Freshman Facts

EACH fall the Committee on Admission and the Freshman Year puts out a report on the newest class, giving statistics - "with the usual misgivings regarding their reliability and significance" - and other pertinent data. The report ranks high in interest and readability, and has built up quite a following among those who can do with a spot of humor here and there in such publications.

Last month's report establishes the fact that 1958 is another good class, although statistics place it academically slightly below 1957, which still holds top honors folks psychological and scholastic aptitude scores. The present freshman class has 38 school valedictorians, 33.3% who ranked in the top tenth of their classes. 68% in the top quarter, and 90.4% in the top half.

Dartmouth's geographic center of gravity apparently is shifting slowly westward, the report points out. Almost a fifth of the Class of 1958 comes from the Middle West and 6.2% of its members from the Far West. The Middle Atlantic States are still most numerously represented, but they have dropped from the 46.1% of two years ago to 41.2% for the new class. New England is down to 26.4% as compared with 27.4% last year and 32.6% three years ago. Thirty-eight states are represented in the Class of 1958, and also thirteen foreign countries.

The freshmen came to Dartmouth from 458 different schools, the broadest representation in the College's history. The proportion from public schools increased to 67%, giving just about a 2-to-1 ratio for public and private school men in the Class of 1958. The largest '58 group from any one school numbers fourteen, from Deerfield Academy.

The average age of 1958 at matriculation was 18 years, 2 months. Youngest was a freshman 1514 years old who was class valedictorian and set some kind of record by passing proficiency examinations in Chemistry, English and French. Oldest was a veteran soldier, 24, who operated his own export-import business in Europe. Only four veterans are in the class. Transfer inquiries totaled approximately 400, with only four transfer students admitted and three actually matriculating.

ROTC enrollment continues to shrink. This fall the Army unit enrolled 62 freshmen, the Navy 92 and the Air Force 35, for a total of 189 - as compared with 220 last year, 460 in the Class of 1956 and 575 in the Class of 1955.

In extracurricular activities the men of 1958 provide the usual impressive figures. There are 111 class presidents, 53 presidents of student councils, 239 glee club members, 181 musicians, 269 thespians, 52 debaters, and 633 men (including 87 editors) who worked on publications.

In athletics the Class of 1958 had 941 varsity lettermen in eighteen sports, with 221 of these letter-winners in football. There were 199 captains or co-captains, 46 of them in football, 47 in basketball, 27 in baseball, 17 in tennis and 16 in skiing.

Adding human warmth to these cold figures, the Committee on Admission and the Freshman Year also reported: "The various influences which molded the personalities of the young men entering college this fall (not necessarily at Dartmouth) are suggested by the young man who informed us that his aunt had become acquainted with a prominent psychiatrist 'who, when he saw my picture, expressed a desire to meet me'; by the boy who found his high school experience useful in developing his love for being with people and added: 'I even became interested in girls, although it was an uphill fight ; and by the one who had been to Europe and reported that 'the biggest lesson I profited by was that people all over the world are basically alike, when you take off their outer garments and examine the deeper recesses of their minds.' "

Although 1958 was the main subject of the report, 1957 came in for high praise for its freshman-year record, which justified the prediction that the class would be one of the best Dartmouth ever matriculated. The total first-year attrition for 1957 was only 2.7%, a new low. This compares with 4.7% for 1956 and 5.8% for 1955. With separations, probations and warnings down, scholastic averages were up to 2.764 for the first semester and 2.904 for the second (on the basis of 5.0 for an all-A average).