July 7, 1986

Demonstrators and armed soldiers loyal to former President Ferdinand E. Marcos took over the Manila Hotel Sunday night after his running mate in the election in February, Arturo M. Tolentino, declared himself acting president on Mr. Marcos's behalf. But the Marcos backers failed to win the support of the leaders of the armed forces, and the Government radio reported that a large portion of the rebellious troops surrendered during the night. Both Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and the armed forces Chief of Staff, Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, declared their allegiance to President Corazon C. Aquino, and later Mr. Tolentino appeared to soften his assertion that he had become acting president. The United States Embassy also issued a statement in support of Mrs. Aquino, and in Washington State Department officials dismissed the activity in Manila as the ''last desperate act'' of Marcos supporters. ''We are not very disturbed about it at all,'' a senior official said, ''because the Philippine Government has the situation well in hand.'' #200 Said to Surrender Early this morning, a military spokesman announced on Government radio that about 200 of the roughly 300 soldiers who had backed Mr. Tolentino had surrendered, saying they had been misled into thinking they were being sent to support Mr. Enrile and General Ramos.

Steven Wall's search for his first summer job began last April when he visited his school counselor at Grover Cleveland High School in Queens. From there it went ahead in fits and starts. He applied to two nonprofit organizations for job referrals, then sat back and waited to hear from them. He failed to follow up on two leads from friends - one for a shoe salesman's job and one for a messenger's job. At the last moment, one of the organizations came through with a job as a mailroom clerk, which began last week.

A technology designed to mine heat from the earth's interior has succeeded for the first time in producing energy on a potentially commercial scale, according to scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Department of Energy. Millions of gallons of water, pumped two and a half miles deep under the mountainous New Mexico landscape, was heated by underground rock to more than 350 degrees Fahrenheit, enough for efficient generation of electricity as well as heating of factories and homes. By the end of a monthlong trial run the project, Hot Dry Rock, was generating enough usable heat to power a town of 2,000 people. The Los Alamos project has been closely monitored by energy officials from Japan, which helped pay for it, and from several European countries, which are beginning or planning similar projects. Hot Springs Not Needed Their hope is that the technology will become the clean, economical, widely applicable source of energy that those who believe alternatives to fossil fuels and nuclear energy must be found have been seeking since the oil crises of the 1970's.

The doubts disappeared two weeks ago when Boris Becker walked onto Centre Court for the first time in a year and felt as if he had never been away. Goose bumps spread over his body, he said, and the grass was a magic carpet under his feet. Others doubted whether the boy who dared to win Wimbledon could do it again, but Becker was no longer one of them. All that remained was for the chair umpire to say ''play.'' And play Becker did, even better than last year. His serve was bolder, his net game more complete and his maturity remarkable for one so young. ''I learned a lot in a year,'' Becker said. ''I'm a different person. I'm more experienced if you can say that about an 18-year-old.'' What can be said is that Becker has won Wimbledon for the second time, defeating Ivan Lendl, the No. 1-ranked player in the world, 6-4, 6-3, 7-5, in today's final. Last year, at 17, he became the youngest men's singles champion. Today, the smiling West German with the strawberry hair and cream complexion that go so well here became the second youngest to accept the Challenge Cup.

After two decades of steady growth and prosperity, American law schools find themselves struggling with declining applications, sagging enrollment and increasingly aggressive competition for students. The latest figures from the American Bar Association show that the number of applicants to the country's 175 accredited law schools has dropped by one-quarter in the last four years, from a peak of 70,135 in 1982-83 to an estimated 52,658 next fall. Overall enrollment has declined from its 1982 peak of 127,828 to 124,092 last year, with no sign that an end is in sight. Legal educators attribute the decreases to various causes, including what is perceived as a glut of lawyers as well as growing student interest in fields like computer science and business and a declining image of the profession. Benno C. Schmidt Jr., a former dean of Columbia Law School who is the new president of Yale University, suggested that the ''aura of idealism'' that once surrounded lawyers has disappeared.