GRADUATE ADVICE

The plan of the Faculty of the Engineering School and the Officers of the Society to provide graduate advice for students about to embark on an engineering career seems an excellent one, and an importance advance in post-graduate service for universities. "It is not intended that a graduate shall secure a position for a student,": says the announcement, "but rather that he will help the student to shape successfully his career." The graduates of at least ten years' standing, successful business men who have volunteered to help, are available in sufficient numbers. The only possible thwarting of the plan might come from a failure of the undergraduate, upon whom the success of an advisory system working through correspondence depends, to make the most of his opportunity.

Beyond a certain point no technical school can prepare a man for competitive business. Heretofore all that a student employment office could do was to find a man a position and bid him farewell. An unwise choice at that time would mean an uncomplimentary record, damning evidence in the eyes of future employers. When the University Employment Office arranged for the students to do acclimatizing work in the selected field during the summer of their Junior year, or to make arrangements with prospective employers some months before graduation, significant advances were made. The Engineering School has gone farther. The man who takes a position now with an employer who, of course, is working for has own interests, has not burned his bridges behind him. He has a definite contact, a circumstance so rare before, with a responsible, disinterested guide who is well oriented by the requisite ten years, of experience in the same field. This friend can save him from an unwise choice even after it has been made. The new graduate is not abandoned if the square peg of his aspirations should find itself in a round hole.

A comparison of this plan with the system of student advisers still operative here will no doubt suggest itself. But the consideration that it is the younger man, to fill an actual need, who will seek the advice of his willing elder, is enough to destroy a superficial similarity. Moreover, the association of the two is unhampered by any attempt at regulation by college authorities. Supplied with all the necessary information about his disciple, the graduate, by letter or conference, can advise him as he sees fit, and with perfect frankness and freedom. And the fact that no compulsion is placed on the undergraduate either in this respect, but that he seeks knowledge of his own will, is likely to better the relations. For unfortunately the virtues of experience as a teacher do not overshadow the waste and frustration that accompany her instruction. Particularly fortunate, then must the student, still grasping his diploma uncertainly, think himself who can have a man, seasoned and successful in this schooling, to guard him against needless buffetings.