STATEMENT AND COMMENT ON THE NEW ADMISSION PLAN

An official statement by the college, regarding the change in entrance requirements has been given out for publication. It is here reproduced, followed by comments upon the change taken from daily newspapers and college publications.

Official Statement

. A new principle of admission to Dartmouth College was adopted by the College faculty at its last meeting. In operation this principle is designed to simplify entrance to the College for better men in the secondary and preliminary schools, and eventually to establish a selective process by which a priority list may be defined to which first consideration shall be given in reviewing the respective claims of applicants for admission.

In explaining the faculty action, President Hopkins states:

"The requirements for entrance to the American college have long been subject to criticism as so mechanical and formal as in many cases to exclude men with capacity for superior intellectual accomplishment, while admitting men of less potential ability but with a record of more precise conformity to technical routine.

"The natural results of such procedure have been that the men who late in his preliminary school course has acquired ambition for a college education, and who unquestionably would have been able to do work of distinctive merit in college, has found admission to the college of his choice disproportionately difficult if not impossible.

"It is recognized that there is a constant demand upon American college to improve the intellectual quality of its accomplishment, and, furthermore, it is recognized that responsibility for meeting it can not fairly be transferred to the already heavy burden which rests upon secondary or preparatory schools of the country. This responsibility logically rests upon the college, and it should be met through securing increased effectiveness in college work. This responsibility Dartmouth stands ready to assume.

"The evidence in hand indicates that, in the great majority of cases, the man who shows marked ability in his school work preparatory to college demonstrated like ability in his college work. It is to such men in approved schools that Dartmouth would offer a simplified procedure for qualifying for entrance to the College. It is to this group, further, that Dartmouth would "definitely assure admission under circumstances in which, of necessity, the College can admit but a decreasing proportion of those who apply for enrollment in the student body.

"The policy does not permit the graduation of a man from college lacking any of the requirements before held to in the combination of preparatory school work and college course, but it does offer to the qualified men who offer the required quantity of work that the exact prerequisites which may be lacking will be compensated for in the opportunity of the undergraduate work. In other words, the College will assume responsibility for the quantity and scope of the candidate's preparatory work so long as the quality of this work is guaranteed:

"Ist In that the man shall come from a school of properly certified grade

"2nd In that he shall have qualified for graduation from that school

"3rd In that he shall have consistently ranked in the first quarter of his class.

"For men of such proved ability at the time of entrance only the minimum of specific prerequisites is to be required out of the somewhat extensive and rigid list hitherto adhered to without exception in the cases of any."

The vote of the faculty reads as follows:

"Beginning with the year 1921-22 any student from an approved school, graduating with an average in scholarship for the four years of his school course which places him in the first quarter of his class, and offering three units of English and two and one-half units of Mathematics among his list of subjects, be admitted without conditions."

The press comments include these:

Boston Herald. The Boston Herald, characterizing the new system as a "device for getting picked men" expresses clearly the idea behind the movement and says:

"One of the criticisms of the present system for determining the fitness of candidates for admission to our colleagues has been that in many instances men of genuine capacity for superior intellectual accomplishment have been excluded, while others, having far less potential ability, have been admitted because their preparatory work had conformed more completely to the technical requirements. Dartmouth College now proposes to offer a simplified procedure for qualifying for entrance.

"The idea is to require from men of such proved ability as this standing in the first quarter of the class constitutes, only the minimum of specific prerequisites "out of the somewhat extensive and rigid list hitherto adhered to without exception in the cases of any."

Manchester Union. The announcement that Dartmouth has adopted a new principle to govern admission to the college marks an important step toward a goal earnestly desired by educators. The problem of entrance requirements is one which is always with the colleges. It is one, too, of direct concern to preparatory schools and high schools, which are charged with the duty of fitting candidates for the higher institutions. It is easy enough, of course, for a college to set fixed, narrow and highly specialized requirements — and practically limit its membership to students whose preliminary training is devoted to meeting precisely these iron-clad terms. Manifestly, though, such a plan has small appeal to institutions which have fully as much thought for substance as for form; nor would it work satisfactorily for colleges drawing students not from a limited area but, as is peculiarly the case with Dartmouth from the whole country.

Harvard Alumni Bulletin. Whatever one may think of Dartmouth's new admission plan as a means of securing students who are able to do work of college grade, no one will deny that the plan has large possibilities. It approaches the whole problem of college admission from a new standpoint, namely, that of throwing the entire responsibility upon the schools. We have too often assumed that this responsibility has always rested with the schools under the system of admission by certificate; but that is not the case. The colleges, under the certificate system, prescribe what studies a boy must pursue in order to gain admission, and thereby take their share of the responsibility for his school program. Admission by certificate does not differ from admission by examination in this respect. In both cases the college writes the specifications. The only difference is that in the one case the school certifies conformance with these specifications, while in the other case the college determines the matter for itself by means of examinations.

What Dartmouth now does is to abandon the specifications altogether, or practically to abandon them. It will insist that a boy who seeks admission shall have had a minimum of" English and Mathematics, but apart from this there will be no requirements as to the program of school studies. If a boy qualifies for graduation at any school of recognized grade, and consistently ranks in "the first quarter of his class", he will be admitted to Dartmouth without conditions when the new plan goes into effect. This does not, of course, abrogate the plan of admission by certificate or by examination. Boys who do not rank high among their classmates at school must take their chances by the old route.

At Harvard we have utilized the general principle which the Dartmouth plan involves, but have not applied it to College admission. The Harvard Medical School, for example, takes not only college graduates but also persons who have completed two years of college work if "they have maintained rank in the first third of their class." The Harvard Law, School admits, in addition to graduates of "high grade" colleges, applicants who have graduated from "other colleges of approved standing" provided they have ranked in the first third of their class on the work of the senior year.

The idea of accepting a -reasonable presumption of superior ability as an offset to shorter or less comprehensive preparation is therefore not a new one by any means. We have applied it in determining the admission of students to our professional schools. The novelty comes in its application to the problem of college admission. The Dartmouth authorities are inclined to believe that it will work as well in the one field as in the other.

Boston Transcript. There is a certain simple force of logic in the, new admissions plan announced by Dartmouth this week which cannot fail to win wide indorsement. Hereafter any student who graduates from an approved preparatory school or high school with a record that places him in the first quarter of his class will be admitted to Dartmouth College without conditions. After all, what better criterion of a boy's fitness for college can be found than that which lies in the record of his work in the past, sustained year in and year out in a school of fair quality? When that record is good, it speaks more than can any cold and formal proof he has merely "worried through" this or that special list of subjects, and certainly it is worth more than a showing of ability, by three or four months of forced study, to pass any given set of examination papers crowded into three or four days of forced testing.

When a boy's record or a man's record of actual1 performance during a considerable period is good, when it is, indeed, distinctly better than the average, then no other guaranty is needed. Why should any be asked? Dartmouth's decision not to ask any will be hailed as an act of common sense, and will insure to the benefit of the college throughout the future.