Assistant Dean Describes the Method Used in Judging Freshman Students

Yesterday some of the factors used to estimate the scholastic ability of students were revealed by one of the assistant deans.

A rough appraisal of the following features is followed: the quarter of the class into which the man's ability put him in school his admission record, and his scholastic aptitude tests. The school attended by the man in question is also taken into consideration as affecting his examination record. Thus if the school were an excellent preparatory one, a fine record would not carry so much weight as in the case of a high school which did not happen to prepare its men as well for the entrance examinations.

Princeton and Yale, it is understood, attempt to set for each man a definite bogey which is a percentage rating of the level of scholarship that should be attained in consideration of the student's intellectual capacity. Princeton employs an elaborate method of figuring the bogey, based on how men of the same school as that of the student in question have done on entrance examinations, and how the same men have succeeded in college. Yale makes use of a bogey founded chiefly on scholastic aptitude tests. In this direction both colleges attempt to be more scientific than Harvard, which believes that a combination of several factors is more reliable than any single one.

However, the assistant dean went on to say, Harvard is interested rather in large discrepancies than in small ones. Last year an attempt was made to pick out men who should have been doing well, but for some reason were not. But Yale is attempting even to forecast the scholastic average of a freshman, his educational aptitudes, and his likelihood of success after graduation. Yet, to the assistant dean's way of thinking, a definite classification of a man's future possibilities helps neither him nor the college; it may be of scientific interest, but not of practical value.

Professor A. B. Crawford of the personnel department at Yale, in reference to the discovery of the surprisingly small correlation between college-board grades and Freshman marks, said: "Should further research substantiate these findings, they would necessarily cast considerable doubt upon the validity and reliability of the present type of examinations."