The Y. M. C. A. conference of students from preparatory schools which will be held at Cambridge this year will serve two very useful purposes. The ostensible reason for the convention is to discuss the various problems arising from the social and religious work of school Y. M. C. A.s; the chief object of the visit and the one which is most pertinent to the University is to acquaint the future college students with some notion of the nature of colleges and college life.

The average preparatory school man's impression of college is gained from the hysteria of football games and his own preconceived notion of the university as a larger edition of his school. Some of these men when they enter the freshman class, are either disillusioned by the prosaic and unromantic nature of the college routine, or else they find the freedom and opportunities for pleasure too tempting and lose their heads with the new freedom.

The visit of the conference members is necessarily brief and their impressions are bound to be rather superficial. However it affords an excellent method of showing the inner workings of the University to its future members and is worthy of extension to include all secondary school students who are planning to go to college. Such an impartial exposition of everyday college life ought to help to eliminate many of the difficulties of adjustment which are encountered by the incoming Freshmen.