SCHOLARSHIPS FOR GROUP IV

Except in rare instances where a man has a special claim to a restricted scholarship, students below the scholastic rating of Group III are completely ignored in awarding this type of aid. Such an arbitrary policy suggests the posibility that certain worthy individuals who get three B's and a C instead of a B average are being overlooked in favor of brain-merchants who are not so deserving in other ways. There are two factors which seem to indicate the desirability of granting scholarships to students in Group IV.

To put it pleasantly, a certain knack is involved in the accretion of consistently high grades. This includes judicious selection of courses in familiar fields, a craftily genial promotion of favorable relations with instructors, and a liberal amount of genius as Carlyle defined it,--"an infinite capacity for taking pains." If by adopting a less narrow-minded attitude towards his work, or taking a difficult course not in his field because he is interested in it, a man drops a group in his rating, that should be cause to bestow or continue a scholarship, rather than to refuse or rescind it.

Another problem with which the Group IV man has to cope is the extent of his interest in outside activities, which detract from study time and yet are worthy. It is not a question of handing out football and hockey scholarships indiscriminately, but of recognizing qualities besides those of intellect--qualities which show themselves in a man's participation in various extracurricular activities. Well-rounded men, thoroughly capable of serving society, are what Harvard tries to produce; and that aim certainly will not be furthered by sending scholars forth to delve exclusively in ancient archives, when society needs men to lead it. Group IV men who have taken an active part in prominent university activities of all sorts should not be passed over in the awarding of scholarships in favor of a collection of students with unbalanced and overspecialized interests.