168 FUTURE OF A.B. DEGREE. How the New Degrees are Gaining Ground On It. [From Report of President Eliot of Harvard.] One of the most interesting questions concerning the tendencies of organized American education is the question re- lating to the future of the A.B. degree. Fifty years ago the American colleges and universities had no other prelimi- nary or fundamental degree. They now confer, not only the degree of Bachelor of Arts, but contemporaneous degrees in considerable variety, bearing such titles as Bachelor of Letters, Bachelor of Science, and Bachelor of Philosophy, and various degree in engineering. These new degrees commonly repre- sent a larger attainment in science and mathematics than the degree of Bache- lor of Arts, and a smaller attainment in languages, particularly in the dead lan- guages; and, as a rule, the examina- tions which admit to the courses which conduct to these new degrees are of a lower grade than the examinations which admit to the course for the de- gree of Bachelor of Arts. On the other hand, in instances not a few, the course of study which ends in one of these new degrees is more severe than the parallel course of study which leads to the degree of Bachelor of Arts. The use of the new degrees, although practically unknown before 1848, has now become in all the .state universities decidedly larger than the use of the traditional degree of Bache- lor of Arts; while in the older endowed institutions, the new degrees are rapidly gaining ground on the old degree. * * Of the nine universities represented in the table, three are state universi- ties,—namely, Michigan, Wisconsin, and California. Five are endowed univer- sities over which the state has little direct control,—namely, Yale, Pennsyl- vania, Columbia, Princeton, and Brown; and Cornell, the remaining university, is an endowed institution which is largely subsidized both by the state and by the United States. In the most con- servative institutions, the degree of A.B. is losing ground in comparison with the new degrees. - IN DIFFERENT UNIVERSITIES. Thus, in Yale University the number of A.B.s conferred has not doubled in fifteen. years, whereas the number of Ph.B.s conferred has much more than doubled. : At Princeton University, the number of students studying for the degree of A.B. is half as large again as_it was fifteen years ago; but the number of students studying for the modern de- grees is nearly four times as great as it was fifteen years ago. , At Columbia University, the number of students studying for the new degrees has generally been greater than the number of students studying for the old degree; but the course for the A.B. has apparently led students’ more regularly to the degree than the courses for the other degrees. In order to understand the situation in New England, it is necessary to take account of the rise of the Massacnusetts Institute of Technology, which confers every year a large number of S.B. de- grees. By adding together the candi- dates for the S.B. degree of the Massa- chusetts Institute of Technology and the candidates for the S.B. in Harvard Uni- versity, and comparing this total with the number of candidates for the A.B. at Harvard University one gets a clear impression of the immense educational change which has taken place in East- ern Massachusetts since the Institute of Technology was founded in 186s. CAUSE OF THE CHANGE. This invasion of the old. province of the Bachelor of Arts degree is going on in all the advanced institutions of education at a rapid rate, and is doubt- less based on changed ‘social and indus- trial conditions which are quite beyond the control of those institutions. It is . therefore a pressing question how to se- cure and defend a legitimate province for the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Thus far, Harvard has maintained the relative numerical importance of this traditional degree better than any other Prt LL OMNES Ow Bee y —______ American institution; and there can be no doubt that it is the Elective System in Harvard College which has secured this result. It has long been the belief of the President that to maintain the Harvard degree of A.B. in full vigor, it is desirable to broaden the range of well-taught subjects which will admit to Harvard College. : The following table, covering nine years, shews the different modes in which young men accomplish, or nearly accomplish, in three years the work re- quired for the degree of Bachelor of Arts: lege work in three years, it must also | be possible to do creditably in four | years much more than the prescribed amount of work. Accordingly it is common among good students to do mttch extra work during a residence of four years. Thus, in the class of 1897 there were, among the 143 students who received degrees with distinction, 106 who completed during their resi- dence as undergraduates in Harvard of courses exclusive of extra admission subjects, and in the class of 1808 there were 86 such students. * * * It might be supposed that the men who attempt 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 Total number receiving A.B. ........ 282 283 203 332 348 364 306 383 302 1. Graduated in three years...... ie Of these were credited at admis- sion, 2 or more courses each.. Less than 2 courses each ....... 2. Had leave of absence for Senior Wéar... Po ee oe Credited with 18.2 courses...... 6é ce c¢ EFF i cocane Wad eae Lee ae i Tie, Tor. ee ee oe . a 16.2 ae eeeeee# Of these were credited at admis- sion, 2 or more courses each.. Less than 2 courses each 3. Registered as Seniors, but cred- | ited with 16 courses or more.. Credited with 18.2 courses...... as Beni bs 7 Ce mee a as Se ie "Se Bos os ss SC OF gee ope ‘Ge Re ALE Of these were credited at admis- sion, 2 or more courses each.. Less than 2. courses each.2....0;. Number credited in three years with TOOT OFC COUTEES 55k. cee Of these with 18 or more courses.... a4: 18 AD. Oise 17 316 4 ey A8 Ge Seas Gp dk o. 3a ee 2 ey ots Id ee 280. 445 et te ae OG VB wh Becta 86 bo yee 8 eR ae Rid sit. eae ee Pings: BaO 5 Dole 2 Zo See Ly a 5 ee ec I Sse © ow 6 9 13 30 24 48 49 55 58 54 Poon ar. Ge 10 oO eee ae Ge eed Oe ee one ST eh eT es FO Fe Re a Aree BAe a eG Bae 36 BY ee BA eee AG 96 II2 102 28 37 45 2555 55 487 SS 2 RE 36 36 These three-year men are divided in the table into three groups: the first group containing those who actually graduated in three years; the second, those who obtained leave of absence for the Senior year on the ground that they had either completed, or nearly com- pleted, the work for the A.B.; the third, those who registered as Seniors to spend a fourth year in the College, al- though they were already credited with sixteen courses or more, out of the eighteen courses required for gradua- tion. The table shows the precise num- ber of courses with which each member of each group was credited, and also how many of these course-credits had been obtained at the admission examina- tion. The last two lines in the table - show that the number of persons who complete the work for the degree in three years is distinctly increasing,—in-. deed, that it has doubled within six years; and also that the number of per- sons who come within two courses or less of completing the work for the de- gree of A.B. is increasing. SOME EXPLANATIONS. To anyone éxamining these figures for the first time, the query will nat- urally occur,—why is the third ‘group in this table the largest? Why should men who have completed, or very nearly completed, the whole of the work for the A.B. register again as Seniors? For this course of action there are three intelligible motives: First, a youmg man desires not to graduate a year in advance of most of the friends and contemporaries with whom he entered College. Secondly, a student who needs aid may reasonably suppose that he has a better chance of a scholarship or other money aid, if he registers as a Senior, than he would have if he registered in the Graduate School. Thirdly, a young man who thus registers as a Senior— having nearly finished his work for the A.B.—may take courses acceptable for the A.M., and on completing these satis- factorily during his Senior year may receive, first his A.B. four years from the time he entered College, and then— without further residence—his A.M. five years from the time he entered College. This fifth year he may spend in a pro- fessional school, or in business, or in foreign travel or study. © One indis- putable inference is to be drawn from this table,—namely, that from a third to two-fifths of each College class have no need of more than three years to complete the eighteen courses required — for the degree. Since it is possible to accomplish creditably the regular four years’ Col- much extra work do all their work, or much of it, badly; but such is by no means the case. It appears from tables «x * * that the men in the elass of 1897, and the class of 1808, who did most extra work during their residence as undergraduates, did all their work in an admirable manner. ‘These facts are corroborated when the statistics of the extra work done by scholarship holders of the first and second groups in the years 1897-98 and 1898-99 are examined. * * * Jt appears in these tables that almost all the scholarship holders of the first and second groups do extra work, and that a large proportion of them do a great deal of extra work. Ambitious students, therefore, can either graduate with distinction in three years, or remaining four years in College they _ can do much work beyond the pre- scribed amount. OE GCE iat , |) 746 CHAPEL S! UR special!”