In the Freshman issue of the Advocate W. I. Nichols '26 examines the student activities in Harvard. He notes that Graduate Boards are viewing with alarm the decrease in numbers of candidates reporting for various competitions, and cites the two causes to which the Graduate Boards attribute the decline of active interest in competitions; the pressure of studies, which is making "grinds" out of undergraduates, and the glowing attractions of Boston ball-rooms and beaches and bootleggers. Nichols dismisses these superficialties, and feels the pulse of the old spirit of activity for the sake of personal glory, and finds its quiescent. He then arrives at the conclusion that the few faithful who report for competition do so because they want to.

This is not an unreasonable conclusion in the face of the facts. The present generation of undergraduates is a self-opinionated lot, and as the years slip along into the mounting thirties, they will probably become more so. They know what they want, or think they do, and they're going to get it. They will not be led by the fashion of the moment. The bug of specialization has bit the colleges, and the average undergraduate is too firm in his own mind, or too solicitous for his own welfare to lavish time and ability on a multitude of matters that do not yield him a definite, tangible return. There may be nine-and-sixty ways of constructing tribal lags, but nowadays people choose one and stick to it, confident that every single one of them is right.

The growing unpopularity of college competition is not shown only in a dispersion of candidates over a wider field, and segregation of a few into many places, but by the aggregate number of aspirants for posts in the activities. This is smaller than five years ago. Not only are the students becoming more precious and demanding in their choice, but they are becoming increasingly chary of sharing any part of themselves with an organization, just for a ribbon to stick in their coats. They are not grinds, or fly-by-nights; they simply know that they are going to do what they like. And more and more what they like seems to be to make use of the academic opportunities that Harvard offers.