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A SALUTARY INFLUENCE been in the top fifth of their classes, although about 80 percent had been in the top two-fifths.198 The question of admissions cannot be dealt with apart from consideration of the desired size of the student body, as ultimately determined by the board of trustees. It is clear from the preceding chapter that for some twenty years before World War II the board had set the figure at somewhere between 500 and 650 students. Except for the disagreement over whether this total should include some women, the decision gained wide acceptance. There is no evidence to suggest that as World War II drew to a close either President Hanson or other trustees doubted the continuing soundness of the existing enrollment limits. They were prepared to take care of as many veterans as they possibly could, but this civic duty was considered a temporary exception to the rule. Accordingly, in December 1945, "in view of the emergency occasioned by the returning boys from the service," the board authorized Hanson to accommodate as many students as he could, up to 625 men and 175 women. In May 1946 it increased the number of women to 200, as soon as "proper facilities are provided for their care." By March 1947 the president was telling the alumni that "we are trying, in every possible way, to hold our enrollment down to 1,100." Two months later he explained to the board that he had yielded to pressure from veterans and recent high school graduates and was therefore committed to an enrollment of 1,200 for 1947-1948. As the influx of veterans peaked and began to recede, President Hanson was obviously trying to determine in his own mind what to recommend to the trustees for the long run.199 By the spring of 1948 he had taken the first major step toward an eventual resolution of 198The median SAT scores of the class of 1961, the first required to take these examinations, were 467 for the men and 509 for the women. By the time the peak was reached in the mid-1960s the median had risen about 100 points. The peak for men was 558, reached in 1965, and for women 624, reached in 1963 and 1964. The median in the early 1980s for all entering students (College profiles no longer ranked men and women separately beginning in 1977) ranged from 502 to 512. This decline reflected a nationwide drop in mean SAT verbal scores from 466 in 1967 to 425 in 1983. In the early 1980s students with 512 verbal scores ranked about the 75th percentile. See Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1985 (Washington, 1984), p. 147. 199Enrollment in most of the Pennsylvania colleges with which Gettysburg compared itself did begin to drop after the high point was reached sometime between 1948 and 1950. For example, Allegheny peaked in 1947-1948 at about 1,100 students and averaged 960 during 1951-1954. Bucknell peaked in 1949-1950 at about 2,300 and averaged 1,890 during 1951-1954. Dickinson peaked in 1948-1949 at about 1,020 and averaged 885 during 1951-1954. Franklin and Marshall peaked in 1948-1950 at about 1,350 and averaged 1,025 during 1951-1954. The above figures for 1951-1954 represent between 10 and 60 percent above immediate prewar enrollment. Lafayette peaked in 1949-1950 at about 2,020 students and averaged 2,000, double prewar enrollment, in 1951-1954. The data were taken from the Encyclopedia Americana yearbooks for the years in question. 90