PRACTICAL REASONS FOR WORKING

There are prevalent among undergraduates two impressions regarding College studies which deserve to be brought up sharply and refuted by the evidence of facts. It is thought by some men, on the one hand, that there is no connection between their College work and that which they will do afterwards; and on the other hand, there is an idea abroad that certain studies are peculiarly adapted to preparation for specific professions.

That both of these ideas are fallacies was demonstrated by President Lowell several years ago in an analysis of subjects studied in College, the grades attained, and the quality of work in the Law School and the Medical School. A careful compilation of statistics showed that the men who graduated from College with distinction attained approximately the same distinction in their professional schools; while those who failed to do work of some distinction as undergraduates were as lucky to receive their LL.B.'s and M.D.'s as they had been to receive their A.B.'s. Recently President Lowell obtained similar figures regarding the work of Yale men who came to the Harvard Law School during the years 1900 to 1915. The results were substantially the same. The men who received distinction ranked in the Law School almost in the identical order in which they were ranked at Yale. The "Philosophical Orations" men--the highest ranking at Yale--made an average of 74.8 per cent.; the "High Orations" men 72.4, and so forth, through "Orations," "Dissertations," First and Second "Disputes" and "First Colloquies." The "No Appointments" men, however, surpassed the "Second Colloquies" men who ranked ahead of them in college; thus affording the only break in the sequence. These results are sufficient to prove that professional training is best obtained by those who have learned how to work in college.

A study of the subjects studied in College showed, moreover, that literature, history, economics, government, and science are equally good as preparation for legal or medical work. Thus the folly of attempting to steal a march by warping one's College course for professional ends is plain. It make little difference what a man studies in College. It makes a great deal of difference how well he studies it.