College Grades

Harvard has gone back to old practice. Marks are to be made public. Students will be graded in six groups: Highest distinction, high distinction, distinction; high pass, pass and low pass. Flat failures, which irate professors used to class as E or F, will be kept for the private information of the student and his family.

In the days of A, A minus, B plus, B, etc., there was often lacking incentive to aim higher than the minimum. Many men who could do much better merely sought to avod too many Ds. Some few worked for high marks, but the stimulus which comes from competition and plublicity and which helped make prowness in athletics so much desired, was lacking in academic fields. Many men who would rather perish than be called slackers in athletics were willing to dodge all but the bare necessities in studies.

The new system should develop many a latent ambition. The knowledge that their fellow classmates, and even the world at large, may know just how they stand in their studies will have potent influence. Not only will the family receive the list of marks--a list that often lacks significance and is glibly interpreted by the student--but all his friends may know just how he stands. He will see that "dumb-bell" from Dedham stands well above his friend whom he used to think was pretty clever. Perhaps in the finals be will be able to outdistance the crack student in his group.

It is interesting that this public marking returns at Harvard upon the recommendation of the Student Council, which is the undergraduate body for the consideration of the best, interests of the college. This body felt that open grading would lead to a higher standard of scholarship. It would also make it possible to give credit to men burdened with extra-curriculum duties, and to call attention to those who just escaped failure. New York Tribune