When a university determines to exclude certain men from admission because they are financially unable to support themselves during their undergraduate years, it is usually accused of snobbery. When Yale and Harvard first contemplated making that decision they were so accused. Such action, however, is not snobbery; it is merely the result of the university's realization that, beyond a certain number, men seeking employment from the institution they attend are a drag upon their associates and themselves.

At Princeton no one is denied admission for lack of money. The Personnel Department, having filled all the positions at its command with those applicants best qualified, communicates with the remaining applicants on its lists and advises them that they would be unwise to register in the University unless their financial position improves sufficiently to carry the expenses they will inevitably contract. There is nothing, however, to prevent these individuals from ignoring the advice of the Department and entering the Freshman Class in the vague hope that money will turn up somewhere.

One of two things almost invariably happens to these men. They may come to college in the vague hope that something will turn up to assist them, and with the intention of living on credit until it does. In that case, they frequently spend two or three months besieging the Personnel Offices seeking work which cannot be given them, and will in time drop out and return home, leaving the University and the local tradesmen saddled with a number of bad debts. On the other hand, they may enter a student employment competition on their own initiative and thus occupy a position reserved by the Personnel Department for some other applicant. If the individual takes this course, he places the department in the position of assisting an inferior man to the exclusion of an abler one. The result in either case acts to the detriment of the individual, the University and the undergraduate body as a whole.

If, instead of advising applicants to whom it can offer no work not to come to Princeton, the Department of Personnel and the Board of Admissions cooperated in refusing to enroll these men unless they could prove that their finances had become adequate, the unfortunate alternatives would be eliminated. The individuals excluded would probably find a career at some less expensive institution more satisfactory, and the strain on the University would unquestionably be lessened. For this reason, the Princetonian urges that some policy of definite exclusion of surplus applicants for student employment be put into effect as soon as possible. The Princetonian.