Summer Enrollment Unusually Low; Pre-Med Courses Not as Popular

The smallest group of students in at least five years is attending Harvard summer school this year, despite earlier predictions that enrollment would be among the largest in recent years.

With final figures unavailable until tomorrow, officials of the nation's oldest summer school said yesterday about 4800 students have registered so far-- a 4 percent drop from last year's 4998 and below the 5030 that officials estimated would enroll this year.

The smallest group of the last five years was 4830 in 1981 and the highest was 5031 in 1983.

In addition, enrollment in premedical and computer summer school courses has decreased compared to previous year's figures, according to unofficial data, summer school Director Marshall R. Pihl'55 said yesterday.

As of yesterday, the number of students in "Organic Chemistry" had dropped to 113 from 148 last year, and enrollment in the eight computer courses has suffered a loss of 100 students compared to 1984, officials said.

Figures also indicate an increase in enrollment in social science and humanities courses, Pihl said.

"It seems that students are moving away from a career and towards education per se," the director said about this year's summer school students, of which only 10 percent are Harvard undergraduates.

Here is a list of the five most popular summer school courses, according to preliminary figures compiled by Registrar Janet M. Sawyer:.

*Chem S-1, "Introductory General and Inorganic Chemistry": 123 enrolled."

*Chem S-20, "Organic Chemistry": 113 enrolled.

*Biol S-1, "Introductory Biology": 106 enrolled.

*Econ S-1500, "Financial Accounting": 106 enrolled.

*Math S-1e, "Calculus I": 103 enrolled.