Evening star., 1903-10-26
WOMEN AND, COLLEGE
INTERESTING STATISTICS = THE
VARIOUS TYPES OF STUDENTS.
Growth Of Institutions Of Learning
for the Deriefit Of
Oup-Sistsrs.

At the time of the cfvif-war there was but
one educational institution of college grade
which had women students. This was Ober-
lin College, which, has been open to wo-
men since 1888 Now there are more than
4JO colleges and universities in the United
States which are Offering to women oppor-
tunities for higher culture and professional
training In the universities and colleges
where a generation ago scarcely any wo-
men were enrolled. more than a third of the
total number of students are women In the
eleven HIGHER educational institutions for
women only, which fulfill the true college
standard in entrance, requirements. train
ing of faculty and curriculum, there are
now enrolled 5. 152 students and teaching
force with university attainments number
ing 502 The total number of women col
lege students is estimated at 10000.
Professional Schools.
The increase of women in professional
schools has been particularly marked in the
last fifteen years According to the care
fully compiled figures of President Thomas
of Bryn Mawr the gain In numbers of stu
dents in medicine from 1890 to 1898 was u
per cent of men and 64 per cent Of women:
in dentistry, $50 per cent of men and POS
per cent of women: in pharmacy, % per
cent of men and 1870 per cent of women: in
men and 1914 per cent of women.
There are three distinct types of institu-
tionS for the higher education of women in
the United States. First. there is the indie
pendent college for women only, which has
developed out of the private school and
seminary, where our grandmothers were
taught the meager branches of knowledge
which past generations deemed fitting for
the sex. which was destined to purely do
meStic sphere. This type of college pre-
dominates in the east, and is based on the
conservative traditions of the separateness
of womens sphere of work. Nevertheless,
the great institutions of this kind have
swung into the main current of educational
progress. and such colleges of Bryn Mawr,
Vassar. Smith and Wellesley stand for the
broadcSt and most advanced ideas of c,lrri-
culum and method
Second, there is the compromise type,
which is attached to a mems college as an
annex. The chief examples of this type,
Barnard and Radcliffe. are also in the
east. Both are attached to great universi-
ties, and naturally both are of the highest
grade. Barnard College, one of the young
est institutions of higher learning for wo-
men. is most closely affiliated with Column
bia University. Third we have the coedu-
cational type, which has now spread
throughout the country. but which is best
represented by the state universities of the
middle west.
Co-Educational.
OF all the types of Institutions for the
higher education of women the co-educa-
tional is the most interesting at the present
moment. Its advocates claim that it is the
ultimate type, and tflatathe other two are
simply stages in educational evolution
Aside from the educational theory which
maintains that women and men are mental
ly benefited by association in lecture room
and laboratory, co7education is supported
by that strongest Of arguments, economy
president Jordan of Leland Stanford Uni
Id oI,,
claiming that worffen do more work in a
more natural way. with better perspective
and with saner incentives, than when iso-
lated from the influence and society of men,
and that. other things being equal through
association with women in the class room
the young men are made more earnest and
improve In manners and morals.
AN attempt is sometimes made to distin-
guiSh between the Ideals of culture of the
different colleges; One hears discussion of
the Smith ts'f,e. the Wellesley type tie vas
sar type ef college girl. The differences.
after all are very slight and are growing
less as the colleges are coming into closer
contact Nevertheless, there is something
quite distinctive about the Oberlin ideal a
certain moral enthusiasm and an emphasis
on the social service which the college man
ana woman owes the world have marked
this college, from its earliest days Dean
Luce is an excellent representative of this
splendid spirit.
The privately endowed institutions ex-
cluSiVeiy for women are we'll equipped ma
terially, and the endowments of the princi-
pal colleges are growing rapidly Three Of
them-Bryn Mawr Smith and Vassar-are
included among the fifty-two colleges of the
United States having vested funds of more
than $oCO,0O0, and two-Vassar and Bryn
Mawr-are nsted among the twenty nine
colleges possessing productive funds Of
81 1,OOO,oOO and over. The total value of the
property and endowment as given for last
year, Is: Eassar S2.611. $50; Bryn Mawr,
S2,oo0.0OO; Wellesley. S1.J00 COO. and Mount
Holyoke. 81, 100000. If numbers We're a
gauge of worth Smith would be ranked as
the first undergraduate college of the
United States, for 1t has an enrolment of
.O4S students. Wellesley is next, with SS9
Vassar, SEQ: Mount Holyoke, 675, and Bryn