The increase in the proportion of Bachelors of Science has an important bearing upon the position of the classics as a part of general education, but upon nothing else; for the degree in Science means only that the candidate entered college without Latin. It involves no special study of scientific subjects, and the courses taken in College by the candidates for the degrees in Arts and Sciences may be, and often are, identical. In short, as Dean Briggs has expressed it, the degree of Bachelor of Science signifies not knowledge of Science, but ignorance of Latin. The position is certainly anomalous and illogical, and ought not to continue indefinitely. It has been proposed that candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Science should be required to concentrate in some scientific field. This would probably have the unfortunate effect of marking pure science as not an appropriate subject of a liberal education, and it would have the more immediate effect of forcing the issue whether Latin should be absolutely required, or not, for any college course devoted in the main to other than scientific branches; whether, for example, a student should or should not be allowed without it to concentrate in Economics or Music. This question must be faced at some time, but the College does not seem prepared to decide it now. The ultimate decision will depend upon the position the classics are able to maintain in the higher education of the country, for the undergraduate who drops Latin and Greek as soon as he enters college is not likely hereafter to see the need of his son's studying hem at school. The future of the classics would seem to depend upon he possibility of making it, as it is in large measure in The Greats course at Oxford, a living part of the liberal education of the day; to attach to it such matters as modern history, economics, and philosophy. Those of us who believe in the value of he classics in education must desire earnestly such a development, and strive to counteract a tendency to the isolation of classical studies.

Improvement In English Sought For.

A not less vital question of isolation was brought forward during the year by members of this Board,--the habit among candidates for admission to college, and even undergraduates, of regarding the writing of good English as something by itself, instead of an integral part of the command of any subject. Mr. William R. Castle, Jr., formerly of the English Department and Assistant Dean, is now making a careful investigation of the style used in theses and examination books in all branches of study. His report on the subject will be of great interest, and may well lead to decided improvements.

Another recent change in the College has been the gradual diminution in the proportion of men taking their degrees in three years. The numbers and percentages of men who graduated in three, three and a half, and four years, since the three-year degree was established, have been as follows:-- NUMBERS.   1901  1902  1903  1904  1905  1906 3 Years,  100  84  86  119  135  153 3 1-2 Years,  0  0  0  10  20  22 4 Years,  359  343  383  329  244  248 Total,  459  427  469  458  399  423   1907  1908  1909  1910  1911  1912 3 Years,  106  129  94  119  112  91 3 1-2 Years,  14  14  62  31  18  21 4 Years,  330  262  301  341  337  355 Total,  450  405  457  491  467  467   1913 3 Years,  91 3 1-2 Years,  20 4 Years  360 Total,  471

PERCENTAGES. 3 Years,  22  20  18  26  34  36 3 1-2 Years,  0  0  0  2  5  5 4 Years,  78  80  82  72  61  59   1907  1908  1909  1910  1911  1912 3 Years,  24  32  21  24  24  20 3 1-2 Years,  3  4  14  6  4  4 4 Years,  73  64  65  70  72  76   1913 3 Years,  19.5 3 1-2 Years,  4. 4 Years,  76.5

The causes for the diminution of three-year men are probably to be sought, in part at least, in the stiffening of easy courses and in a greater appreciation of the value of the fourth year--a value due not chiefly to the fact that it is the last, but rather to the fact that it is the fourth. Graduation in three years is sometimes taken to indicate unusual ability or industry; but, while it cannot be achieved by the really dull or indolent, it does not imply particularly good scholarship. It is less difficult to attain a C in five and a half courses a year than an A, or even a B, in four; and it is also less valuable as a training for after life--a fact not recognized by a few men who stay four years, taking their bachelor's degree in three, and a degree of Master of Arts in the fourth. A slight knowledge of the subjects taught in many courses is useful, but far less important than a better grasp of principles in a smaller number. To know what it means to do a piece of work thoroughly; to create for oneself a high standard of achievement, to put forth the strongest effort of which one is capable, is the most useful thing a man can learn; and the failure to bring home to the students the supreme merit of excellence in their work is the most grievous defect of our colleges. We lay stress on the mere earning of a degree, which can certify no more than mediocrity, and we do not emphasize enough the quality of attainment by which the degree was earned. With this in mind, a committee, consisting of all the deans in the University and two members of the Corporation, recommend to that body the insertion in the next Quinquennial Catalogue of the general and special distinctions attained at graduation. The proposal was adopted by the Corporation.

The failure on the part of the student of respect excellence in college work is not wholly unconnected with the American practice of counting by courses. In spite of every effort to maintain standards, courses will differ very much in difficulty; and the quality of mind required for winning high marks in a series of short detached courses is, not unnaturally, esteemed by undergraduates less highly than that which enables a man to grasp and expound a subject as a whole. In the last report, the importance of general examinations, such as those adopted in the Medical and Divinity Schools, was urged, and it is therefore gratifying that, with the approval of the Faculty, the Division of History, Government, and Economics has decided to require a general examination from students concentrating in those subjects. The text of the regulation is printed in the report of the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The Principle is, perhaps, not needed or to be followed in all fields, for in some subjects, particularly Mathematics and Natural Science, each step on the ladder implies the one below, and an examination in an advanced course is virtually an examination on much of that which has gone before. But as an experiment in a range of subjects increasingly elected by undergraduates, the plan is to be welcomed, and supported heartily. It may well be destined to raise the whole level of college education.

One of the principal motives for staying in college only three years is the desire to get to work in the world as soon as possible. This may be due to poverty, and the need of shortening as much as possible the period of education, which is a pressing matter with many of our undergraduates. The number of students of small means at Harvard is little understood by those who do not come into direct contact with them, nor is the scale on which they are helped to find means of livelihood commonly known. The report of the Secretary for Employment, printed herewith, shows that in the aggregate students in the University earned last year not less than $184,643.82, one half of which was obtained by work found for them through his office.

Motives for Three-Year Course.

Some men stay only three years in college and hasten to get actively at work in the world, although they feel no financial pressure; and, considering the present age of entrance, this is not without justification. Children in the United States are sent to school late, make slow progress, especially in the primary stage, and in consequence come to our colleges later than they ought to come. Moreover boys who would be prepared for college at sixteen or seventeen are often deliberately held back at school, or after they have passed their entrance examinations, on the theory that hey are too young to be exposed to the temptations of college life. This is clearly a mistake, for statistics collected by our Department of Education during the year demonstrate that the students who enter young are on the average better scholars and better in conduct than the older ones.** In fact, on the chart, the lowering of average scholarship and the increase of the more severe forms of discipline progress quite steadily as the age at entrance advances. No doubt this is in part due to the fact that the boys who enter young are by nature quicker witted and more industrious; but probably the mere age at entrance counts for something. There is a natural time for the work and the pleasure of college, and the ordinary man who enters later than the normal has less impulse for study of which he can see no direct application, while he often seeks pleasures more highly spiced and less innocent.

Freshman Dormitories Realized.

The opening of the Freshman dormitories will go far to remove the present motives for holding boys back from college for fear of a sudden transition from the protection and discipline of home, or boarding-school, to the wide freedom and the supposed lack of restraining influence of college life. The real difficulty with the college has not been that students tend to evil, or are in need of more stringent regulations, but that they have been imprisoned too much in small groups of friends with ideas and aspirations often narrow, and in some cases mischievous, instead of being encompassed by large and heterogeneous masses of classmates whose aggregate outlook is wider and whose moral sense is on the whole very sound. Everyone familiar with the life of the student is impressed by the serious quality of the men who take part in those activities which affect any considerable portion of the

**Summarized under the title "Youth and the Dean," by Professor H. W. Holmes, in the Harvard Graduates' Magazine for June, 1913, undergraduates. The danger for the Freshman has lain in the accidents of individual environment, not in a lack of general discipline. The object of the dormitories, therefore, is in the main to improve the environment; not to curiall freedom by special rules, but to help men use it wisely. With this in mind, the Committee of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, appointed to consider the subject, recommend only a single regulation which has been adopted by the Faculty in the following form:

"All members of the Freshman Class will reside and board in the Freshman Dormitories, except those who are permitted by the Assistant Dean of Harvard College to live elsewhere. Exceptions will ordinarily be made in the case of students who wish to live at home.

In short, the only rule is that the Freshmen who do not live at home, or are not excused by the Dean for exceptional reasons, must live and board in the dormitories. In the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, students are required to be present at a certain number of meals each week in the common hall; but that involves the taking of attendance by monitors which would probably be felt vexatious by our students. Not is it necessary, for the fact that they are charged for their board, whether present or not, is certain to secure a sufficiently regular attendance without hampering the freedom of occasional absence. The less the sense of formal restraint, compatible with the result desired, the better. In other respects, the Freshmen will be subject to the discipline provided in college dormitories, although it will, of course, be possible to give closer attention to the conduct and studies of the newcomers, and exert a stronger influence upon them than has been practicable while they were scattered about in many different places.

Aims of New Dormitories.