Class of 1947-48 Senior Poll

Chances are about one in three that our median man lives in Massachusetts, and it's a bit more than even money that he went to a public high school. If his father went to college, chances are again one in three that it was Harvard; on the other hand, there's only about one possibility in 35 that his mother went to Radcliffe.

Carrying on statistics almost to the point of absurdity, we could say that his father makes $7,877.57 a year (before taxes). If he goes to church, it's probably to an Episcopal one, and he makes exactly four and a half appearances there a year. During the war, it's most likely that he was in the Navy, where he served 24 months and 21 days, of which only a fraction more than nine months were spent overseas. He was probably an enlisted man or, if an officer, an ensign, served some time in the V-12, but doesn't belong to a veterans' organization.

In college, he usually got three B's and a C, concentrated in economics or government, and thinks he studies 20 hours and 25 minutes a week during the term. Whether he lives there or not, he'd like to be a member of Lowell or Eliot House. In his own House, he is acquainted with exactly 69.8 of his fellow residents. Chances are five to one in favor of his reading The Crimson regularly.

In the fall, he probably went to 5.6 football games, and he had a date every 11.4 days. These he paid for out of his weekly expenses, which, for everything, added up to $10.77.

Lastly, when our impossibly typical classmate gazes into the future, we find him voting Republican each November, and predicting that the United States will become involved in another war. When? On April 2, 1962, say the figures, and figures don't lie, they say.

All this must show rather conclusively what extremes of statistical fiction can be produced if you try hard enough. But perhaps they will give you some specific details, and answer some specific questions.

--Courtesy of The Harvard Archives' The Harvard Album (1947-1948) poll