THE AGE OF COLLEGE GRADUATION. 



i6i 



assumed great increase in the age of graduation, taken generally and 

 so far as our material reaches, is absolutely non-existent. 



The median age of graduation in Dartmouth, for instance, has in 

 one hundred and thirty years fallen three months; in one hundred 

 years the median for Middlebury has risen four months. But note that 

 in 1830-39 the median for Middlebury was two months higher than 

 now. In the case of Bowdoin, there has been a steady rise to a little 

 over two years, which, however, reached its maximum in the decade 

 beginning in 1860, and has since been falling. In seventy years, the 

 University of Vermont median age has risen but two months; while 

 in the same period that of Adelbert College has fallen three months. 

 Again, we may compare the New York University with Oberlin Col- 

 lege. While the age at the former has in sixty years risen one year and 

 five months, in the latter it has fallen one year and seven months. It 

 may be noted in passing that the number of graduates in the given 



Table I. 

 Median Ages of Graduation by Decades. 



seems to be used as a semi-professional degree, implying for instance, that the 

 student has taken an engineering, or some such course not purely ' cultural.' 

 It seemed impossible to shut out entirely cases of the semi-professional de- 

 grees. The number of them is, however, too small to materially influence the 

 results. In Dartmouth College the graduates of the Chandeler Scientific 

 School are not included in the calculations, for the reasons above given. The 

 justice of the exclusions above referred to is evident at once; for the 

 examination is an attempt to show the changes that have come about 

 in the college course as formerly understood. That is, when it did not in- 

 clude the study of a profession within itself, as several of the present courses do. 

 Only young men have been considered in my inquiry. It is interesting, 

 however, to note that if young women had been included in the investigation, 

 the averages and medians would have, in almost every case, been materially 

 reduced. In other words, the young woman is either more highly selected as 

 a student, or she meets with fewer hindrances external to her work while 

 going through high school and college. At any rate, whatever the cause or 

 causes may be, the young woman graduates are, as a rule, younger than the 

 young men in the same college. This subject is worthy of a separate inquiry. 



VOL. LXIII. — 11. 



