The Admissions Problem Grows With Every Mail
No, no, a thousand times no" seems to sum up the policy that the Faculty Committee on Admissions will have to follow this year in choosing the Class of 1950. The decisions of the Special Committee on Academic Adjustments to establish priority groups and to allot available space in the College to these groups as reported to the Board of Trustees and the Alumni Council at their January meetings in Hanover are accepted by the Admissions Committee as being sound, but the resulting situation is far from a happy one. The Committee finds itself with 1,200 active applications for the Class of 1950 and a limit established of necessity at 400 men, half of whom will be veterans and half of whom will be civilians. With new applications coming in at the rate of about.300 a month, it now seems obvious that the application list will have to close before very long and certainly by the time that the selections are made in mid-April.
What does all this mean and why is it necessary? Simply that Dartmouth like every other college in the land has a lot of unfinished business that must come first and expansion and new construction and additions to personnel cannot possibly take care of this overload. About 3,000 students left the College before graduation during the past four years and a conservative estimate shows that 2,300 or enough to fill the College nearly to capacity will seek readmission during the next 24 months. The last four classes to be selected have included about 700 men who could not enter because of military obligations, this number being great enough to constitute an entire entering class. And finally, Dartmouth having had the largest V-12 Unit of all the colleges has thus acquired the largest V-12 alumni body, most of whom have not completed pleted more than two years of college work. For many of these men who left with good records, Dartmouth is the choice, and who is to say that two years of residence in the College and evidence of successful work combined with a desire to return is not a more compelling argument for admission than can be presented by the high school senior who is as yet untested?
Suffice it to say that something had to be done about this problem and SCAA has for many months fought, bled, and almost expired in trying to establish the basis for priority and quota that would be fair to all concerned.
Where do we go from here? Much has been said in die columns of this MAGAZINE and in the public press about the admission of veterans, but this article must confine itself primarily to those now in secondary schools who aspire to begin their college work at Dartmouth in the fall of 1946. We now have on file twice as many applications as we had at a corresponding date for the Classes of 1947 and 1948. The gain this year over last is better than 50 percent, and we are almost exactly at the point we were when the Class of 1946 was being considered. If we may assume that the quality of this year's group of applicants is equal to the quality found in recent years (many interviewing committees report the finest delegations that they have ever seen), we may draw the conclusion that there are at least 600 men applying who would be accepted under normal conditions. Any grammar school boy can figure the problem so far as numbers are concerned. Twothirds of the qualified candidates will have to be turned away. Even the continuation of the Selective Service Act or the introduction of compulsory military training for 18-year-olds (the author has neither the gift of prophecy nor any inside track as to information on these subjects) would not solve the problem. Certain it is that the Class of 1950 will have to meet such keen competition before it is selected that the successful candidates will have presented convincing evidence of outstanding worth as men, as potential scholars, and as future citizens.
The general principles of the selective process will be followed in making the choices and insofar as possible we shall try to make the civilian half of the Class of 1950 a truly representative sampling of a normal class of 700. The SCAA in choosing the 200 veterans to be admitted as freshmen next fall will give first priority to those who were previously accepted but could not enter and beyond that, if room permits, the same principles of the selective process will be followed.
There has never been a time in the history of the College when the admissions problem has been as acute as it is now, and we know full well that during the next few years there will arise many occasions when Dartmouth men will have their loyalties strained to the limit and when they will wonder whether the College is completely crazy or completely indifferent in failing to accept men who seem to be so outstanding in every respect.
The position in which we find ourselves was rather forcibly presented to me on a snowy day in December when a candidate from one of the suburbs of Boston came into my office with his father to inquire about chances of admission to the Class of 1950. It was too early for me to have any line on the boy's qualifications and consequently we talked along general lines such as I have mentioned in these paragraphs. Finally when I was trying to press the point home that the College could hardly fail to recognize its obligations to those who left for military service, much as we might like to admit a large group of secondary school graduates in order to get back as rapidly as possible to normal conditions within the College, the father smiled and said, "You don't recall that I have a son who was here for two years and is now in the Navy. He hopes to be back by next fall to finish his work and I should not want to have to face him if his younger brother was safely tucked away in the freshman class while he had to wait six months or a year in order to get started again."
What about the Class of 1951? What are the prospects for a large entering group from secondary schools in the fall of 1947? To both of those questions no definite reply can be made. It seems possible, however, that there will be room for a large class in 1947. Undoubtedly there will be many veterans applying for admission in that year but certainly the next 18 months will see many former Dartmouth men returning and graduating, thus greatly reducing the number to be accommodated.
THE Special Committee on Academic Adjustments is being forced to make decisions almost every week that are going to affect the size and composition, and. character of the college enrollment for the next five or six years. These decisions are of such vital importance to the College that we believe that the Trustees and members of the Alumni Council should know what is being done, and why.
The major problem which SCAA is required to solve is. how to determine who can come back and when they can come in the face of a demand for admission to Dartmouth that clearly will exceed the College's capacity. The mathematics of the problem is involved with unknown quantities and percentages which must be estimated, but a potential demand far in excess of the facilities Dartmouth can supply is clearly indicated.
The number of men now in service who have at some time attended Dartmouth and who may apply for readmission as veterans is as follows: former civilian nongraduates in service, 2,300; accepted but entered service before matriculation, 500; former Dartmouth V-12 students with no previous college, 1,800; former Dartmouth V-12 students with other college affiliations, 1,900; total eligible for readmission, 6,500.
In addition to the above men, we must expect a large number of applications from men who would have applied for admission to Dartmouth in recent years if they had not gone into military service directly after completing secondary school, and applications also from the normal number of men who will graduate from schools this year and will expect to enter college unless Selective Service continues or compulsory military service is established by law. We normally have over 2,000 applications for freshman admission per year. In the last three years, only approximately 1,000 men made definite application prior to entering military service. If the remaining men still want to attend Dartmouth following their release from military service we may expect 3,000 applications for freshman admission from these veterans and 1,500 applications from high school boys graduating in June, or a total of 4,500 applications for freshman admission.
We have, therefore, a potential demand for admission from at least 11,000 men, all of whom probably will be discharged from military service in 1946 or 1947.
The SCAA estimates that over 60% of the 6,500 veterans sometime enrolled at Dartmouth will decide to return and complete their education and that we must anticipate that 50% of the 3,000 veterans who would have applied for freshman admission will still want to enter Dartmouth. Even these conservative estimates make it necessary to predict a demand for admission from about 5,000 veterans
(Here follows some detailed figuring onestimated graduations and admissions during the coming terms.)
The maximum number of admissions in 1946 is, therefore, 1,550, and the potential number of applications from veterans only is 5,000. Under the most favorable conditions, with demobilization spread evenly over the months of 1946 and 1947, we would have 2,500 veteran applicants in 1946. If we rejected all applications from men finishing secondary school this fall we would still have to reject 1,000 veteran applicants in 1946.
The SCAA believes that the College cannot afford to refuse admission to all of the secondary school graduates who would normally make up the entire class entering in October, 1946. Our normal obligations, our well established relationships with schools, and the advantages of having some nucleus of regular students in each freshman class cannot be discarded entirely out of sympathy for the serviceman whose education was interrupted. The SCAA has, therefore, agreed with the Director of Admissions that a minimum of 200 places shall be reserved for civilian high school graduates and an additional 200 places shall be reserved for veterans who apply for admission as freshmen. The remaining 1,150 will be filled by the SCAA with veterans who have attended Dartmouth as civilian or V-12 students prior to their discharge from military service.
The SCAA believes that the selection of veterans for admission possibly must be confined to applicants who have a claim upon this college by virtue of previous enrollment, previous commitment for acceptance, or by being sons of Dartmouth alumni. We may have to reject all applications from other men regardless of their superior scholarship, superior character, the distinction of their military achievements, and their attractive personality. We may turn down hundreds of applications from men who are in every way desirable candidates for admission and base priority primarily on this college's obligation to provide space for one individual in comparison with its obligation to another. We believe that all colleges are going to face the same conditions and that thousands of young men are not going to be able to enter any college without waiting one or two years for the opportunity.
The decision having been made to give priority only to men having a claim upon this college, the problem remained to establish the order of preference to be given different types of applicants having some priority.
Top priority has been assigned by SCAA to the 2,300 men who were regularly admitted to Dartmouth by the Selective Process, attended classes as civilians before enlistment or induction, and who had a satisfactory academic standing when they withdrew. Provision has been made for establishing by tests the present capacity and interest of men who did poor work because of pre-enlistment indifference or preoccupation, and these may be restored to a priority group when their unsatisfactory record is misleading.
Second priority has been assigned to 1,800 men who were assigned to Dartmouth as naval trainees without previously having attended any other college and whose grades at Dartmouth averaged at least 1.8, the average required for graduation. The preference shown these men is based upon the fact that they have no other college to turn to if Dartmouth does not provide them with opportunity to complete their education.
Third-class priority has been assigned to 1,900 men who attended some other college as civilian students or as naval trainees before being sent by the Navy to Dartmouth. The Committee accepts applications from these men but offers little hope that thirdclass priority will be high enough to secure admission in 1946. ....
It is anticipated that the number of men with first-class priority who apply each term will not exceed the total spaces available. If this proves to be untrue selection will favor the men who have more credit toward their degree and who, therefore, can finish in the shortest period of postwar attendance.
Within the second class, a man who finished four semesters at Dartmouth will be selected ahead of a man who finished three, etc.
Within the third class, a man who had one semester elsewhere and four at Dartmouth will have preference over a man who had two elsewhere and three at Dartmouth, etc.
An applicant who rates only a second or third-class priority based upon previous enrollment in the Dartmouth V-is Unit will be moved into Class I if he is the son of a Dartmouth man or was selected for admission by Dean Strong but could not matriculate because of enlistment or induction
Neither preference nor priority is given men who apply ahead of others who desire to enter at the same time. All applications received before a fixed date (approximately thirty days before the opening of each term) have equal standing.
The fact that an applicant for readmission is married does not affect his eligibility for admission or his priority. He may come without his wife if he is unable to obtain an apartment. The assignment of apartments and houses is a matter of business separate from admission.
The most important policies established by the SCAA can be summarized as follows:
1. A place will be reserved for every former civilian student who went to war, is capable of doing satisfactory academic work, and wants to return to Dartmouth to complete requirements for the A.B. degree.
2. For such men the requirements for a degree will be modified as may be necessary to enable them to graduate when they have acquired 120 hours of credit.
3. A place will be reserved every fall for a limited number of civilian secondary school graduates, and every term for a limited number of veterans entering as freshmen.
4. Only in the event that applicants in the above classifications exceed the capacity of the College will enrollment be increased beyond 2,400.
5. The remaining places available in the College will be assigned exclusively to men who attended Dartmouth as V-12 or NROTC trainees with preference being given those who had no previous college affiliation.
6. So long as the system of priorities is required, Dartmouth will not readmit former V-ia men who did not have an academic average of at least 1.8.
7. Priority for admission will not be allowed by reason of early discharge from service or early application.
8. The selection of applicants for admission to the freshman class by the procedures of the Selective Process will be handled by the Committe on Admissions in the usual manner.
THE MONDAY MORNING MAIL brings in hundreds more of applications from civilians and veterans who would like to enroll as freshmen at Dartmouth next fall. Dean Strong (seated) and Eddie Chamberlain 36, Assistant Director of Admissions, are shown checking part of the heap in the Freshman Office.
A STRIKING RESULT OF THE ADMISSIONS BULGE is the above transformation of the once dignified Faculty Room, which has been stripped of its oaken benches and fittings to provide the only available Administration Building space for expanded offices for the Special Committee on Academic Adjustments, which handles veterans7 affairs, and the regular Office of Admissions.
ALUMNI COUNCIL MEMBERS CANVASS THE SITUATION. At the recent Council gathering in Hanover members of the Committee on Admissions and Schools met with Dean Strong and are shown above in the Sanborn House Library. Left to right, they are John S. Everett '08, Frederick L. Pearce '15, Dean Strong, Clifford A. Randall '27, chairman, and Parker Trowbridge '13.
DEAN OF FRESHMEN AND DIRECTOR OF ADMISSIONS
The biggest postwar problem now facing the College is that of the admission and readmission of undergraduates. In view of widespread alumni interest in Dartmouth's handling of this nation-wide problem, the MAGAZINE has asked Dean Strong to prepare an authoritative statement with regard to civilian applicants; and this is supplemented with major portions of the memorandum recently prepared by Dean Neidlinger to inform the Dartmouth Trustees and Alumni Council of policies adopted by the Special Committee on Academic Adjustments, which handles the applications of all veterans.
Following, in large part, is the statementinforming the Trustees and Alumni Council of admissions policies adopted by theSpecial Committee on Academic Adjustments.
