THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



381 



THE COLLEGE COURSE. I for both the professional and college 



That the question of the college degrees, and the college course may be 

 course is not solved is proved by the ! completed in three years. The Sheffield 

 changes continually being made in the Scientific School offers both liberal and 

 programs of studies. The seven leading engineering courses. Curiously enough, 

 universities in the east are Harvard, : Latin is required for entrance, the 

 Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Princeton, ' course is three years, and the degree 

 Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins. Har- of bachelor of philosophy is awarded. 

 yard has consistently maintained the ; Princeton has this year adopted an 

 free elective system and Johns Hop- ' entirely new program of studies. A 

 kins the group system, but the other third degree, Litt.B., has been added. 

 five institutions have recently revised \ The arrangement is logical, in so far as 



their requirements for the undergrad- 

 uate course and the bachelor's degree. 

 Cornell has formed one college of arts 

 and sciences and gives the A.B. degree 

 to all students for a free elective course 

 extending through four years. The an- 

 cient languages are not required either 

 before or after entrance, and Cornell is 

 thus more consistent than Harvard, 

 where the A.B. degree means that Latin 

 was studied in the preparatory school 

 and the B.S. that it was not. Cornell 

 requires sixty hours of work and in- 

 sists on four years of residence; Har- 

 vard requires fifty-four hours and 

 rather favors three years of residence; 

 Harvard requires the bachelor's degree 

 for entrance to its professional schools; 

 Cornell permits students to take the 

 fcurth year of the college course as the 

 first year in the medical or law course. 

 Pennsylvania now confers the A.B. 

 degree only on students who take both 

 Latin and Greek for one year in college 

 and the B.S. degree on the others. It 

 requires sixty hours' attendance, which 

 may be accomplished in three or four 

 years. Of these hours twenty-two are 

 required, eighteen are group studies 

 and twenty are free electives. One half 

 year of college work may be in the 

 department of medicine. Like Pennsyl- 

 vania, Yale has altered its program 

 of studies in the direction of the group 

 system. Students of the college must 

 ofl'er Latin at entrance, but need not 

 continue its study. Sixty hours are 

 required for the degree, and they must 

 include two ' majors ' and three ' mi- 

 nors.' One year of work may count 



candidates for the A.B. degree must 

 take Latin and Greek for two years, 

 candidates for the B.S. degree must 

 specialize in science and candidates for 

 the Litt.B. degree in languages, phi- 

 losophy, history or art. Latin is re- 

 quired for entrance to all courses. The 

 studies of the freshman year are com- 

 pletely, and those of the sophomore 

 year are partly, prescribed, and the 

 rest of the four years' course is ar- 

 ranged on a group system. The tutor- 

 ial system of the English colleges is 

 to be introduced. Princeton aims to 

 return to the old-fashioned college, and 

 may be congratulated on the fairly con- 

 sistent methods that it has adopted. 

 The experiment in one of our larger 

 institutions will be followed with in- 

 terest. 



Columbia has also adopted a new 

 program of studies. A B.S. degree has 

 been established for students who enter 

 without Latin, but no plans have been 

 made for a course in the sciences. The 

 B.S. students take one course in sci- 

 ence in place of a course in Latin, but 

 as nearly all A.B. students elect a 

 course in science and very few of them 

 elect any course in Latin or Greek, 

 the only distinction between the A.B. 

 candidates and the B.S. candidates is 

 that the former have probably forgotten 

 the small Latin they once learned, 

 whereas the latter have probably never 

 learned any Latin. An extreme form of 

 the table d'hote system is adopted in 

 the first two years, all freshmen being 

 required to take seven unrelated stud- 

 ies; while in the last two years an 



