ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS.

The committee appointed by the New England Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools will meet on February 1, and will draw up a report on the practicability or impracticability of a system of uniform entrance examinations for the New England colleges. Should the committee favor such a system of examinations as has been adopted in the Middle States, then Harvard, with the rest of the New England colleges, would be called upon to decide whether or not general admission examinations should replace the present individual requirements. Sooner or later, at any rate, Harvard will probably face such a decision, in which the chief point at issue would be the question as to whether or not a compromise with other colleges on examinations would lower the notably high standard of the University. On this question and on the general theory of uniform entrance examinations, the following opinions of Harvard professors may be interesting.

Professor Hanus says: "I am in favor of a general plan of uniform entrance examinations, and I should like to see Harvard adopt some such scheme in conjunction with other leading American colleges. If college requirements were more nearly alike, the work of the preparatory schools would be greatly simplified, the instruction would be more concentrated and thorough and the pupils would be far better prepared for the subsequent work of the University. I should strongly deprecate the lowering of the Harvard requirements for admission, but I believe that a set of uniform entrance requirements could be drawn up which Harvard could accept, and still, by determining the number of subjects to be passed and the quality of the preparation required for admission, maintain the level of its own standard unchanged."

Professor Wendell says: "On the question of the adoption by Harvard of the uniform entrance examinations my judgement, in a word, would be to 'avoid entangling alliances.' I think that the efficiency of the English Department has been lowered by every attempt made to adjust its standards to those of other colleges or the secondary schools."

Professor Hart: "I believe that the general adoption of Uniform College entrance examinations would make immensely more effective the work of the schools, and would simplify the machinery of the colleges. A very great amount of energy and time is wasted each year in the preparation at each college of entrance examination papers-energy and time which might better be spent in the regular work of instruction. There is, of course, some danger that the Harvard standards would suffer by a compromise with other colleges, but I nevertheless believe that it is possible to formulate examinations acceptable to the other colleges which will meet the Harvard requirements. Co-operation between the American colleges, which uniform entrance examinations would help to effect is something heartily to be desired.

Professor Hall, Harvard representative on the committee on uniform entrance examinations for New England, says: 'My present though I shall not say my final, judgment is opposed to the acceptance by Harvard of the proposed uniform entrance examinations. American colleges differ widely from each other in the class of men predominating in their student bodies. In one college the great majority of the men come from small and ill-equipped schools, while in another an equally large proportion come from the large and strong schools. It is almost impossible to formulate any one set of examinations which will satisfy the requirement of all these colleges and apply with equal justice to the various classes of men divided among them. I believe Harvard has little to gain and much to lose by compromising in the matter of entrance examinations. The colleges which have adopted the uniform examinations have reserved the right to hold their own examinations when they choose, and should the standard set by the association prove to be inconveniently high for any college the old and easier examinations will, of course, be taken by many of the candidates for admission. The college standards lower than those of Harvard will be raised but very little, while the Harvard requirements must inevitably be lessened by compromise with these lower standards of the smaller colleges. It is conceivable that Harvard might keep up its own standard by the freedom to establish what passing mark it should choose, but this freedom granted to the colleges seriously damages the whole theory of the uniform examination system; for there could be in the secondary schools no uniform preparation for two colleges requiring respectively 40 and 90 per cent of knowledge of the same subject; and it is even doubtful whether the same courses of study should be attempted in cases where the final results are to be so different."

Professor Parker: "At the first thought, I should oppose the adoption of uniform examinations at Harvard and indeed, elsewhere. Each college has its own intellectual ideals, and it is best for every college for its own sake and for the sake of the general cause of education to maintain those ideals separate and distinct. While I shall not assert that the Harvard requirements are better than those of all other colleges. I do believe them to be best for the particular kind of training the University aims to give, and I believe they should be uncompromised. Furthermore, examinations based on those of the average college would be utterly different in kind from Harvard's. The Harvard examinations in Greek and Latin, for instance, are based on sight work and those in geometry on originals; between examinations on text-books and examinations such as these there can be no compromise, for one sort represents the mastery of a book, the other the mastery of a subject. This concrete example, applying to one or two studies in Harvard, applies in its general moral to all studies at all colleges. The entrance examinations of a college cannot be merged with those of another, unless the whole intellectual individuality of the college is at the same time compromised and lost."

Professor de Sumichrast: "I believe it would be best for Harvard to remain independent in the matter of entrance examinations. There is, at least, a possibility that the standard of general examinations formulated by compromise between the different colleges would be lower than the Harvard requirements, and because of this possibility the system of uniform examinations seems an undesirable one for Harvard to adopt. Compromise with other colleges in entrance examinations would tie the hands of the University, and by making less direct the connection with the preparatory schools would make proportionately more difficult successful changes and improvements in the Harvard courses.