Changed Tendencies toward Harvard and Yale.

To the Editors of the Crimson:

It has frequently been remarked of late that the two great Phillips Academy preparatory schools, Exeter and Andover, seem to be undergoing a radical change in the numbers which they are sending respectively to Yale and Harvard. Exeter, which formerly had the name of being the Harvard preperatory school, is now sending many students to Yale, while Andover, which used to fit her men almost exclusively for Yale, has become a good feeder for Harvard. The result is that while the proportion sent from the two schools to Harvard and Yale has evened up a great deal, neither college has gained more than the other in actual numbers from the two schools,

What has brought about the change it is hard to say. Possibly it is the result of chance, but more probably some real reason is at the botton of the case. The men at college here who have watched the increasing number of men which Exeter has been sending to New Haven claim that at Yale greater efforts are continually made to give Exeter men a hearty welcome. The Exeter Club is about the most flourishing of the school clubs there. The men take a deep interest in its welfare, and they show it by the enthusiasm displayed at their annual dinner. Every effort is made to show the students at Exeter that Yale is the place where the heartiest fellowship and welcome are awaiting them.

At Harvard the case is wholly different. In the early spring of '89, after the CRIMSON had printed any number of communications and several editorials on the subject, the Exeter men of the University were shirred up enough to go to work with seeming energy, and form an Exeter Club. Twelve offices were created and a vast amount of enthusiasm was shown. It was decided to hold an annual dinner, prizes were to be offered to students at Exeter for proficiency in various branches, scholarly and athletic, and a general effort was to be made to show Exeter how welcome her students were at Harvard. As a matter of fact nothing was done. The club continued to hold monthly meetings last year but the attendance was almost nothing; and the club became so inactive that it has not yet been organized for this year, but has been put in the list which the Index terms as "not dead, but sleeping."

This inaction on the part of her men at Harvard is given as one reason of Exeter's greatly increased delegitions to Yale. Another reason assigned is the influence of Yale's athletic victories. Exeter is a very athletic school; every attention is paid there to athletics and it is but natural that boys should be influenced to go to the college which has been winning. At the end of the next few years perhaps men will be influenced to come to Harvard on account of her long line of athletic victories, begun this fall.

The reasons, then, for Exeter's tendency for Yale are first, the activity of the Yale as compared with the Harvard Exeter men, and second, Yale's past prowess in athletics. The tendency of Andover towards Harvard is somewhat from similar causes. The Andover men here have been doing some very beneficial "missionary" work for Harvard at their old school. The Andover Club here, to be sure, is energetic, and shines brightly by comparison with the quondam Exeter Club; but it is not the work of the Andover Club here so much as it is the individaul efforts of the men which have gradually turned Andover students Cambridgeward. As a matter of fact, the Andover men here have taken every opportunity to go back to their old school, and show the students there the advantages of the Harvard course. The perhaps seemingly complicated systems in vogue at Harvard have been explained to the Andover students, and the graduates here have made it a point to present the matter faitly and squarely before them.

It will be curious to note whether the Exeter men here will, by following the example of the Andover men who are winning Andover for Harvard, keep Exeter on the side of Harvard, or will stand idie and let Exeter go over to Yale.

AN EXETER GRADUATE.