Evening star., 1912-09-01
RArERNrY HoUsL
At A BIC UNIVERSITY

the students pay living expenses ard fees
which. IL is true, still put the possibility
of college education far beyond the reach
of the great majority of bright boys and
girls. and there is greater need now than
ever before In the history OF the country
for larger appropriations OF public funds
and for larger endoUments from private
bequests. Ii Is estimated that the aver
age cost of teaching and caring for boy
or girl at college. not including living ex-
penses. is something over $500 year on
about 81 80 for a fun course of four
years. OF this about one-third Is COW
cred by tuition fees"
What careers are most OF our college
graduates selecting"
"A study of the alumni OF thirty-seyen
OF our representative colleges lately COM
pleted for this bureau by Bailey Is. Bur-
rift. and the results OF which have not
as yet been printed, will show that the
law. which claimed one-thrd of all our
college graduates at the beginning OF the
last century, now takes only IL per cent;
that teaching is now the profession chos-
en- by the greatest number-one-fourth
of the whole: that medicine takes be-
tween and per cent. and seems to be
slightly on the decline; that engineering
is slowly claiming more and more. but
as yet only from to per cent of grad
yates of the college proper. and that the
ministry, to supply whose ranks was the
original purpose of American colleges.
now claims only between and per
cent Of their graduates, having reached
the lowest mark for that profession with
in the whole two and half centuries OF
American college history. These figures
hardly do justice to engineering. The
per cent of those selecting this calling IL
much greater i'm other institutions than
made still greater by the addition of the
many graduates Of technical schools OF
college grade and rank
How many boys and girls will prot
ably enter our colleges this autumn
approximately 124.OOO boys and sis0W
girls. making a total army OF ls2eo-
force nearly two and half times as
great as the entire standing army of the
United States. Ii concentrated In one
area. these youths would form popuia-
ton considerably greater than that OF
Columbus. the capital OF ohio. and dou-
bly, as great as that of Trenton. the
capital of New Jersey. The college boys
alone could set up for themselves a sec
ond Omaha, the college girls another
Norfolk. In proportion to population. the
share OF our youths doing real college
work has increased about 140 per cent In
the last twenty years. We now have up
ward OF go real colleges about ip more
than twenty years ago, and In the Same
length Of time our army OF COLLEGE pro-
fessors has Increased from i"'V" 70
25.0OO."
Are our girls gaining on our boys II
college ambition
Decidedly. Within the last twenty
years the proportional increase OF oue'
women in college has been more than
100 per cent. while that OF our coli
lsge men has been less than % per cent
This rapid increase OF young women
i'm our colleges has been one OF the most
remarkable feaures Of modern education
tvvnn
work above the preparatory grades have
increased fivefold. There can be no doubt
that college women are much better fitted
for economic life than other women
Everywhere they earn the better salaries
and are able to conduct their own enter
prises the more proftably.
Are the matrimonial opportunities or
women influenced by college training.
/ asked the commissioner. in conclusion.
Prejudice against college women as
being old maidish' Is rapidly on the oe-
crease" he replied. 1T lis probably true
that the per cent OF college women who
marry is not quite so real as that OF
other women who become wives. but u IL
also probably true that OF the same
women a smaller percentage would marry
evefi though they did not go TO college. \
large proportion OF those women who
first went to college In large numbers.
especially to the co-educational colleges.
would not have married at all or would
have married. late in life. even II thsy
had not gone to college. These were the
strong minded independent women. VII"
strongly felt their ability and had the de-
sire to make their own way In the world.
''In the beginning. our college courses
were adapted to women or TINS Type;
whereas they are now being more and
more adapted toward better hitting our
women for the duties of the wife. the
mother and the homemaker.
Copyright 1912. by John Elfrcth Watk.nsD