New-York tribune., 1909-06-15
COLLEGE ENTRANCE REorIREuEyrs.

A few days ago it was the college presidents
who were deporing the fact that students pur-
suing arts courses In colleges would not take
the collegiate standards seriously. and now II is
the Carnegie Foundation which proclalms that
the college faculties themselves are not taking
their own standardS--at least theiK standards of
entrances seriously. DR.. Pritchett in his last
port says that az Harvard, Yale and Columbia
more than half the freshmen were admitted
with conditions The situation AT these three
large institutions is apparently typical. for az
Princeton ii reported that POI out of Il ella Ss
OF 800 deficient, at Amherst 40 out of 16J,
at the University of Illinois 21S out Of 4s2 and
similarly with various other institutions Now,
1t would he interesting to know in just what
subjects these conditions" existed For ex-
ample is il as common to admit conditioned stu.
dents 10 technical schools as TO the college
proper? Moreover, in the technical schools are
conditions in the cultural requirements for adj
mission or in the technical requirements? May
student be admitted to civil engineering when
he is deficient in geometry, for example. or only
when ne has not the required English or history?
DR.. Lowell in his recent article said that stu
dents in vocational schools sighted the few
humanistic studies in their courses Of no i'm
portance. DO the professors take n similar atti-
tude when il comes to entrance examnati tions?
Dr. Pritchett suggests that the facts may
signify thEt there Is no very close con
'nectlon between fulfilled requirements flor en-
"trancel and college performa nce"-that is to
say, even In the opinion Of the faculty itself its
tests Of capacity entrance were not signin-
cant. But DR. Lowell has just said that unver-
sity authorities had failed to convince the stu
dents that university tests of capacity through
out the course true or vital
There is evidently room for a sea rchng OF
hearts on this subject of higher education, and
that is probably all that DR.. Prtchett Intended
TO prompt. For ii is not 10 be supposed that
he or any one else thinks that the entrance ex-
aminations are perfect and adequate test OF
fitness TO pursue a college course and that fail
ure TO qualify as having read Burke's speech
on Cancellation" for example, In an edition spe-
cialiy annotated for preparatory students, should
bar II student out of college for a year or that
"A large total of conditions means eyading on.
trance requirements. Indeed, he himself saws
that the custom of admitting students with con
ditionS is just one, but that it has been abused
If the conditioned students deficiencies are not
too serious, and If he is strictly required to make
them UP within a reasonable period there GER
tainly can be no objection 10 admitting him The
custom is long established, dating back to the
time when secondary schools We're less numerous
and efficient than they are at present. 1t is not
abused when the faculty is sufficiently strict and
weeds out at the end of a given period<the less
by weaker institutions, which let il be known
that students failing of admission elsewhere
have no difficulty in entering them, and which