Should Students Study?/Chapter IV

by William Trufant Foster

Are good students in high school more likely than others to become good students in college? Prof. Walter F. Dearborn tried to answer that question for the State of Wisconsin. He compared the records of hundreds of students at the University of Wisconsin with their records in various high schools. He found that above 80 per cent. of those who were in the first quarter of their high-school classes remained in the upper half of their classes throughout the four years of their university course, and that above 80 per cent. of those who were in the lowest quarter in their high-school classes failed to rise above the line of mediocre scholarship in the university. The parallelism is so striking that we are justified in concluding that, except in scattering cases, promise in the high school becomes performance in the college. Indeed, only one student out of nearly five hundred in this investigation who fell among the lowest quarter in the high school attained the highest rank in the university.

Such evidence has lead Chancellor Edward C.Elliott, of Montana, to assert that although "the world may not value highly school 'marks,' the fact remains, nevertheless, that only a specious skepticism would deny that there was no correlation between secondary, school success and college success. At any rate, in Wisconsin, there seems to be a demonstrable and positive relationship between the valuation of abilities of pupils while in high school and in university."

"These facts," concludes Professor Dearborn, "effectively dispose of the notion that students in any great numbers do differently in scholarship in the university from what they do in the high school. There is little or no foundation in the facts thus adduced for the belief, cherished most frequently perhaps by the less successful and indifferent students of the high school, that the bright pupils often 'fag out' or find that the university courses demand more sterling or, at least different, abilities from those demanded by the high school, and that others then find opportunity to show what is in them, and soon surpass their more precocious but less enduring classmates. All this may occur in individual cases, but quite the opposite is the rule. Those who get the best start in high school maintain their advantage in the university."

Of course, a boy may loaf in high school and take his chance of being the one exception among five hundred. But he would hardly be taking a sporting chance; it would rather be a fool's chance. The risk would be less in going over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

The University of Chicago found that high-school students who failed to attain an average rank higher than the passing mark, by at least 25 per cent. of the difference between that passing mark and one hundred, failed in their university classes. The faculty therefore decided not to admit such students. Exceptions were made of the most meritorious cases, but few of these exceptions made satisfactory records in the university.

At Columbia University, in recent years, the grades attained in entrance examinations have proved more important indications of the candidates' college careers. Of the men entering in 1912, for example, the first in the entrance records held his place in the college, and nine of the first ten remained in the first ten throughout the freshman year. A comparison of all the high-school grades and all the college grades of the class of 1916 at Union College gives an equally positive correlation.

Basing its policy upon such evidence as this, Reed College, at the beginning of its work, decided to admit, as a rule, only students who ranked in the first third of their preparatory-school classes. Some exceptions were made. Twenty per cent. of those admitted were known to be below the first third, and 2 per cent. below the median line. In all cases these candidates were regarded as the most promising of those who fell below the first third in high-school rank, yet almost without exception they have failed to rise above the lowest quarter of their college classes. Thus, it appears that in Oregon, as in Wisconsin and Illinois and New York, those who get the best start in the lower schools maintain their advantage in the upper schools; few of their classmates overtake them.

But why strive for high rank in the college? Why not wait for the more "practical" studies of the professional school? Hundreds of boys the country over declare to-day that it makes little difference whether they win high grades or merely passable grades in the liberal arts, since these courses have no definite bearing on their intended life-work. Almost invariably they are ready to admit that they must settle down to serious effort in the studies of law, medicine, engineering—that is to say, in professional schools. Even the sport who makes the grade of mediocrity his highest aim as a college undergraduate, fully intends to strive for high scholarship in his professional studies. Does he often attain that aim? That is the question.

And that, fortunately, is a question we may answer with more than opinions. We may take, for example, all the students who graduated from Harvard College during a period of twelve years and entered the Harvard Medical School. Of the 239 who received no distinction as undergraduates, 36 per cent. graduated with honor from the Medical School. Of the 41 who received degrees of A.B. with high honor, more than 92 per cent. took their medical degrees with honor.

Still more conclusive are the records of the graduates of Harvard College who during a period of twenty years entered the Harvard Law School. Of those who graduated from college with no special honor, only 6½ per cent. attained distinction in the Law School. Of those who graduated with honor from the college, 22 per cent. attained distinction in the Law School; of those who graduated with great honor, 40 per cent.; and of those who graduated with highest honor, 60 per cent. Sixty per cent.! Bear that figure in mind a moment, while we consider the 340 who entered college "with conditions"—that is to say, without having passed all their entrance examinations—and graduated from college with plain degrees. Of these men, not 3 per cent. won honor degrees in law.

If a college undergraduate is ready to be honest with himself, he must say, "If I am consistent with mediocre work in college, it is likely that the men in my class who graduate with honor will have three times my chances of success in the Law School, and the men who graduate in my class with highest honor will have nearly ten times my chances of success." So difficult is it for a student to change the habits of life after the crucial years of college that not one man in twenty years—not one man in twenty years—who was satisfied in Harvard College with grades of "C" and lower gained distinction in the studies of Harvard Law School.

The same relation appears to persist between the promise of Yale undergraduates and their performance in the Harvard Law School. If we divide the 250 graduates of Yale who received their degrees in law at Cambridge between 1900 and 1915 into nine groups, according to undergraduate scholarship, beginning with those who won the highest "Senior Appointments" at Yale and ending with those who received no graduation honors, we find that the first group did the best work in their studies of law, the second group next, the third group next, and so on, in the same order, but with a single exception, to the bottom of the list. The performance at Harvard, of each of the eight groups of Yale honor graduates, was in precise accordance with the promise of their records at Yale.

Apparently the "good fellow" in college, the sport who does not let his studies interfere with his education, but who intends to settle down to hard work later on, and who later on actually does completely change his habits of life, is almost a myth. At least his record does not appear among those of thousands of students whose careers have been investigated under the direction of President Lowell and others. It seems that results are legal tender, but you cannot cash in good intentions.

"Dignified credit to all," cried the billboard. "Enjoy your new suit now, and pay for it later." Many a boy, lured by the instalment plan, expects to get an education on deferred payments in effort, only to find that there is no credit for him, dignified or otherwise. What his honest effort has paid for in full is his to-day; nothing more by any chance whatever.