The No-Shows

The most curious paradox about the annual scramble to get into college is that, far from fearing they will end up with too many freshmen, many admissions officers worry about getting too few. In the College Board Review, Headmaster John Gummere of Philadelphia's William Penn Charter School describes the headaches that result from students' applying for and being accepted by as many as 20 colleges before deciding on one.

"One topnotch small college, a college to which any able boy should be glad to go, found that no less than 38% of those whom it accepted for admission declined. Similarly, a first-rate Ivy League university--again, a place to which any candidate ought to be happy to go--had 37% rejections. Another good college had 55% of their applicants refuse admission when it was offered.

"The most bizarre situations are found. One college, when the time limit for acceptances drew near, found that the percentage of acceptances was alarmingly low. A number of offers were at once sent to applicants who had been put on a waiting list. Then, quite unexpectedly, a wave of acceptances from candidates formerly offered admissions was followed by another wave of acceptances from the new group just offered admission, and there was a freshman class larger by almost 100 than had been planned.

"Another college found in June that it needed 100 more freshmen, and the admissions officer was told to find them. What could a poor admissions officer do to fill those places at such a time?

"Young people are unbelievably lax and careless about accepting or rejecting college acceptances. The director of admissions at one first-rate university told me that after the deadline for answering offers of admission, there were 200 boys who had not even bothered to reply. Add to this the startling fact that in the summer of 1957, in one state, there were a dozen good colleges whose freshmen classes were not yet filled, and that one excellent university opened with 50 places vacant. All these are grim facts. A tremendous waste of time and effort is involved."

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