Uncle Sam and Colleges

Preliminary reports from New England institutions do not confirm the optimistic dispatch from Chicago that "a sharply rising tide of students flooded the colleges and universities, during September." Enrolments hereabout are virtually what they were in 1933. Some colleges have had slight increases, others small losses. Nowhere is there visible the average gain of 10 per cent reported in the West.

The explanation for the difference undoubtedly lies in the workings of the educational division of the FERA. Disturbed by the fact that college enrollments have dropped in the last few years while the number of high school graduates has risen, Washington last winter determined to help boys and girls of good scholastic standing to continue their studies. The relief administration therefore made $13,500,00 available to aid students who are working, or who would work, their way through college. Beginning this fall, it is employing several thousand at 30 cents an hour on projects of an educational character.

The catch, so far as the East is concerned, is that the average monthly aid is $15 and the maximum amount a student may receive from Uncle Sam during the college year is $120. this is sizable money in the West and South where at state universities, a few hundred dollars pays for tuition, room and board. At most New England colleges it would not cover the tuition fee for the first semester, let alone other expenses! Although twenty-three Massachusetts institutions are co-operating in the plan, it is hard to see how their students will profit much by it. the varying effects of the venture, excellent as its purpose unquestionably is, provide additional evidence of the tremendous difficulty of applying a nation-side yardstick to anything so personal as a college education. Boston Herald.