Applications To Radcliffe Grow by 7%

Radcliffe applications for the Class of 1969 are running about 7 per cent ahead of those received by this time last year, Mrs. Margaret Stimpson, dean of Admissions, said yesterday.

"The trend is up, but it is impossible to tell exactly how much, because this is the first year Radcliffe hasn't accepted students on the Early Decision Plan," Mrs. Stimpson explained.

Last year Radcliffe received 2233 applications for 302 places in the freshman class. If the 7 per cent increase holds steady until the January deadline for applications, approximately 2390 girls will apply. There would then be about eight applications for every place in the freshman class. Last year Radcliffe accepted one out of every seven girls.

Radcliffe is now the single member of the "Seven Sisters" that does not accept students on Early Decision.

The high number of applicants has necessitated one other change in the admissions procedure. Instead of everyone on the ten-member admissions Committee reading each folder, the Committee now reads in teams of two. But many folders, Mrs. Stimson explains, are read by everyone. "The committee system, where no one person has the final say, has always been the rule at Radcliffe," she said.

Radcliffe has also increased the flexibility of the admissions procedure in two ways, Mrs. Stimpson added. A personal interview is no longer mandatory, and there is no rigid deadline for reporting test scores. "A girl in Hong Kong may simply not be able to take her tests at the same time as everyone else," Mrs. Stimpson pointed out.

Although Radcliffe, like Harvard, is a member of several "referral agencies" for Negro and foreign students, it makes no effort to recruit. "The small size of the class limits our participation in any one program," Mrs. Stimpson said.