OBSTACLES TO ENTRANCE

Recent reductions of Harvard's high entrance requirements to approach those of other colleges show that the University has realized the necessity of putting admission within the reach of students from districts of the country where special preparation for Harvard is not given. But even in their present form, our entrance requirements possess certain peculiarities which make it more than probable that they are influential in deterring prospective students from coming here.

A survey of the Harvard University Catalogue reveals the fact that despite a long list of optional subjects, we have more required subjects for admission than either Yale or Princeton, so that freedom of selection is correspondingly limited. In a recent letter to the Alumni Bulletin, a graduate of the University points out that in addition to the usual English, Mathematics and Foreign Language requirements, Harvard demands both History and Physics,--two difficult topics, in neither of which has the College Entrance Board ever deemed it expedient to pass many candidates. While the standard for History, in any one of its branches, is considerably higher than for Physics, the latter subject has a string attached to it in the shape of a laboratory examination which can only be taken at Cambridge. Certainly, these are exactions which must make the average sub-freshman think twice before applying for admission to Harvard.

The entrance requirements in Latin for men who aim for the A.B. degree, are almost as stringent as they are unique. Up to last year, the rules for Latin were severe enough, inasmuch as they ordered each candidate to pass the Board Latin examinations 1, 2, 4, and 5. Now, however, the requirements are to be satisfied by taking the comprehensive examinations 3 and 4, which means that the student must be tested on "sight" translation only, instead of, in part, upon his prepared Latin authors. In the case of the man who offers advanced Latin for admission, the rule is that no matter if he has previously passed prose composition along with translation of prose authors, he must take this test again in his final examination together with his poetry. Thus he must carry on the irk-some study of composition for a full year longer than any other college requires. That this is an unpopular regulation is shown by the large number of Harvard candidates who omit Latin poetry during their last school year, thereby avoiding the final Latin examination.

If the present requirements were successful in keeping out all incompetent students, there would be a good reason for leaving them unchanged. But by cramming at tutoring schools, even the most ill-qualified candidates can slip by, at the same time that many good scholars without special preparation are turned away. If Harvard is to assume an appearance of welcome to all students, and especially to students in the west, where conditions here are not so fully understood, it is essential that certain barriers--whether real or rumored--be demolished. It would seem that a sane alteration of our peculiar entrance requirements would offer the first opportunity for reform; a more liberal attitude would undoubtedly do much to popularize Harvard in many sections of the country.