REQUISITIONS FOR ADMISSION AT HARVARD. i 95 



THE NEW REQUISITIONS FOR ADMISSION AT 

 HARVARD COLLEGE.* 



By Pkofessor JOSIAH PAKSONS COOKE. 



AT the close of the last academical year the Faculty of Harvard 

 College published a new scheme of requisition for admission, 

 which will be followed at the admission examination of 1887, and 

 thereaf ter. This scheme has been very slowly matured. It was origi- 

 nally prepared by a large committee of the college faculty, and was 

 discussed in all its details for more than three years, first by the fac- 

 ulty, afterward by the corporation and the Board of Overseers, and 

 finally was adopted by all the governing boards of the college. The 

 scheme is complex, and any one desiring to understand all its possi- 

 bilities must study the details in the pamphlet in which it has been 

 announced. It is sufficient for the present purpose to say that, while 

 it permits and even encourages the old line of linguistic studies on 

 which students have hitherto been prepared for all the New England 

 colleges nominally with nearly the same requisitions, the new plan 

 opens other avenues of admission ; and, among these, one to which we 

 desire especially to call attention, as it demands and invites a thorough 

 preparation in mathematics and physical science, with only that mini- 

 mum of linguistic training which is universally regarded as an essen- 

 tial prerequisite of liberal culture. 



In the new scheme students will be admitted to Harvard College as 

 candidates for the B. A. degree who can write correctly a short Eng- 

 lish composition, and thus show that they are acquainted with a few 

 prescribed classical English works ; who can read at sight simple 

 Latin, German, and French prose ; who have a general knowledge of 

 the history of the United States and of England ; who have mastered 

 the elementary mathematics, including analytic geometry and the rudi- 

 ments of mechanics ; and, lastly, who have had a certain amount of 

 laboratory practice in physical science, including both physics and 

 chemistry. 



Of the several alternatives which the new scheme offers, the one 

 above described will probably be chosen by most students who are 

 seeking a scientific rather than a literary education. But this general 

 plan of preparatory studies may be varied in details to meet different 

 circumstances : thus, an advanced course in Latin or French may be 

 offered in place of the German ; but this substitution is not generally 

 advisable, for the study of German, if deferred, must be taken up in 

 college (the ability to read ordinary German as well as French prose 



* Descriptive List of Experiments on the Fundamental Principles of Chemistry. By 

 Josiah Parsons Cooke. (For the use of Teachers preparing Students for the Admission 

 Examination in Chemistry at Harvard College.) 



