ADVISERS FOR UNCLASSIFIED STUDENTS.

It is the custom to accept men from other colleges under a system of non-classification. The first year is then virtually a trial. If the work at Harvard is satisfactory some credit is given for that done elsewhere. If it is not satisfactory, that is, if it falls below C, no outside work is recognized. This plan is fundamentally a good one. The fact should be noted, however, that when men are admitted provisionally it is important that they should have exact information regarding what is expected of them, and when and how they will be classified if they attain satisfactory grades.

Often this has not been the case. Unclassified students are confused and perplexed by their vague entrance agreements. They are uncertain as to the number and nature of courses that must be taken. When they come to Cambridge, although they have spent a year or more at another college, they are as strange as Freshmen. They have no advisers. They are under the supervision of the Secretary of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, but since they total almost a hundred this supervision is more nominal than real.

It would seem desirable, therefore, to grant unclassified students Faculty advisers, or at least to permit them at their own discretion to ask for advisers. Such a plan would give the unclassified student the same advantages that are obtained by the Freshman. In addition, it would enable him better to co-ordinate work carried on at another college with that done here. Lastly, it would clarify his position by permitting him to obtain definite information at all times concerning courses and requirements.