Mabch 20, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



459 



ences and in scientific method, specific en- 

 gineering subjects being included only so 

 far as the remaining time permits and as 

 the minimum requirements of professional 

 practise demand. It should be our aim 

 not to turn out a specialist at the end of 

 a four-year curriculum, but rather to pro- 

 vide for specialization in a fifth-year 

 graduate course. By courageously elim- 

 inating from our fourth-year curriculum 

 the more technical branches of instruction, 

 however important they may be for the 

 practising engineer, and by making more 

 ample provision for them as subjects to be 

 pursued in graduate courses, we shall, on 

 the one hand, be enabled to make our 

 undergraduate course more educational in 

 the broadest sense, and, on the other hand, 

 to make more evident to the student the 

 practical importance of returning for a 

 fifth year to acquire the more specialized 

 knowledge of the separate engineering pro- 

 fessions. This, then, is the direction in 

 which, in my judgment, the courses of 

 study at the institute should be developed : 

 we will give in our four-year undergrad- 

 uate course an even broader and deeper 

 training than at present in cultural and 

 fundamental scientific studies— a training 

 which will still enable those students that 

 are obliged to do so to enter at once upon 

 the practise of their professions, handi- 

 capped somewhat, it may be, by the lack 

 of technical experience, but with a sound 

 knowledge of principles and a developed 

 mental power which will gradually enable 

 them to overcome this disadvantage; and, 

 on the other hand, we will develop graduate 

 courses of such a character as will obvi- 

 ously remedy this deficiency of insufficient 

 specialization and will attract such grad- 

 uates of this institution and of other 

 scientific schools as are financially able 

 to continue their education. We shall 

 thus create a type of graduate school in 

 which is offered advanced training for 



bachelors of science rather than for 

 bachelors of arts. 



Opportunities for College Graduates 

 But these are by no means the only fields 

 which the institute should occupy. Some 

 of the other directions in which our devel- 

 opment must be continued or extended also 

 deserve consideration. 



We must, while not permitting any sac- 

 rifice of the instruction of our undergrad- 

 uate students, encourage the graduates of 

 colleges to enter the higher years of our 

 regular courses and our advanced courses, 

 and offer them such additional facilities 

 as their different preparation demands. 

 Future experience alone can determine 

 whether such graduates will receive a bet- 

 ter education in the graduate schools of 

 universities in courses attended, often not 

 only by themselves, but by college men 

 without definite professional aim, or in 

 scientific schools working side by side in 

 the undergi-aduate courses with men ear- 

 nestly devoted to preparation for their pro- 

 fession. The presence together of these 

 two groups of men is certainly mutiially 

 advantageous: the graduate student from 

 another institution tends to broaden the in- 

 terests of his undergraduate associate ; and 

 the latter imbues the former with that 

 spirit of hard work and seriousness of pur- 

 pose which attendance at the scientific 

 school has inspired. For these reasons we 

 must not fail to provide suitable courses 

 and conditions of work for the college 

 graduates who are coming to us in con- 

 stantly increasing numbers. 



Five-year Courses for the Bachelors Degree 

 Far more important, however, than the 

 offering of inei'eased opportunities for col- 

 lege students, is a more ample provision 

 within this institution itself for the educa- 

 tion of such stiadents coming directly from 

 the preparatory schools as are able to 



