Undergraduates Plan to Send Letters to Accepted Students

In the next few weeks, the Undergraduate Admissions Council plans to have undergraduates write personal congratulatory letters to as many as one-half of the students accepted into next year's Harvard and Radcliffe freshman classes.

Radcliffe Admissions Officer Victoria T. Smith, who is co-heading the UAC with Bradlee T. Howe, associate director of Harvard Admissions, said yesterday that the purpose of the letters is to give the College a "human image."

"We're not out to hard-sell the College," she said. "We want them [accepted students] to know they can ask questions before they commit themselves for the next few years."

Smith said the letter effort is "tied in with recruiting," and therefore will apply particularly to applicants who live far away.

Howe said yesterday that Harvard undergraduates have sent similar letters in past years to no more than 50 of the students admitted, although each year admissions officers contact several people directly. "Almost all Radcliffe, probably, and maybe one-third of Harvard" will receive letters this year, depending on the number of volunteers to write the letters, Howe said.

Since the Harvard Club Schools and Scholarships Committees do much of Harvard's recruiting for the Committee on Admission, Harvard does not plan to send as many letters as Radcliffe, Howe said.

"About 500 Harvard and Radcliffe students are on the mailing list of the UAC," Howe said. He said the council has been involved in the admissions process since the beginning of the academic year, through arranging tours, host and hostess work, and receptionist work.