JANUS

Tabulation of the midyear grades, showing that there has been a very slight, but definite improvement in the general level of scholarship in the Junior and Senior classes, is a welcome confirmation of the wisdom of University Hall in ending the requirement for November and April grades in advanced courses. While in the minds of the original backers of this change there had never been very much doubt about its advantages, this showing should effectively silence its critics and insure its continuance. Although the improvement over last year is only about one per cent, the fact that all the figures published show this same gain makes it unlikely that this is a random variation.

Another significant trend is revealed by comparing the number of men with unsatisfactory records and with Dean's list rating for the three lower classes. For the longer time men are in college the fewer are those with unsatisfactory midyear grades and the more numerous are the members of the Dean's list. Only one-third as many Juniors are in the unsatisfactory category as Freshmen, while fifty per cent more are on the Dean's list. Freshmen and their seniors should however, take this as a warning, rather than believing that studies become easier the longer one stands the gaff. The cause for the concern which ought to trouble their scholarly breasts is the lamentable fact that the apparent improvement can be accounted for by the number of men whose "connections with the University have been permanently severed"--in past years something like one-third of those who enter.

These figures, then, can serve both as a warning of the fate lying in wait for the lowest third of the College, and as a reassurance to more serious or merely more successful students that the abolition of November and April grades will be a permanent reform.