LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Admissions Trend Is (Questioned

TO THE EDITOR:

A perusal of the several articles on "Admissions to Dartmouth" stirs up some thoughts which are perhaps of a vintage nature but nonetheless sincere.

I am quite sympathetic with the efforts of the Admissions Committee in their attempts to solve the many problems confronting them, don't envy them their job, and hope these thoughts will prove more helpful than otherwise.

The emphasis on competition with other institutions, evidenced by such phrases as "today's academic pace in our leading colleges," "a superior student body," "topnotch students," "crime against the boy who is below the level of that basic academic qualification," and "matriculate a student body of pre-eminent quality," leads one to wonder what is to become of the rank and file of youth in its search for an education.

If Dartmouth is being groomed to seek and admit only the super youth of today, with the admitted goal of turning out nothing but supermen, is she not departing from the precepts on which she was founded? Aren't we developing into a super institution whose sole aim is to "compete" with a brand of institution which is outside our category? Aren't we making it impossible for the solid, substantial, average boy to have a chance of "getting into" Dartmouth?

I can't help but feel there's a happy medium between that "small college and those who love it" of Daniel Webster's day and the apparent trend towards exclusivity in our screening program. There are a host of embryo top-flight men among today's "rank and file" youth and it would be too bad if the trend towards "high level" competition should cause Dartmouth to pass them up. Wouldn't it be more to our credit to develop and educate "a superior student body" out of a "cross section" of today's youth?

Or is my thinking old fashioned? I would be interested in learning the views of others in this connection.

New York, N. Y.

"Not All in the Books"

To THE EDITOR:

I confess I was shocked to read of the following minority recommendation of the Subcommittee on Admissions and Financial Aid which appeared in the October issue of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE: . . the automatic admission and granting of financial aid where needed to the top 25 per cent of each year's applicants, ranked academically, except in cases where personality or motivation, as determined by the Directors, would interfere with academic performance or where there was evidence of moral turpitude." .. .

I feel strongly that the proponents of any policy which puts 100% emphasis on scholarship are missing the point of this College's unique function.

We all agree I think that in judging applicants for admission our primary emphasis should be on intellectual capacity and scholarship attainment. We are all aware that the primary business at Dartmouth is learning. But the learning is not all in the books, and if we ever reach the point where we think it is, we will have lost our chief purpose: to develop mature and useful men.

Dartmouth does not strive to mold people, but to encourage their development. The process requires scholarship and discipline, but other things as well, including an association with others of outstanding character, personality and sense of purpose. This association contributes a great deal toward creating the atmosphere and the spirit of the College experience which our undergraduates enjoy. It is in my mind indispensable to our success in trying to develop men to lead and grace our world. . . .

There was a very excellent article on Sidney Cox in a recent issue of the ALUMNIMAGAZINE. Professor Cox was an intellectual and a scholar of the highest caliber. Yet his greatest contribution for me, and I suspect for others, was his example and his teaching as a very large-scale human being. I would like to think he would have agreed with my thesis here (though I am sure he would have had thoughts about improving my expression of it).

My point is simply this: we cannot be a great school without a primary and strong emphasis in our admissions policy on intellectual capacity and scholarship. But if it ever becomes a final self-sufficient standard, in any degree, we will then lose our power and our purpose as Dartmouth College.

San Francisco

Footnote to the Admissions Report

TO THE EDITOR

In your excellent October 1961 issue the synopsis of the TPC subcommittee report on admissions and financial aid was necessarily short.

As a footnote to it there are two paragraphs from the report itself which should be called to the attention of all alumni. They set forth several caveats pertinent to this business of admissions:

WHOM TO EXCLUDE

"Some such qualities as those mentioned above must be sought in varying degrees among varying individual applicants for admission if Dartmouth is to serve its purpose: to contribute to the development of men able to play a creative role in their chosen professions or vocations and be effective and responsible citizens and parents. Dartmouth should obviously avoid admitting or graduating any appreciable number of men who are just good fellows or regular guys and whose scholastic ideal is a gentlemen's C, or who have high scholastic aims but whose social ideal is a secure, comfortable job and a quiet family life with no interruptions from the outside world."

RELIANCE ON TEST DATA

"In our current zeal for measurement, and the reliance we place on aptitudes and abilities that can be scaled and quantified, we must never for the sake of convenience and efficiency unwittingly underemphasize the important subtle aspects of human nature that cannot now be measured precisely. The aptitude tests now used are being critically analyzed on many fronts, especially with respect to various factors (both 'intellectual' and 'nonintellectual') which they fail to estimate accurately or leave out altogether. Some significant studies have already been done showing the limitations of present measures and are beginning to point to the possibility of utilizing other devices for assessing a wider range of abilities and potentialities. We wish to stress the importance of devising ways and means to increase our skill in detecting and evaluating all relevant characteristics."

The caveats are as applicable to the later recruitment and selection by business and the professions as they are to college admissions. The only difference is that business and the professions get a second look, the look at the college graduate, whereas the Chamberlain-Hage team must make its decisions at least four years earlier.

Denver, Colo.

A Convincing Article

TO THE EDITOR

My personal thanks to you and to Professor Stewart for his excellent and convincing article in your October issue on "Why a Hopkins Center at Dartmouth." I was particularly pleased with his definition of art. In this day of extremes in the various forms of modern art it is a relief to find an authoritative statement that art should give aesthetic delight to a cultivated audience and communicate in enduring form some deep insight into human experience. In some modern expressions of art it would seem that these aims are a matter of abhorrence and that only another artist is supposed to be able to appreciate such efforts.

We can all rest assured that the Hopkins Center will offer a marvelous opportunity to our Dartmouth students to have experiences in self-expression in aesthetic fields. Some of us wish we could learn to feel that the outward appearance of the costly building now being constructed will not offend too greatly in the way of beauty and fitness to its environment.

Upper Montclair, N. ].