OLD MOTHER HUBBARD

Mr. Benezet's article on the transition from preparatory school to college in yesterday's CRIMSON contained many points too important for the purposes of the CRIMSON's survey to he overlooked. After attacking the narrowness and specialization of the College Entrance Board Examinations the New Hampshire school superintendent states that it is still possible to palm off on the colleges second-rale intelligence as first-rate intelligence." Such sleight-of-hand, the article explains is due to the fact that a specialized examination, as the Walew Las shown can be prepared for in a specialized way, and that almost anyone can be shoehorned into college by the proper or rather improper, application of expertised intoning methods.

In this was admittance to college in general and Harvard in particular may depend, not upon the intelligence or preparation of the applicant but in his financial power to lavish expenditure upon the College Widow and its like. That such methods may suttice admission is unfair to candidates without Wall Street backing. It is also unfair to Harvard, in whose Freshman Class the present system places a group of men whose work, or rather lack of it, lowers standards, bother deans, and in general forms an unhappy fringe insecurely perched upon the local scene by the perpetual support of hired outside, aid.

The abolition of credit based on the September examinations is a step towards alleviating this state of affairs. But in many cases this step will merely result in forcing the do-or-die applicant to spend another eight months in tutoring school in preparation for the next series of quizzes. The only way, then, for Harvard to protect herself from students completely dependent on the Widow is to refuse admission to students trained by Widow methods, that is students from schools who make a specialty of passing College Boards.

Of course, this can be no hard and fast rufe, as it is entirely possible that a first-rate student will apply from a cramming school, and such exceptions must be at the discretion of the Committee on Admissions. And even if some earnest applicants may suffer from a rigorous exclusion of candidates stuffed in cramming schools, it is better that they be refused admittance than that Harvard continue to imbibe and fail to digest a money-qualified, cram-prepared group.