Lemmings Retreat

The lemmings have apparently found some place else to go.

That was the word this week, as the Medical School released statistics showing that the number of students applying to the school dropped last year--ending a ten-year trend that witnessed the tripling of the number of applicants.

The number of applicants vying for admission dropped to about 3700 this year, down from last year's figure of 3860.

Those numbers jibed with the results of a study by the Association of American Medical Colleges, which showed that applications to medical schools around the country dropped 10 per cent last year.

Dr. Oglesby Paul '38, director of admissions at the Med School, attributed the drop at Harvard to the intense level of competition that many potential applicants fear they would run into at the school, as well as to rising tuition costs.

Despite the drop in applicants, however, you shouldn't get your hopes up--the Med School still turns down 20 hopefuls for every applicant it accepts.