286 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE MATTER OF COLLEGE ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS 



Br President FRANK L. McVEY 



DNIVEBSITY OF NOBTH DAKOTA 



XN the past several years a marked change has taken place in the atti- 

 tude of colleges and universities toward the matter of entrance 

 requirements. An examination of catalogues, articles and discussions, 

 shows clearly the swinging of opinion from the former college view to 

 the high school way of regarding the question. It is, moreover, now 

 generally conceded that the relationship existing between the college 

 and the secondary school is a part of the whole system of education and 

 not a specific relation between two of the factors of that system. The 

 growth in the high-school attendance and the emphasis upon the im- 

 portance of it as a factor have been brought about by a clearer recog- 

 nition of the high school in its relation to public education. 



Perhaps the most fundamental point in all of this discussion is the 

 fact that the secondary period in the school-boy's life is far more favor- 

 able than his college years to the free exploration of the boy. 1 Self- 

 realization has come to be a motive that has reached down into the high- 

 school period, and it has been found, in the opinion of able directors of 

 secondary education, that restricted preparatory courses prescribed by 

 colleges do not afford the experience needed in the high school. It is 

 further stated that individual pupils can not know at the beginning of 

 the high-school course that they can go to college four years later on. 

 Moreover, it has been shown that the specification of subject matter for 

 the four years of the high school tends to materially hamper rather than 

 help in the direction of secondary education. The confusion in the re- 

 quirements of different colleges east and west makes it impossible for 

 the ordinary high school to meet the demands of all of them. The result 

 is that those who have observed the boys and girls working in the high 

 schools of the country have come to the conclusion that there is a wide 

 discrepancy between preparation for life and preparation for college as 

 defined in the ordinary entrance requirements. For these reasons and 

 many others it has come to be felt that the high school should serve as 

 an open door through which may pass the boys and girls looking for a 

 larger education. 



The placing of the emphasis upon citizenship and the efficiency of 

 the individual seems to point conclusively to a larger freedom on the 

 part of the high schools and their management to meet the specific needs 



1 Abraham Flexner, "The American College," p. 223. 



