SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 119 



it is unwise to require preparation which the average public 

 schools of the community cannot supply. Nor is it the practice 

 to include Greek or Latin in these requirements. Weight is 

 laid chiefly upon English, mathematics, and the sciences, as 

 being directly necessary to the work of the engineering courses. 

 In other matters, the engineering schools have not been bound 

 by the practices of others, but hi their entrance requirements 

 have given consideration to the educational opportunities and 

 needs of the industrial classes. On the other hand, they recog- 

 nize elements of training and preparation which are quite ignored 

 in the purely academic requirements for colleges of liberal arts. 

 It may be claimed, consistently, that entrance requirements to 

 engineering schools should differ from but not be of lower grade 

 than those of colleges of liberal arts. Everyone knows that 

 book knowledge alone does not give power and efficiency, and 

 it would seem that in standardizing entrance requirements to 

 engineering colleges some weight should be given to the maturity 

 and experience of the applicant. In short, our engineering 

 schools are coming to recognize that a valuable part of the prep- 

 aration for an engineering course may be obtained in the field, 

 shop, or office, and cannot be measured in high-school units 

 alone. 



The curriculum of our engineering schools is characterized 

 by the weight given to mathematical, scientific, and technical 

 subjects in contradistinction to the classics and humanities, 

 although in all of these there is an evident purpose to retain in 

 the course of study as much as possible of the cultural elements. 

 English, the modern languages, history, and economics are for 

 this reason given much weight. The physical and chemical 

 sciences, mathematics, shop practice, and drawing are the 

 fundamentals of engineering education, and following these in 

 sequence come the subjects of mechanics, machine design, 

 thermo-dynamics, hydraulics, and the various specializations 

 pertaining to the different branches of engineering practice. 



