EDUCATIONAL REVIEW

JANUARY, 1906

I

ARE COLLEGE ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS TOO GREAT IN QUANTITY?1

Are college entrance requirements too great in quantity? I answer the question unhesitatingly in the affirmative, and believe that I can maintain the position. An appeal to the experience of almost any teacher who is preparing boys or girls for college will meet with an unqualified response, as has been proved by actual trial, but what I should like to do is to go beyond the simple expression of personal judgment, and to rest the case on something stronger than mere cumulative opinion.

In getting at the facts, the first point to be settled is as to what may be considered the standard of college entrance so far as quantity is concerned. Is there any definite standard? On the one hand we have the requirements of such a college as Harvard, for instance. On the other we have the small feeble institution whose requirements on paper amount to only about half as much, and sometimes in reality to less even than that. A certain schoolmaster, advocating the theory that every boy, whose family could afford it, should go to college, said that for the weaklings he knew of a college where practically anyone would be taken, provided he could show that he was a gentleman. Another schoolmaster in the group responded that he knew of one where even that requirement was not in

'A paper read before The Schoolmasters' Association of New York and vicinity, November 11, 1905.

sisted on. In the course of the investigation of this subject there came under my observation the catalog of a college bearing a highly honored name, one of the very oldest in the country, and one whose record of achievement entitles it to be regarded with respect. The requirements for admission are interesting. They consist of English, algebra to, not thru. quadratics, three books of geometry, and one other subject, choice being given the candidate between physics, history, Latin, Greek, French, and German. That is all; three subjects only, English, mathematics, and one other. The specifications in Latin are: grammar, composition, three books of Cæsar, four orations of Cicero, and two books of Virgil. In Greek they are: grammar, composition, and the Anabasis. Homer is gravely said to be "undesirable for preparatory work." is needless to state that this paper is not concerned with entrance requirements of this grade, and yet many of our fathers entered college on just such a basis as this.

It

A boy could enter Washington and Lee two or three years before he would dare apply for admission to Yale or Harvard, and there are all grades between the two extremes. What standard shall we take as the basis of our discussion? The answer is simple. Our work is conditioned by the heaviest requirements. Our boys are going to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, and they must be prepared to meet the requirements of those institutions. It is not much relief to a boy preparing to enter Harvard to know that he could get into Cornell or Williams more easily.

In order to make clear the point at which I am aiming it has seemed wise to reduce the requirements of several of the colleges in which we are most interested to a numerical basis, that is, to a system of points such as is employed at Harvard and Columbia. I have adopted the Columbia scale as being the simplest, and also as more likely to be familiar to most of On this scale the English required for entrance counts 3 points, Latin 4, Greek 3, elementary German and French 2 each, algebra and plane geometry together 3, history 2, physics 1, and so on. Fifteen points are required to enter Columbia.

us.

Calculated on the Columbia scale, the entrance requirements of Princeton amount to something over 16 points. The Yale requirements also foot up the same, where Greek is offered. I say something over 16 points, for Princeton calls for Sallust in Latin, and logarithms in algebra, and Yale demands the Bucolics in Virgil. Where the substitute for Greek is chosen at Yale, they amount to 17 points. The Harvard requirements are more difficult to reduce to the Columbia scale, because the language requirements are so largely of the nature of sight translation. A bright boy with a facility for guessing at the probable meaning and the ability to make a good showing with limited knowledge, can sometimes pass the Harvard Latin and Greek examinations with less preparation than would be necessary for the other colleges, but in general, I fancy that the almost universal opinion is that honest preparation for the Harvard requirements in Latin and Greek calls for more work than the corresponding requirements at Yale, Princeton, and Columbia. Assuming, however, that these requirements are equivalent, Harvard demands of the student either 17 or 18 points. I will say 17, tho I am inclined to think that 18 is nearer the mark. There is also a considerable group of colleges-including by far the largest number-the requirements in which are one point less than those of Columbia. This group includes such colleges as Cornell, Amherst, Williams, and many others. The University of Pennsylvania requirements range from 13 to 15 points, according to the subjects chosen, and in the same way Brown calls for either 15 or 16 points.

To avoid ambiguity, it may be well to state the matter in still another way. For the sake of simplicity we will imagine

a student who offers Greek for entrance, altho the situation will be substantially unchanged, in most colleges, if he offers an alternative for Greek. To enter Cornell or Amherst he would have to pass in English, algebra, plane geometry, Latin. Greek, and ancient history-14 points. To enter Columbia he would need one additional point, which might be made up in any one of a number of different ways. To enter Princeton or Yale, he would have to add German or French,

and if he goes to Harvard he will have to pile physics on to the load.

The Harvard requirements, then, are greatest in quantity. Princeton and Yale coming next, and most of the others falling somewhat lower. The difference between the highest and lowest of the requirements under consideration is 3 or 4 points. a difference amounting to from 20 to 25 per cent. of the whole. A difference of 20 to 25 per cent. means nearly, if not quite, a year's work. If the 14 point requirement of the majority of colleges is as much as can be reasonably demanded of entering students, then the 16, 17, or 18 points of Princeton, Yale, and Harvard are unreasonable. The thesis that I propose to maintain is a double one: first, that the quantity of work called for by such colleges as Princeton and Yale, represented by 16 points, is, if honestly lived up to and thoroly covered-note the qualification—more than can be wisely and reasonably exacted of the entering freshman; second, that if a smaller quantity of work is demanded, a higher quality can be secured. That means that the colleges will secure better prepared students if their requirements are less in quantity.

From the facts as stated it is clear that if students are to be prepared in our schools to enter such colleges as Yale, Princeton, and Brown-and the same thing holds true of Smith and Vassar-the courses of those schools must cover at least 16 points of work. Let us analyze these 16 points, and see just what this statement means. I take the Princeton and Yale requirements as a basis, because they allow fewer options than most of the other colleges, and therefore are simpler to discuss. Columbia states that a point or " unit is a course of five periods weekly thruout an academic year of the preparatory school." That would mean that 80 periods of work are needed to meet the requirements as they stand-20 periods a week for four years, or 16 periods for five years.

Let us take up the subjects in detail. English counts 3 points, equivalent to 15 periods. Five periods a week for three years, or 4 for four years, are amply sufficient to meet the college requirement, provided the pupils have a proper basis and foundation on which to work. But the school has to

overcome the influence of the street, the playground, the home. We have to teach many of our pupils, literally, to speak and to read. Many schools feel that they imperatively need at least five periods a week in English thru the entire course, and many more, that are devoting less to the subject, find that they have to give so much effort to the details of the college requirement that they lack the time for the necessary training of their pupils in fundamentals. Fifteen periods is enough to meet the college requirements in English, but there is serious question as to whether it is enough for all the work needed in English in the schools.

Algebra and plane geometry together count 3 points, 15 periods. This appears to be fair, tho hardly a liberal allowance. Two years, with five periods a week, should be sufficient for algebra, and one year for geometry. Let me call attention in passing, however, to a few minor points. The mathematicians have lately discovered, or rediscovered, the graph, a mysterious thing to some of us who used to think that we knew a little about algebra, but apparently very important, for the College Board lays considerable stress on it. Yale and Princeton do not appear to have discovered it yet, but Princeton insists that logarithms, permutations and combinations, and some other topics are necessary to the salvation of the subfreshman, and Yale calls for special work in mensuration as applied to geometry. As we have to meet all requirements in our classes, this lack of uniformity still further increases the load laid upon the schools.

Another point to be noted is that in the course of the last ten years or so the difficulty of the algebra examinations has increased decidedly, so that it is necessary to go more deeply into the various topics, and text-books, that a few years ago were amply sufficient, are now entirely inadequate. In geometry, also, there has been a marked increase in difficulty due to the greater emphasis laid upon original work. The ability to solve original problems is, of course, a better proof of geometrical mastery than the mere reproduction of so-called "book propositions." It is a better ideal at which to aim, but it is, for a large proportion of students, at least, distinctly more