Law School has cut the number of people it will admit to the Class of 1973 by more than one-fourth. Russell A. Simpson, director of Admissions, said yesterday.

The Admissions Committee, which has temporarily closed down admissions, sent letters of acceptance to only 800 students this year, a drop of 27 percent from last year's total.

Several factors, some of which are related to the draf, have caused the reduction, Simpson said.

The size of the first year class has been reduced from 600 this year to 530 for next year. An overly large second-year class, estimated as high as 650 due to people returning from draff-related service, necessitated the reduction in the first-year class.

Law School officials anticipate that fewer people will withdraw from the class during the year because of President Nixon's ruling that students who register for school will be allowed to complete the academic year.

The number of those accepted who have indicated they will attend the Law School next Fall has risen by nearly 10 per cent.

The people most hurt by this change were those put on the hold list who, from past years, might have expected that their chances for admission were good. "We put people in the hold category this year that in other years would have been admitted," Simpson explained. He attributed this situation to th? decrease in places and an in crease in the quality of applicants.

Simpson described the higher quality of those seeking admittance to the Law School as the result of "a clear decrease in the interest of students in graduate study leading to professorial work." He noted that many students who might have pursued teaching careers in the past are now applying to Law School because they "want a more active role in changing society."

The procedures of admission at the Law School this year have added to the problems of graduating seniors at Harvard this spring. One 'Cliffe senior who was put on the hold list and expected to be accepted but was not, voiced an objection to the Law School's policy which she said "did not allow me to plan on any very serious alternatives."