JUDICIOUS HANDICAPPING

By the decision to examine candidates from the public high schools only on their last year of preparatory work, Princeton makes easier the selection of a more cosmopolitan body. The fact that very few public schools even moderately distant from the Atlantic sea-board prepare directly for the College Board examinations has frequently discriminated against the entrance of students from these institutions into Eastern universities; and his device of Princeton's like the "first seventh" rule at Harvard, is a step towards giving them an equal chance with the graduates of more experienced Eastern schools.

There are several unavoidable conditions which bring about this handicapping of distant candidates. Often the members of obscure high schools become interested in entering as Eastern college only late in their secondary course. A lack of friends and relatives with a background of collegiate experience makes it difficult to arrive at a decision that is a matter of natural sequence of boys brought up in closer touch with University traditions. As a result, the old plan of examination is out of the question and as a matter of fact seldom employed by this class of applicant as for the new plan of entrance, the lengthy reviews necessary for the successful passing of the comprehensives often prove too much for the prospective candidate, assisted by an only moderately experienced high school teacher, untutored in the ways of the Entrance Board.

At present, few and far between are the secondary schools in the Middle West that have sent a graduate to an Eastern university, and the loss is to both in the nature of things, only students with an unusual amount of initiative and intellectual curiosity ever break the chain that leads them either directly into a job or to the ministrations of a local academy of higher learning. Any measures towards removing the handicaps in the path of this type of candidate will both help to remove an unfair disadvantage and secure for the college desirable members.