June 30, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



691 



four years of their course in Washington 

 University Medical School were studied. The 

 class records before 1914 were not complete 

 enough to average with the later records. The 

 class of 1916 had only two members who spent 

 all four years in this school, these records not 

 ^ being complete, and the class of 1918 finished 

 its course in France, so these two classes were 

 not considered in the analysis. In the six 

 classes studied there were available the records 

 of 89 students. From these records were copied 

 the average for each year, the graduation age, 

 degree at matriculation, and the school in 

 which premedical training was taken. 



In considering the graduation age of the 

 students it was found that there was little 

 variation from one year to another. The 

 average graduation ages for the classes studied 

 beginning with that of 1914 were 25, 26, 251/2, 

 26, 26, and 24 years, respectively. Thus the 

 average graduation age of the 89 students was 

 approximately 25^/2 years. The variation be- 

 tween individuals was so slight that no rela- 

 tion between age and grade was worked out. 



The number of students possessing bachelor's 

 degrees upon matriculation was 14, or 15.73 

 per cent, of those studied. Eleven were A.B. 

 degrees and three B.S. degrees. One might 

 have expected a larger percentage of bachelor 

 of science degrees from students interested 



primarily in the sciences. The average gradua- 

 tion age of these students was 26.64 years, or 

 1.35 years older than that of those without de- 

 grees. The average grade of the group with 

 degrees was 82.21 per cent, as contrasted with 

 80.89 per cent, for that without degrees. Thus 

 we see that the average man with a degree 

 upon matriculation was 1.35 years older than 

 the man without one, but that his grade was 

 1.32 per cent, higher than that of the under- 

 graduate student. Is an increase of grade of 

 1.32 per cent, worth a time loss of 1.35 years 

 in a medical student's career? 



The grade averages by years for each class 

 are given in Table I. Here we see that there 

 is not much variation between the classes of 

 the years studied. This fact would indicate 

 that a uniform system of grading had been 

 used for all classes, providing the class of stu- 



General average for all 

 - 81.10%. 



classes for four years 



TABLE II 



