Admissions Begins New Minority Bid

In a continuing effort to increase the number of minority applicants to the College, the Harvard-Radcliffe Admissions Office is this year receiving names of minority students who meet specific academic standards from the Educational Testing Service (ETS).

The students--who are identified on the basis of Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) scores by the Student Search Service, an ETS division--receive letters of congratulation from Harvard and are encouraged to apply to school here.

Harvard has received about 1000 names to date and has sent out 1000 such letters.

The program is an extension of a minority recruiting drive undertaken here last fall, which identified ten target cities for intensified recruitment by alumni in each area.

Admissions officers yesterday emphasized that the new service will enable them to identify students and pass on names to recruiters earlier than in the past. Previously, recruiters have sought out qualified students primarily through visits to high schools.

"The most important thing is the time sequence," Sylvia J. Simmons, associate dean of admissions, said yesterday. "We get a very good list of promising students whom we want to give special attention to, and we pass their names on to alumni early," she said.

According to the arrangement with ETS, the College may set specific parameters, such as minimum test scores, projected majors and geographical background, and must then pay $100 for each set of requirements. The school must also pay ten cents for each name it receives.

While Simmons declined to say what minimum scores Harvard has set--she termed Harvard's standard a "satisfactory performance"--she said this plan enables the admissions office to give "an added touch" to the most promising students.

She added that the preliminary response to the program has been "very good" and that several students who received letters from Harvard during the summer have already contacted the admissions office for more information.

In order for the ETS to send students' names and addresses to a college or university, the students must give permission when they take the PSAT. The search program, which ETS began in the academic year 1971-1972, is now used by about 800 colleges and universities, Barry Druesne, the program's director, said.

He said many Ivy League schools now use the service to recruit many types of students--from minority group members to potential engineering majors and nursing students.

The ETS also uses scores from the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) to identify students, but there has been a shift in the past two years to greater use of the PSAT, Druesne said, because a larger number of students in more states take that exam.

The minority recruiting drive at Harvard grew out of a call in March 1975 by President Bok and Dean Rosovsky to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the undergraduate admissions office to review the entire minority recruiting process.