686 



EGIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 279. 



sities a similar condition existed, though 

 probably not in the same degree, as in 

 Harvard. 



That the American medical student, 

 seeking the best possible preparation for 

 his profession, is seriously handicapped by 

 these conditions has been generally recog- 

 nized, and the question of the best method 

 of meeting the difi&culty has been widely 

 discussed. The most thorough treatment 

 of the case consists in reducing the aca- 

 demic course to three years. Less radical 

 methods are the provision in the academic 

 department of courses of instruction by 

 which students may anticipate a part of 

 their professional wort, and the permission 

 to count the first year of a professional 

 course as the fourth j'ear for the bachelor's 

 degree. The first and most radical method 

 meets with strenuous opposition, owing to 

 the deeply-rooted traditions which surround 

 the four years' academic course in this 

 country, while the other plans violate what 

 in some colleges seems to be regarded as an 

 educational axiom : that one course of 

 study should not count toward two degrees. 

 It is interesting to notice that, without any 

 specific legislation to this end the quiet 

 working of the elective system has, in Har- 

 vard College, practically solved the problem 

 by bringing about a condition in which, as 

 President Eliot says : * " Any young man of 

 fair abilities can now procure the degree in 

 three years without hurry or overwork, if 

 he wishes to do so or his parents wish to 

 have him." The President further ventures 

 to predict that "within a time comparatively 

 short, the majority of those who enter the 

 Freshman class will come to college with 

 the purpose of completing the requirement 

 for the degree in three years." As soon as 

 a three years' residence becomes the rule 

 rather than the exception, a young man 

 spending four years in college will, of course, 



* Annnal reports of the president and treasurer of 

 Harvard College, 1898-99, page 10. 



be regarded either as deficient in mental 

 capacity or as having wasted his time. 



That a reduction of the academic course 

 to three years is an advantage to students 

 looking forward to a professional career, or 

 to further study in a graduate school is too 

 obvious to need discussion, but it is inter- 

 esting to find the change advocated in the 

 interest of the undergraduates themselves. 

 Professor Clement L. Smith, for nine years 

 Dean of Harvard College, points out* that 

 there is a large and influential class of col- 

 lege men who get into the habit of fritter- 

 ing away their time simply because they 

 have so much of it and that " for them and 

 for those whom they influence — and these 

 make up the largest part of the class we are 

 now considering, the men who go from col- 

 lege into active life — the reduction of the 

 course would be a distinct gain." N"or need 

 we fear (as has sometimes been urged) that, 

 in thus reducing the length of the college 

 course, we shall lose the fourth and most 

 valuable year, for as Professor Smith says : 

 " The senior year is the best year, not be- 

 cause it is the fourth, but because it is the last 

 year. The causes which make it what it is 

 come from before, not from behind ; from the 

 consciousness of opportunity passing away 

 and of the serious problems of life close at 

 hand. The period of waste lies between 

 the fresh zeal and good resolutions with 

 which the youth begins his course, and the 

 growing sense of responsibility with which 

 he draws near its close. It is this inter- 

 mediate period that would be shortened, in 

 the briefer course. It is not the senior 

 year that would be cut off; it is rather, let 

 us say, the sophomore year, and with it 

 might well go its absurd name." 



It thus appears that the claims of the 

 college and of the professional school upon 

 the time of the student are in a fair way to 

 be harmoniously adjusted. 



* The American College in the Twentieth Century, 

 Clement L. Smith, Atlantic Monthly, Feb., 1900. 



