164 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The first striking thing to be observed in Table III. is the fact that 

 the average age is a few months higher than the median throughout 

 in the totals of all colleges. In the past fifty years, the average age 

 of graduation has remained quite unchanged, while in the past forty 

 years, the average has fallen one and a half months. This difference 



11- 





a. 



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1 



23. 



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is, however, probably too small to be in itself significant, so that we 

 may conclude that there is neither any actual change in the average, 

 nor any definite tendency observable towards rising or falling. 



In the above discussion of averages, each college has been given the 

 same weight as every other. Now, we may look. at the same matter 

 from another point of view. We may bunch all the graduates, as though 



\iso. ;»to- /«io- ivvo- it*«- iioo- 



they were all students of one great college; and, still assuming that 

 they will be about equally distributed through the months of any given 

 year — an assumption which by the now very much larger numbers is 

 made doubly secure — we may take the average for the five decades 

 since 1850. By this method we obtain the following results: 



Av. 



1860-59. 



Yr. M. 



.23 3.0 



1860-69. 

 Yr. M. 

 23 5.4 



1870-79. 

 Yr. M. 

 23 4.8 



1880-89. 

 Yr. M. 

 23 3.9 



1890-99. 

 Yr. M. 

 23 6.1 



1900- . 

 Yr. M. 

 23 0.5 



Even here, where every concession possible is allowed to the weight- 

 ing of the averages by the few colleges which in the last decade have 

 relatively much larger numbers, together with their consistently 



