SCHOLASTIC PRIZES.

The Harvard Athletic Association holds contests and awards prizes to those who excell in every form of athletics. The prizes are numerous and for each there is keen competition. Now the College in the same way offers prizes every year for the best piece of work on a given subject in almost all the fields of academic study, but for these honors the rivalry is all too small. There is a very general impression among undergraduates that leads them to believe that only those men who are doing graduate or research work in a subject are properly fitted to try for a prize. But how absurd this really is! Prizes are given to arouse interest in fields of study among those who presumably have not already mastered all the standard works available, and for this reason the subjects for prize essays are chosen from among the simpler topics. In many cases a general introductory course in a subject gives a man sufficient groundwork to enable him to do effective research in a prize contest, and this is a point which is very little realized. Of course the more study a man has given to a subject the better he is fitted to do prize work.

If it were made a requirement for the A.B. degree that a man should go out for at least one prize during his course, no doubt the competition for prizes would be keener, but the essential benefit of prize work to the individual would be lost. This benefit comes from the fact that a man works for a prize voluntarily and of his own free will. The knowledge that he gains from the work sinks deeper because the prize essay is essentially his own and his whole interest is in it.

Although most prize competitions do not close until April or May, it is already high time for men to begin thinking about them, for a prize essay needs a great deal of time--time for research and study of the question, time for careful assimilation and thought, before any writing. For this reason the CRIMSON published about a month ago, November 6, a list of prizes with brief information about each. Prize work is and always must be voluntary and its benefits can accrue only to those who go out of their way to make the necessary sacrifice of time. There are few upper classmen not fitted to compete for some prize. The competitions are long and will involve hard work but once interested in a prize subject a man can not fail to find himself more and more absorbed in a thoroughly pleasurable and certainly beneficial pursuit.