College 109 



the teachers are experienced and interested in teaching. 

 The same courses in universities must deal with many more 

 students. The big-name teachers typically confine them- 

 selves to the research laboratory and to teaching advanced 

 workers. The beginning student is dealt with more often 

 than not by inexperienced graduate students whose prin- 

 cipal preoccupation is with their own efforts to get 

 Ph.D. degrees. The recent growth in scholarship aid for 

 graduate students has unfortunately had a deteriorating 

 effect on the teaching of undergraduates. In the old days 

 the best graduate students worked their way through 

 school as teaching assistants. Now they hold full scholar- 

 ships which allow them to devote full time to study and 

 research. In too many instances this means that only the 

 poorer students apply for the teaching posts. 



By junior year the probable superiority of the inde- 

 pendent college begins to disappear and the honors stu- 

 dent may in fact be somewhat better off in the university 

 than in the average good small college. This is especially 

 true if he has by that time developed an interest in one 

 of the subspecialties of science. Most small colleges limit 

 their scientific departments to the major scientific fields 

 and do not cater to students with special interests, for 

 example, in anthropology, geology, or the various branches 

 of physics and chemistry that require expensive specialized 

 apparatus. An increasing number of universities is making 

 provision for accepting transfer students at the junior year 

 so as to provide for liberal arts college people who develop 

 special interests of this character. 



Although I believe the above comparison of colleges 

 and universities to be substantially correct in a general 

 sense, there are many other considerations which may 

 properly enter into the student's choice. Much will depend 

 on the individual's personal tastes and his ability to make 



