616 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 407. 



College after, three years of residence.* 

 At Columbia, and elsewhere, the practice 

 of counting a year of professional study 

 as a substitute for the fourth or senior 

 year of the college course has in effect 

 established a three years' college course for 

 intending professional and technical stu- 

 dents. The degree has been withheld until 

 a year of professional study has been com- 

 pleted, in deference to tradition rather 

 than from sound educational principle. In 

 this way new conditions have been met 

 without the appearance of shortening the 

 college course. While the policy hitherto 

 pursued in this regard was justified as a 

 beginning toward a readjustment of the 

 relations between the college and the pro- 

 fessional and technical schools, it is hardly 

 to be upheld as a final solution of the prob- 

 lems presented. From my point of view it 

 is open to criticism in that it (1) shortens 

 the college course without appearing to do 

 so, (2) divides the interest of the student 

 in a way that is satisfactory neither to the 

 college nor to the faculties of the profes- 

 sional schools, and (3) fails to give the full 

 support to a college course of purely liberal 

 study which is so much to be desired. 



There remains a third line of action, 

 namely, that of basing admission to the 

 professional and technical schools of the 

 university upon a shortened course in Co- 

 lumbia College or its equivalent elsewhere. 

 This I believe to be the wisest plan for 

 Columbia University to adopt, as well as 

 the one whose general adoption would re- 

 sult in the greatest public advantage. 



* After this report was in type it was an- 

 nounced that hereafter the degree of A.B. will be 

 conferred by Harvard College upon students who 

 complete the requirements for the degree in three 

 years at once and without an additional year's 

 delay, as heretofore. Somewhat similar announce- 

 ments have also been made by the University of 

 Pennsylvania and by Brown University. 



LKN6TH OF THE COLLEGE COURSE. 



One consideration of vital importance 

 appears to have been overlooked in the 

 numerous discussions of this whole matter, 

 and that is the fact that there is no valid 

 reason why the college course should be of 

 one uniform length for all classes of stu- 

 dents. The unnecessary assumption of the 

 contrary view has greatly complicated the 

 entire question, both in the public and in 

 the academic mind. It must be remem- 

 bered that for the intending student of 

 law, medicine or applied science who goes 

 to college, three or four additional years 

 of university residence and study are in 

 prospect after the bachelor's degree has 

 been obtained. For the college student 

 who looks forward to a business career, on 

 the other hand, academic residence closes 

 with graduation from college. For the lat- 

 ter class, therefore, the college course may 

 well be longer than for the former. While 

 two or three years of purely college life 

 and study may be ample for the man who 

 proposes to remain in the university as a 

 professional or as a technical student, 

 three, or even four, years may be desirable 

 for him who at college graduation leaves 

 the universitj'', its atmosphere, its opportu- 

 nities, and its influence, forever. 



It must be remembered, too, that the 

 four years' college course is merely a mat- 

 ter of convention, and that there are many 

 exceptions to the rule. The Harvard Col- 

 lege course was at one time but three years 

 in length, and the collegiate course at the 

 Johns Hopkins University has been three 

 years in length from its establishment. The 

 normal period of residence for an under- 

 graduate at both the English and the Scot- 

 tish universities is three years. President 

 Wayland, of Brown University, who was 

 in so many ways a true prophet of educa- 

 tional advance, devised a plan for a nor- 

 mal three years' college course over half 



