October 17, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



613 



ticable expenditure for material or admin- 

 istrative purposes, and with the idea of 

 allowing the light of a noble institution to 

 shine afar, to enter the darkest corners of 

 the land, to stir dormant genius every- 

 where, to awaken every germ of scientific 

 activity. 



W J McGee. 



PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS AND THE LENGTH 

 OF THE COLLEGE COURSE.* 



STANDARD OP ADMISSION TO THE PROFES- 

 SIONAL AND TECHNICAL SCHOOLS. 



I HAVE pointed out that it is held to be 

 settled policy at Columbia University that 

 the several technical and professional 

 schools shall rest upon a college course of 

 liberal study as a foundation (although 

 not necessarily upon a course four years 

 in length), either at once or as soon as 

 practicable. The School of Law has al- 

 ready been placed upon the basis of a 

 graduate school, to take effect July 1, 1903. 

 On December 20, 1898, the University 

 Council recommended that the College of 

 Physicians and Surgeons be made a gradu- 

 ate school as soon as such a step is finan- 

 cially practicable. The Schools of Applied 

 Science have constantly in mind a similar 

 step, and much consideration has been 

 given by the faculty to the best way of 

 bringing about the change without undue 

 sacrifice. This policy, however, does not 

 pass unchallenged. It has recently been 

 criticised and opposed in a cogent and 

 noteworthy argument by President Had- 

 ley, of Yale University, in his annual re- 

 port for the year 1901-02, on the grounds 

 (1) that it tends to make the professions 

 exclusive in a bad sense, (2) that it leads 

 to a remodeling of the college course to 

 meet the needs of intending professional 

 students, which remodeling is at least a 



* From advanced sheets of the annual report of 

 President Butler to the trustees of Columbia 

 University. 



doubtful experiment, and (3) that it estab- 

 lishes an unfortunate distinction between 

 the universities which require a bachelor's 

 degree as a condition of admission to the 

 professional schools and those which make 

 no such requirement. This policy is also 

 criticised and opposed by many intelligent 

 persons, trusted leaders of public opinion, 

 not university teachers or administrators, 

 who are impressed by the fact that the 

 whole tendency of our modern educa- 

 tional system is to prolong unduly the 

 period of preparation or studentship, with 

 the result that an increasing number of 

 young men are held back from active and 

 independent participation in the practical 

 work of life until they are nearly, or quite, 

 thirty years of age. In the face of such 

 objections as these it is obvious that we at 

 Columbia must consider carefully the 

 probable social and educational effects of 

 the policy upon which we have entered. 



The questions raised in the discussion of 

 this policy are to be decided, it seems to 

 me, from the standpoint of the duty of 

 the university to the public and to its own 

 educational ideals. Two interests are im- 

 mediately at stake: the standards of pro- 

 fessional study in a university, and the 

 place of the American college in the 

 higher education of the twentieth century. 

 I doubt whether the two interests can be 

 separated in any adequate consideration 

 of the subject. 



President Eliot, of Harvard University, 

 impressively set forth the responsibilities 

 and the opportunities of the learned pro- 

 fessions in his address at the installation 

 ceremonies on April 19 last, when he said : 



It is plain that the future prosperity and 

 progress of modern communities is hereafter going 

 to depend much more than ever before on the 

 large groups of highly trained men which consti- 

 tute what are called the professions. The social 

 and industrial powers, and the moral influences 

 which strengthen and uplift modern society are 

 no longer in the hands of legislatures, or polit- 



