Graduate School 129 



and who has the rather specialized tastes and talents for 

 the task may write a monograph or even a treatise on a 

 given topic. Many very competent scientists never reach 

 this stage, however, and it seems rather silly to require 

 that candidates for the profession of scientist demonstrate 

 the ability to write in monographic form. 



As Dr. Bernard Berelson has shown in his very valuable 

 account of the current state of graduate education in the 

 United States, the foregoing considerations have provoked 

 serious thought on the part of responsible educators. It 

 looks now as if the next few years would bring a con- 

 siderable streamlining of the whole process of graduate 

 education in which a drastic modernization of the thesis 

 requirement would play a key role. So far, we have said 

 very little about the choice of a particular graduate school. 

 Actually it is difficult to give very much general advice 

 on this subject since so much depends on the subject of 

 particular interest to the student. As pointed out above, 

 over half the graduate students in the country will be 

 found in but twenty-two universities. Very few, if any, of 

 these will be equally good in all subjects. Conversely, cer- 

 tain schools not included in the top group will offer first- 

 class opportunities in one or more special areas. In many 

 fields the presence of one distinguished teacher is enough 

 to determine the student's choice. Since teachers shift about 

 a good bit, and the importance and attraction of particular 

 subject areas change rather rapidly, most students will have 

 to base their choices on what they can find out from friends 

 and college teachers at the time they must make a decision. 



In most fields, a small number of universities (perhaps 

 three to six or seven) will appear to stand clearly above 

 the others. Competition for places in such schools will be 

 high and admission limited to candidates who have stood 

 well up in their college classes. All is not lost, however. 



