PHI BETA KAPPA.

In a straw vote recently held at Yale to determine the relative desirability of the football "Y", membership on the two leading papers, and a Phi Beta Kappa key, the last named was overwhelmingly first. It is safe to say that the same result would not have been reached at Harvard. We believe that there is not the competition here that there should be for membership in the single society which bases its elections primarily on excellence in scholarship. Certainly it is true that the competition at New Haven is far keener and that at Yale the Phi Beta Kappa holds a higher place in the estimation of undergraduates.

In the main, there are three reasons for this difference. The first is the superiority of the Yale system of selection; the second is the fact that at Yale freshmen and sophomores are eligible, and third (which results from the first two), is the fact that the requirements for election are much better known at Yale than at Harvard.

To become eligible for election to the Phi Beta Kappa at New Haven, a fixed standard of work is necessary: out of a possible 400, freshmen and sophomores must attain 325, juniors 330, and seniors 350. At Harvard, the basis is competitive and men are not eligible until Junior year, when eight are selected from the twelve highest sets of marks; in Senior year twenty-two men are picked from the forty-four highest in the class.

It is doubtful if one Freshman in a hundred knows these requirements and the proportion in the upper classes is not much higher. Here the average undergraduate is willing to admit that the Phi Beta Kappa is an estimate institution, but to him it is something vague and unreal. He has no idea what he must accomplish to become eligible, and so he spends no time nor thought on the matter.

On the other hand, if there were a set standard of work, and if Freshmen and Sophomores were eligible, then at once this standard would become generally known and men of ability at all studiously inclined would be attracted. The Phi Beta Kappa would become one of the regular college "activities." Men would go out for it just as at present they try for a team or a paper. Under such a system of a fixed standard, with Freshmen and Sophomores eligible, the Phi Beta Kappa would shortly emerge from the murky obscurity that now envelopes it and assume its rightful position at the head of our "activities."