168 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol, XXII. No. 554. 



with all it implies in shaping far-reaching 

 educational ideals and practises, shall be 

 national. The terms 'western' and 'east- 

 ern' must not import provincial pride, or 

 sound a note of sectionalism. 



As a New Englander somewhat late 

 adopted by the west, may it not be the 

 good fortune of the speaker to lead you all 

 in the discussion to common American 

 ground ? 



We can adopt the words of Miss Lucy 

 Larcom : 



Two worlds I live in — East and West, 

 I can not tell which world is best; 

 The friends that people both are dear : 



The same glad sun 

 Shines into each; far blends with near, 

 And then is now — and there is here — 



And both are one. 



In truth there is no single 'western' or 

 'eastern' plan of admitting students to 

 college, though there are dominating prac- 

 tises warranting the use of the terms. 

 Bluntly stated, all the colleges are so 

 anxious to get students that no system is 

 consistently lived up to. They mix the 

 certificate and examination plans, they dis- 

 tribute examinations in time and space, 

 they annex local preparatory schools or 

 have quasi-certified schools of individual 

 tutors and coaches. 



From the point of view of the entering 

 student and of the average American, who 

 believes in the widest opportunity for a 

 higher education in a democracy, the exist- 

 ence of twelve gates open day and night in 

 the college Jerusalem may seem desirable. 

 But to the economist and educator the evils 

 of the competition are glaring and • threat- 

 ening, and opposed to this age of the con- 

 quests of cooperation and combination. 



A glance at the evolution of our meth- 

 ods of admission of students to college will 

 show what evils are imminent, and which 

 is the better plan of admission. 



The so-called 'eastern' method of admit- 



ting by the examination of the individual 

 student in its earlier form might have been 

 called colonial or English. Originally, 

 each college examined for itself. There 

 was 'personal contact' between the student 

 and examiner. The examination was more 

 or less oral. The appearance and charac- 

 ter of the candidate were weighed. With 

 the increase of students and of entrance 

 standards, the substitution of written ex- 

 aminations, first at the college, then at a 

 distance and with the multiplication of 

 studies, the applicants have become not 

 even names, but mere numbers, to be hit at 

 long range by rapid-firing examination- 

 paper guns. 



When the colleges began to fire into one 

 another in concentrating their guns upon 

 certain large preparatory schools, and par- 

 ticularly when the big universities brought 

 up their heavy artillery loaded some with 

 ancient and some with modern subjects and 

 methods, the situation became well-nigh 

 intolerable. The secondary school men 

 cried out, and justly 'continually do cry,' 

 and certain great movements were organ- 

 ized. Among the first was the New Eng- 

 land Association of Colleges and Prepara- 

 tory Schools dating from 1885. Accord- 

 ing to Dr. William C. Collar, of Roxbury, 

 Mass., the association was formed for the 

 purpose of bringing about uniformity in 

 the requirements for college. He believed 

 at the sixteenth annual meeting, in 1901, 

 its work would receive its consummation 

 by providing for admission examinations 

 by a joint examining board as in the mid- 

 dle states and Maryland.^ He believed 

 these two boards 'would slay the certificate 

 system and longed to see that done. '^ It 

 was believed that 'the certificate system 

 was making no headway and that the col- 

 leges, generally speaking, would be glad to 

 give it up.' On the contrary, apparently 



-School Revieio, IX., 619, December, 1901. 

 'Pa^e 625. 



