The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1912-09-29

/ 10 classify Ine uuiNtTsAlitc anu NcAtbNe
of the whole United States and to deter
mine the relative value of their bach
elors' degrees-that was the simple little
task that the government assigned to
DR.. Kendric c. Babcock its specialist in
higher education. And then. having as
signed the task. 1t apparently considered
its duty done, even forgetting or neg
lecting to make public the important
much Favored institutions. such as Bos-
ton University, Bates. Colby, Syracuse.
Sheffield Scientific School. New York
University. and host of others are
officially regarded as second-class col
/ leges. But OF the apparent "bottling up"
of information more will be said later.
For the present II is enough to state
that the work Of classification has now
been completed, whether well or poorly
being largely matter of opinion and of
college Affiliations. At least flfty-nine in
stitutions and their friends, students and
alumni are probably agreed that the task
was splendidly performed. Three hun
dred others may think differently. and
possibly with reason. In other words,
DR.. Babcock has put ffty-nine universe
ties and colleges in the first class and
designated them as standard institutions.
has put ISL in the second class. 81 in the
third class, and 10 in the fourth. In all.
he considered 3A colleges which, of
course. is not the extent of our higher
educational roll. but which includes all
the better known institutions OF learning.
New EnsIand's showing.
well in the survey: better, in fact, than
any other section OF equal size In the
country. 1t has fifteen colleges in the
first class, thirteen in the second, one in
the third. and none in the fourth Among
the standard colleges IL is represented by
Amherst, Bowdoin. Brown. Dartmouth.
Harvard. Institute of TechonoIogy, Mount
Holyoke, Radcliffe, Smith. Tufts. Univer-
sty of Vermont Wellesley. Wesleyan,
Williams, and Yale. In the second class
II has Bates, Boston College. Boston
University. Clark. Colby. Holy Cross.
University OF Maine. NJ. A. c., Middle
bury, New Hampshire State. Sheffield
School. Trinity, and Worcester Poly
technic. In the third class is Rhode
Island State.
This study by DR.. Babcock Is in reality
a study Of bachelors degrees. Officially
1t Is declared to be IAN attempt to esti-
mate the work and status OF a large
group OF institutions whose alumni In
considerable numbers have sought ad-
mission to graduate and professional
some part of an undergraduate course
for admission to regular standing"
Whatever the result, the government
expert went at his work In a thorough
going manner. He studied catalogues,
reports. admission requirements. and sta
tistical statements extensively. but only
formally. His real work consisted OF per-
sOnal visits to large graduate schools,
conferences with their deans and inspec-
ton of the work of students to See how
they stood the test OF transplanting. At
Harvard or Yale. for instance. he spent
a large part OF his time within the ai-
ministrative offices of the graduate
school. There he found out. as well as
figures and personal talks could tell him,
how the men OF Williams Dartmouth.
and other colleges were doing their new
work. At first his information was most
ly individual and could be considered to
have no particular significance. But
when he had visited enough graduate
schools and noted the scholarship records
of large numbers of graduates from the
same institution, he was able to draw
some clear. definite conclusions, the first
of which is. as already indicated. that
there are in the United States ffty-nine
universities and colleges OF the first class.
First class is defined by DR.. Babcock as
follows:
Institutions whose graduates would or
dnarily he able to take masters degrees
at any of the larger graduate schools in
one year after receiving their bachelors
degrees. without doing more than the
amount Of work regularly prescribed for
such higher degree.
Colleges of the First Class.
In this list of so-called standard col
leges are forty-four endowed and private
Institutions and fifteen State universe
ties. Only one of the four Maine COL
leges is in this honor division. and some
of the largest universities of the land are
conspicuous by their absence.
It will be seen. for instance, that Bates,
Boston University, University of Cincin-
natl, College of the City of New York,
Syracuse. and New York University are
not included. OF their cases and others
like them more will be said when the