History and Lit

A student who decides in November of his sophomore year that he wants to change his field of concentration to History and Literature is practically assured of disappointment. Financial limitations and a feeling that a small department is somehow better have led the Committee on History and Literature to control carefully the number of undergraduate concentrators it admits.

The bulk of admissions to History and Lit, as to any other field, are made in the Spring of the applicant's freshman year. A few more students, some of them with sophomore standing, are admitted in the first two weeks of the Fall term. Up to this time, admissions requirements are neither strictly enforced nor unreasonably high: Group III standing, ordinarily, and a reading knowledge of a foreign language. Later in the year, however, it is virtually impossible for a student to gain admittance to the program. Since the Committee admits that the first half of sophomore tutorial is not irreplaceable and that the students who apply later in their sophomore year are often exceptionally well qualified, the situation is evidently unsatisfactory to all concerned.

If it were feasible, the fairest and most reasonable solution to this difficulty would be to expand the program. Possibly, the experimental nature of the program at one time required that it be kept very small. By now, however, it should be well enough established to make unnecessary the exclusion of large numbers of qualified candidates.

If the Committee is unable or unwilling to expand the program, however, it should at least act to end a situation in which admission is refused to candidates whose qualifications and particularly whose motives for applying are often superior to those of their classmates who have already been accepted. It is very hard for a freshman to make an informed evaluation of the merits of History and Lit. Because the field includes material from so many departments, few freshmen will have the experience necessary to foresee what the work will be like.

The Committee sees the field as employing the tools of several disciplines to study a limited area. The freshman, however, views it as a field virtually without limits--one which removes the necessity for deciding between the social sciences and the humanities.

The freshman has difficulty envisaging the aims of History and Lit because he has had no experience with departmentalization and concentration. The experience of sophomore tutorial in any field often uncovers the limitations of particular disciplines and clarifies the function of the interdisciplinary major. After this experience within a department, the sophomore is far more likely to select History and Lit because he seeks a focus for his work which is different, not merely less demanding, than that offered by other fields.

The close ties between History and Lit and a number of other fields should make it easier, not harder, to switch into the program after the beginning of the sophomore year. The shift can still be a relatively minor one in terms of course requirements and is more likely to reflect intelligent re-evaluation of concentration than restless dissatisfaction.

Some provisions should be made for admitting a reasonable number of applicants as late as February of the sophomore year. If the program cannot be expanded, spaces ought to be left open through the Fall term. The doors now close firmly after the first few weeks of the semester. The result would be more satisfactory if the requirements were tightened earlier and the late applicants, or those whose qualifications seemed questionable, were directed to come back at midyears. By allowing itself to consider for admission these candidates who have decided they wish to enter History and Lit after some experience with what concentra-actually involves, the Committee will be strengthening its own program as well as keeping the field open to those most likely to profit from it.