Over Two-Thirds of Applicants Given House of First Choice

Sixty-eight percent of the 1032 students who applied for admission to the upperclass Houses this fall, have been placed in the House of their first choice, Dean Watson announced yesterday. Notification of next year's room assignments will be sent out tomorrow via the University Mail Service.

In addition, 18 percent have been given either their second or third choice House, producing a total of 86 per cent of all House applicants satisfied in one of their three selections.

Due to the overcrowding in the Houses, there are 67 freshmen who have not been given any specific room assignment.

Watson is confident, however, that space will be found for these men due to the "shrinkage" in the College each year resulting from students' departures, both voluntary and involuntary. "We firmly believe," he asserted, "that all of this year's applicants will be accommodated."

There were only 13 freshmen in this "unassigned" category last year but 172 in 1955. In both years all students were eventually given rooms, although space in the Business School had to be utilized two years ago.

The figure of 68 percent first-choice assignments represents a three percent rise over last year's total, but the percentage of those given one of their first three choices has dropped three points since 1956.

Two Freshman Entries

A total of 264 freshmen have been placed outside the Houses, 130 in Wigglesworth and 134 in Claverly. In addition to upperclass residents, two entries of Wigglesworth will be assigned to this fall's incoming freshmen and one to non-resident students.

Of the 1032 applicants to the Houses, 1008 are freshmen and the remainder are upperclassmen moving into the Houses for the first time.

The House applications have gone through a five week long screening process since they were filed at the end of March. Each Master is given the first choice applications to his House and fills as many vacancies as possible from this group.

In doing so he must not exceed fixed quotas of certain categories of students--among them academic standing, field of concentration, and private or public school background.

The second and third choice applications are then distributed in order, and each Master selects from these categories as many students as he wants or has room for.

The remaining applications are placed in a pool from which each Master fills up his House.