Yale agrees that the student may not need grades, and the experiments in New Haven are especially interesting because they show several different programs operating at once under the faculty and one administration, and used by individual students according to their individual needs.

An overwhelming number of Yale students still take the ordinary course system, modified as it is by some General Education ideas of President A. Whitney Griswold. But there are programs which permit individuals of proven ability to work with increased degrees of independence and responsibility.

The first of these is the Scholar of the House program, in which courses are optional for a group of about twelve exceptional seniors. They hold biweekly meetings, and read papers to each other, while pursuing reading and writing under the guidance of a person who is equivalent to a tutor.

Another experiment is the Divisional Majors Honors Program. This is something of a History and Lit approach to the Swarthmore honors program, though in some fields it is not restricted to honors candidates. The student takes seminars that cut across departmental lines in each of his last two years, with tutorial work, some additional reading, and possibly course work on the side. This program leads to an important series of Comprehensive Examinations. Grades are not given.

Course Reduction

This program is growing, but it will never include too large a number of Yale students, though it will certainly have wider application than the scholars of the House plan.

Yale uses these forms of independent study to work for realization of President A. Whitney Griswold's hope that "just as democracy puts the fulfillment of opportunity up to its citizens, the new Yale College program puts the fulfillment of opportunity up to its students." The Scholar of the House program goes further, but both support Griswold's idea that for "the student of unusual maturity and ability... nothing short of maximum challenge will evoke a maximum response."

Just how much is Harvard doing to evoke such a response?

Tutorial for credit and course reduction offer gradeless, relatively independent study for some students. The line between between them is vague, and it is difficult to assess the extent to which tutorial for credit suceeds when it is anything besides a thesis course. Not too many students avail themselves of this privilege, and it is not vigorously pushed by many departments.

Statistics demonstrate the insignificance of course reduction. It was first aailable in the spring of 1955, when ten students made use of it to eliminate one half course in favor of independent study. In the fall of 1955, 19 students used it, and in the spring of last year, 17. Nine participated last fall, and while 20 are now under the program, there is no sign of any consistent upward trend, or any especially meaningful number using the program.

No Supervision

There are certain peculiar aspects to the program. The first is that the student is usually without supervision, once he has been accepted in the program. His Department, usually History or History and Literature, recommends him for the program on the basis of a suggested project of study which is paralleled by no course in the University. The Committee on Advanced Standing will usually accept the petition. All the student does from then on is up to him, and if he has many outside interests or three-time consuming courses, he may do nothing at all with his advanced standing. Harlow P. Hanson '46, director of advanced standing, does not regard the failure to study under course reduction as too grave a problem. He says, "Intellectual worth can be derived from a slackening of pace. Too many people here are tying their shoelaces while they run."

Hanson has discovered that many of the students who had course reduction regretted the lack of direction in the program. They would like some formal supervision for their work, to prevent neglect of their projects. Hanson, however, feels that this is purely a departmental problem.

Another serious handicap to course reduction is its lack of publicity. Students can learn about it in various official