How the Houses Place Freshmen

Each year the seven masters face the problem of making each House a unit representing a cross section of Harvard society. With an annual influx of 1100 students from the Yard, this is not a simple problem to solve.

The masters must try to accommodate as many first choices as possible and at the same time must consider the necessity for diversification of interests and talents within the House. It would be nice, of course for a House to have all the group one the athletic captains, but in fairness to the other Houses this cannot be allowed, even if all the individuals involved listed a particular one as their first choice.

The selection process will begin this year shortly after March 30, the deadline for filing of applications. The final announcements should be ready by July 4. Lists will be prepared for each master containing the names of the first-choice, second-choice, and third-choice students. From these lists, he will try to accommodate as many first-choice men as possible, with the remaining two groups receiving second and third consideration.

There are many modifying conditions, however. A given applicant competes against only those people who have applied for the same type and price room as he. Also, the requirement for equitable distribution must be observed. Each House tries to balance the number of men in the upper scholastic groups with a proportional number from the lower group.

Also to be considered is the applicant's field of concentration, which is broken down into one of three general classifications, Humanities, Social Sciences, and National Sciences. Obviously, some Houses are better in one area than in another, and this fact must be considered in making assignments.

Large blocks of students from specific prep school backgrounds or from the same College organization will, if necessary, be broken up and distributed as evenly as possible.

The individual also figures prominently in the choosing, but not as a personality. The impression made in an interview is not an accurate or a lasting one, and therefore the basis for judging a man must come from his record. The proper combination of scholarship, athletics, and extra-curricular interests constitutes the "ideal" man for whom each House searches. This "ideal" varies, of course, from master to master, and the applicants to each House are thus judged by different standards.

After the masters make their selections, they meet in Committee to eliminate conflicting choices and make certain that no one House has an overabundance of a certain type student. This assures the best possible distribution of the incoming Sophomore class.

Once in a House, the student's status in not yet fully determined. Each House has approximately 40 rooms in Claverly or, this year, Wigglesworth. The assignment to these dormitories is made largely by the "flip-of-a-coin" method, except that consideration must be made for the type of room requested. If a House had no quadruple rooms, while Wigglesworth was a large number of them, people applying for quadruples in that House will live in Wigglesworth and maintain an "affiliation" with their House.

Having passed through master's studies and committees, the sophomore will eventually find himself assigned to a House. He should be in a group which represents a cross section of Harvard. If he is snot, it certainly will not be through any lack of administrative effort.