Monro Project May Be Tried on Limited Basis

The Monro plan for a scholarship clearing house among colleges may go into effect in the Ivy League in the fall of 1955 with the entering class of 1959, it was learned last night.

The College Entrance Examination Board, which appropriated $50,000 for scholarship study last October, has arrived at a preliminary plan which will be voted on at an April 7 meeting.

Tentatively, it would call for experimental use of the Monro plan in certain groups of colleges, including probably the Ivy League and the Seven Women's Colleges.

The Monro plan, which was first proposed by Director of the Financial Aid center John U. Monro '34, at a meeting of the College Boards last spring, calls for colleges to set up some sort of clearing house to determine financial need of an applicant and thereby stop abusive bidding among schools for future members of "Who's Who."

Competing for Students

College administrations feel that they are currently competing for brilliant students just as they might bid for good halfbacks. The competition started with the Harvard National Scholarships and it has extended principally to the small colleges. Authorities have been tempted to make a student's need a secondary consideration, and also let an attempt at geographical distribution outweigh the needs of often more worthy Eastern students.

After Monro had suggested the idea to the College Boards, and ad hoc committee was appointed to discuss the clearing house. The committee met in Cambridge, and its recommendations were passed in the form of the $50,000 grant.

Right now College Board officials are designing forms for use in collecting the financial information. The information would be kept at a central location, and would be used in regulating and determining stipends for any college interested.

Nationwide Basis

If the plan works out on the experimental, basis, it will probably he adopted on a close to nationwide basis, a spokesman for the College Boards intimated yesterday.

Working independently of the College Boards, 14 New England colleges at a Brunswick, Maine meeting, voted last October to investigate Monro's proposal and appointed a three man committee to study the problem.