University Will Register 13,200; 300 Freshmen Apply for Seminars

Unexpected response from the Class of '63 has left the Freshman Seminar Program with nearly twice as many applicants as there are places to be filled, the Office of Advanced Standing confirmed yesterday. As a result, said Edward T. Wilcox, Director of the Office, which administers the Program, the capacity of each of the workshops may be stretched to accept more members than were anticipated in the "catalogue" mailed to freshmen at the end of August.

The new Program has attracted over 300 applicants, fully a quarter of the incoming Class. Late applications may raise the total still further, although no further solicitation will be made during registration week, Wilcox said.

One of the workshop leaders, William Alfred, associate professor of English, plans to raise from eight to twelve the number of freshmen in his "informal seminar in literature and writing." Applications for Alfred's group, which will take the place of Gen Ed A, originally number 60, and he will chose the final dozen from 20 still under consideration.

With the exception of the workshops headed by David Riesman '31, Henry Ford II Professor of Social Sciences, no seminar has made final selection of any applicants. That task is now in the hands of each workshop leader, who will interview the most likely candidates during Registration Week.

Riesman Groups Meet Tonight

Thirty-eight acceptances to the Riesman workshops, whose total capacity is about 48, were mailed Thursday by the Office, but everyone who applied has the opportunity to attend an organizational meeting tonight. Unlike other seminar leaders who stress special aptitude in a specific field, Riesman and his staff are interested chiefly in students, "irrespective of academic background, who are adventurous enough to depart from the usual program."

The unusual attractiveness of the Freshman Seminar Program has created a somewhat paradoxical problem of the Advanced Standing Office. "We don't want freshmen to start off their careers at Harvard with a rejection," Wilcox emphasized. "We want to show them that there are a lot of things to do in freshman year, and we're sorry if their newness led them to believe that the ordinary four and a half course program is not stimulating enough."