Transfer Student Numbers Should Double Next Year

Because of the soaring rate at which students are dropping out and taking leaves-of-absence, the number of transfer students entering Harvard next Fall will almost double to around 125.

Although a final decision will not be made until after acceptances for the class of '75 in April, Bradlee T. Howe '63, assistant to the Director of Admissions, said yesterday that the total number of Harvard-Radcliffe transfers could go as high as 150, with a two-to-one ratio of Harvard to Radcliffe acceptances. The overall Harvard-Radcliffe student ratio is four to one.

Mid-year Transfers

Howe also said that mid-year transfers may be accepted for the first time next year.

"The overlapping housing situation" with Radcliffe students living in Harvard houses makes it possible to accept more Radcliffe transfers, Howe said, but he added that this "doesn't reflect a trend" for the future.

The Harvard admissions office expects over 1000 transfer applications, although a final figure is not available since March 1 was the application deadline, Howe said. Traditionally Harvard has accepted about 20 transfers, although 55 were accepted last year out of an application pool of 925, he said.

Mrs. Harriet Belin, acting Dean of Admissions at Radcliffe, said yesterday that Radcliffe transfer applications are up 50 per cent to almost 600.

She said the possibility of Radcliffe transfers jumping from 21 last year to as many as 50 this year represents "no change in policy, but is simply because we don't have to put our own students in our own beds."

Howe said the fact that transfers have done "extremely well" in the past was influential in the tentative decision to accept more of them.

"Over 200,000 students are applyingfor transfers across the country," Howe said. "This phenomenon reflects a new restlessness as well as an increasing mobility among college-age students."

Howe said that whether the sudden increase in transfer acceptances is "simply a one-shot deal" depends on future drop-out rates. "The transfer students are the flexible element, and their numbers may have to decrease when students on leaves-of-absence return." he said.

Dean Epps said in an interview last February that the percentage of leaves-of-absence granted during the current academic year will "probably be close to 6,6 per cent of the total student body." The normal rate-computed over six year period ending last year-is 4,2 per cent.