n8 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 



as to its real educational value, but the schools have gone steadily 

 on, creating a new education with a new spirit; winning the 

 confidence of the commercial world; and becoming the chief 

 bulwark against the growing prejudice against "the college 

 graduate." Recognizing that engineering is an intensely practi- 

 cal profession, they have sought to impart a training which 

 should develop in their students the power to do things effect- 

 ively, in the belief that this is the modern criterion of education. 

 To these established characteristics of originality, adaptability, 

 thoroughness, and efficiency, our engineering schools undoubt- 

 edly owe their high standing, popularity, and the confidence of 

 the professional and technical world. 



Since these institutions by reason of their origin and functions 

 form a class by themselves, it is important to classify and enu- 

 merate their features of organization, method, and curriculum, 

 which constitute the present basis of engineering education in 

 this country. 



The institutions are for the most part of collegiate grade, 

 receiving students from the secondary schools and administering 

 a full four-years' course upon the completion of which a variety 

 of degrees of the bachelor's rank are conferred. With few 

 exceptions, the land-grant colleges are coeducational and women 

 students are occasionally found in the engineering courses. A 

 few have been known to graduate, but of their subsequent 

 careers the engineering chronicles are significantly silent. 



Measured by the conventional standards established by 

 schools of liberal arts, the requirements for entrance are not 

 high, varying in different parts of the country from six to sixteen 

 high-school units. In many instances these requirements are 

 higher than for the agricultural school in the same institution. 

 As a rule, in any given part of the country admission to the 

 engineering school is practically on the same basis as to the 

 college of liberal arts, although usually not identical. The 

 authorities are agreed, for the most part, that in state institutions 



