Student Volunteers To Aid Recruiting Of New Freshmen

The Harvard and Radcliffe admissions offices are initiating a new student program this fall to involve more undergraduates in the admissions process.

Student volunteers are now manning the receptionist desks in the waiting rooms, giving informal tours to visiting high school seniors, and forming a group of recruiters for Harvard and Radcliffe.

Victoria Smith of the Radcliffe admissions office, and Bradlee Howe '63, associate director of Harvard Admissions, hope to mobilize a large group of freshmen in the spring to work with alumni clubs in their home towns as recruiters for Harvard and Radcliffe.

Recruitment by Harvard students has been very informal up to this point, Howe said. "Students have helped us in Wisconsin, and a group of Chicano students are being paid for recruiting Spanish-surname students in the South-west and California, but we never had a formal program."

The undergraduate recruiter will be expected to visit his home town high school, answer questions about Harvard, and give applications to interested students, Smith said. "We want to gear the recruitment program towards freshmen undergraduates because they are more likely to know the most high school students, and they have been through the application process more recently."

There are no plans for undergraduates to be members of the Admissions Committee, because of the time commitment required for reading applications, Howe added.