Exam Board Accepts Monro Plan, Considers Advanced Standing Tests

The College Entrance Examination Board last Wednesday approved almost unanimously the Monro plan for a central scholarship clearing agency, and authorized a uniform financial statement, the first step of the system to go into use next year.

At the same time, the CEEB also approved publication of the offers and awards made by member colleges to scholarship applicants, which will be used to help refine methods of estimating the financial need of applicants.

The full Board action confirms the preliminary approval made March 12 by the executive committee of the College Board.

A tentative system of such computation, based on the present Harvard plan, will be put into effect in a small group of experimental colleges as well, with the eventual aim of adding such computation to the scholarship service.

The Board decisions mark the first full-scale attempt to check abusive competition for potential "who's who" students, while at the same time seeking a basis for fairer distribution of scholarship funds to students who show actual need.

William C. Fels, associate director of the Board, told the meeting that "the improvement of the technique of assessing need . . . would make it possible for the colleges to administer scholarships more equitably and more economically.

Monro Prompts Action

"No less important to the colleges would be improvement in public understanding that scholarships are grant-in-aid for needy students . . ." A CEEB committee headed by Fels analyzed the problems, and presented the plan, together with a sample uniform scholarship application.

The study was prompted by presentation of a tentative plan to the full board last April by John U. Monro '34, director of financial aids at Harvard.

"This will provide a basis for cooperation rather than competition," Monro said last night. "It is a great day for kids in the country. Now, the available scholarship money can go much further," he added, because once a uniform computation system is worked out, all schools can make their awards on the basis of need.

Operation of Plan

Briefly, the approved system will operate in the following manner:

Scholarship applicants will submit a single form to College Board offices at Princeton, N.J., or Los Angeles. After processing, the CEEB will send duplicates to each school designated by the applicant. For the present time, these schools will continue to do their own computing, except for the experimental group, whose membership has not yet been determined, which will use a common formula for determination of need.

The College Board will then collect and publish the tenders and awards made by various colleges to scholarship candidates which two or more schools have in common. This should serve as a check to bidding, as well as aiding the Board in its study of computation procedure.

When a computation plan does go into effect, it is expected that groups of colleges with common candidates will, in addition, meet to discuss awards, as Harvard, Yale, and Princeton do now.

Such a discussion-of-need plan is now in effect on an informal basis among 15 Pacific coast schools.

Individual Applications Continue

Although all participating schools will use the common financial statement, individual schools will nevertheless continue to send out their own forms for other information, such as qualification for special scholarships, references, etc., which cannot be mechanized.

In addition to encouraging financial awards on a need basis, and checking competition, the central scholarship service should serve as a boon to outside scholarship sponsors such as corporations, unions, and fraternal organizations