October 17, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



617 



a century ago. The question is not so 

 much one of the time spent upon a college 

 course as it is one of the quality of the 

 work done and the soundness of the mental 

 and moral training given. The peculiar 

 service which the college exists to perform 

 may be done in one case in two years, in 

 another in three, in another in four, and in 

 still another not at all. 



Since 1860 the changes in American edu- 

 cational conditions have been revolution- 

 ary, and as one result the content of the 

 A.B. degree has been wholly altered and 

 that degree has been elevated, at Coliunbia 

 College at least, to a point almost exactly 

 two years in advance of that at which it 

 then was. In other words, despite the fact 

 that college admission requirements have 

 been raised and much of the instruction 

 once given in college is now given in the 

 secondary schools, particularly the public 

 high schools, the bachelor 's degree has been 

 held steadily at a point four years distant 

 from college entrance, with the result that 

 the average age of college students at grad- 

 uation has greatly increased. Since 1880 

 the average age of the students entering 

 Columbia College has increased exactly one 

 year, and while no adequate statistics for " 

 1860 are available, it appears to be true 

 that the average age of admission in 1880 

 was one full year higher than in 1860. The 

 registrar has made a carefiil examination 

 of the official records, and reports that in 

 Columbia College we are demanding two 

 years more of time and work for the degree 

 of bachelor of arts than was required in 

 1860, and one year more of time and work 

 than was required in 1880. President 

 Hyde, of Bowdoin College, has recently 

 said that 'Nearly all the distinguished 

 alumni of Bowdoin College graduated at 

 about the present average age of entrance, 

 and were well launched on their profes- 

 sional careers at about the age at which our 

 students now graduate.' He cited the 



cases of Jacob Abbott and William Pitt 

 Pessenden, who were graduated before they 

 were seventeen ; Longfellow, who was grad- 

 uated at eighteen; Franklin Pierce, John 

 A. Andrew, Fordyce Barker, and Egbert 

 Smyth at nineteen; and William P. Frye 

 and Melville W. Puller at twenty. In- 

 stances might readily be multiplied from 

 the records of the American colleges. The 

 recent statistics compiled by Dean Wright, 

 of the academical department of Yale Uni- 

 versity, which show the average age of 

 graduation of the members of the class of 

 1863 at Yale to have been 22 years, 10 

 months, and 17 days and that of the mem- 

 bers of the class of 1902 to have been 22 

 years, 10 months, and 20 days, point to 

 what appears to be a striking exception, 

 not yet explained, to the general rule. 



So long as there were no graduate 

 schools, and therefore no genuine universi- 

 ties, in the United States, and when the 

 bachelor's degree was the highest academic 

 distinction to be gained in residence, it was 

 sound academic and public policy to make 

 the requirements for the degree of bache- 

 lor of arts as high as possible. It was the 

 only mark of scholarship that the colleges 

 could give. As a result, the average age at 

 graduation increased. Now, however, con- 

 ditions have entirely changed. Nearly, or 

 quite one half of the work formerly done 

 in college for the degree of bachelor of arts 

 is now done in the rapidly increasing num- 

 ber of secondary schools, particularly pub- 

 lic high schools, and no small part of it is 

 required for admission to college. This 

 does not appear if the comparison be re- 

 stricted to admission requirements in 

 Greek, Latin and mathematics ; but it is 

 clearly evident when the present admission 

 requirements in English, history, the mod- 

 ern European languages and the natural 

 sciences are taken into account. The stand- 

 ard of scholarship in this country is no 

 longer set bv the undergraduate courses in 



