GIFT OF 
 
ill 
 
 UNITED STATES BUREAU OF EDUCATION 
 
 • • 
 
 ISPECIAL PUBLICATION WHOLE NUMBER 501 
 
 IAN EXPLANATORY STATEMENT 
 
 IN REGARD TO 
 
 "A CLASSIFICATION OF UNIVERSITIES 
 
 AND COLLEGES WITH REFERENCE TO 
 
 BACHELOR'S DEGREES'* 
 
 BY 
 P. P. CLAXTON 
 
 COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 1912 
 
[FT 
 
 
 
AN EXPLANATORY STATEMENT IN REGARD TO 
 "A CLASSIFICATION OF UNIVERSITIES AND COL- 
 LEGES WITH REFERENCE TO BACHELOR'S DE- 
 GREES." 
 
 According to returns made to the United States Bureau of Educa- 
 tion for the year 1910-11, there were in that year in the universities 
 and technological schools of this country 10,858 students doing 
 graduate work. Of these, 8,369, or 77 per cent, were enrolled in 25 
 institutions, and 9 other institutions enrolled 539, or 5 per cent of 
 the total. Thus 82 per cent of all the graduate students in the 
 country were enrolled in 34 institutions, and only 18 per cent in 
 the remaining 568 institutions reporting to this bureau. The 
 number of graduate students is rapidly increasing. And since the 
 cost of equipment and teaching force for effective graduate work is 
 comparatively very great, the concentration of work of this kind in 
 a few of the richer institutions will doubtless increase rapidly from 
 year to year. In the same year several thousand other students were 
 enrolled in the professional schools whose standards of admission 
 require the bachelor's degree from a standard college, or the comple- 
 tion of some definite portion of the work required for graduation in 
 the same. These thousands of graduate students and students with 
 advanced standing in academic and professional schools come from 
 four or five hundred colleges, old and new, large and small, public 
 and private, rich and poor, in all parts of the country and with 
 standards varying as widely as the conditions under which they 
 work and the needs of the people they serve. 
 
 The deans and other responsible officers of the graduate and pro- 
 fessional schools naturally wish to deal justly with the large num- 
 bers of students applying annually for admission, and at the same 
 time to maintain their own standards. But, from the very nature of 
 the case, they can not examine students applying for admission as a 
 child is examined for admission to a grade in an elementary school, 
 nor can any one officer hope to know accurately the character of 
 work done in each of the hundred or more colleges and schools from 
 which men and women come seeking admission as graduate students 
 to work for advanced academic or professional degrees. The few 
 colleges from which students come to his institution in considerable 
 
 03241-12 328011 8 
 
numbers SGx^efal-'yefirs in^Succession he may soon know sufficiently 
 well to enable him to evaluate their work with some degree of accu- 
 racy and to deal with their graduates intelligently and for the best 
 interests both of the students and of the institution which he repre- 
 sents and for the maintenance of whose standards he is responsible. 
 For an evaluation of the work of other colleges from which students 
 come intermittently and in small numbers, he must depend on 
 officers in schools to which more of their graduate students go, or on 
 the judgment of disinterested persons more or less intimately ac- 
 quainted with their work and standards. To the extent that such 
 judgment is affected by the personal equation or is based on super- 
 ficial or inadequate knowledge, it must of course be unsatisfactory. 
 For these and other reasons, the deans of most of the larger graduate 
 and professional schools have for several years held annual conferences, 
 largely for the purpose of comparing notes and trying to arrive at 
 some just conclusion as to the status to be given graduates of each of 
 the several colleges from which graduate students come to their in- 
 stitutions in any considerable numbers. 
 
 Anyone at all familiar with this problem must understand its 
 importance, and it is easy to see that important economies of colleges 
 and of graduate and professional schools alike, as well as vital inter- 
 ests of the students, depend on its solution. For any adequate 
 solution there is need of some accurate information in regard to the 
 equipment, work, and standards of the colleges, just as the colleges 
 themselves desire, need, and obtain information in regard to the 
 equipment, work, and standards of the high schools and preparatory 
 schools from which they draw their students. 
 
 At the conference of deans of the larger graduate and professional 
 schools held at the University of Virginia in 1910 this question came 
 up for special consideration, and it was decided to undertake to 
 collect such definite information about all colleges sending consid- 
 erable numbers of students on for advanced work as would enable the 
 responsible officers of the graduate and professional schools to deal 
 intelligently and justly with their students and at the same time 
 protect themselves against the false representations sometimes made 
 by students in regard to standing offered them in other graduate and 
 professional schools. 
 
 Two methods of arriving at the desired results were possible: To 
 appoint a committee of their own number to undertake the work, or 
 to obtain the services of some competent and disinterested outside 
 persons or agency. The first course was open to the objection that 
 the judgment of any committee composed of deans or other officers 
 of graduate and professional schools might be suspected of being 
 influenced too much by the experiences and practices of the particular 
 institutions from which they might be chosen. An appeal was there- 
 
fore made to the United States Bureau of Education to undertake 
 this work, in the belief that it could be done here more accurately 
 and more acceptably than anywhere else. Dr. Brown, at that time 
 Commissioner of Education, recognized the magnitude and difficulty 
 of the task, but he also foresaw the good results that must come from 
 having it well done. Therefore, after careful consideration, he 
 agreed to have the work done by this bureau and assigned it to Dr. 
 Kendric C. Babcock, who had recently come to the bureau as spe- 
 cialist in higher education. It was easily apparent that this work 
 would require much time, skill, and patience, and that it must reach 
 even a tentative conclusion through several stages following upon one 
 another at rather long intervals. It was hoped, however, that- the 
 work might be allowed to proceed without undue exploitation of the 
 earlier and necessarily imperfect results. 
 
 The enormous task of visiting and examining all the colleges con- 
 cerned was clearly out of question. It could not be done in any rea- 
 sonable time. Evidently, therefore, the first step was to find as 
 nearly as possible the common or average practice of the graduate 
 and professional schools in dealing with students coming from each 
 of the more important colleges and to correct this by a careful study 
 of the experiences of each of the larger graduate and professional 
 schools with students coming from colleges within its own particular 
 sphere and of whose work and standards its officers might well be 
 supposed to have more accurate knowledge than the officers of other 
 institutions could have. Each large graduate or professional school 
 has such a sphere, which includes a larger or smaller group of col- 
 leges the majority of whose students desiring to do advanced work 
 come to it. Its officers therefore are soon possessed of knowledge 
 about these colleges which can not fail to be helpful to the officers of 
 all other graduate or professional schools at which any of the stu- 
 dents of these colleges seek admission. 
 
 By finding an^)] making known to each of the graduate and pro- 
 fessional schools the average practice of all, and to^all the more in- 
 telligent practice of each in regard to the students of colleges in its 
 own immediate and particular sphere, it was hoped that at least the 
 most obvious errors in dealing with advanced and graduate students 
 might be eliminated. This Dr. Babcock undertook to do. He visited 
 as many of the graduate and professional schools as he could, con- 
 sulted their deans and other responsible officers and examined their 
 records of students. The information thus gained he supplemented 
 by consulting the executive officers of all or most of the large edu- 
 cational boards in regard to the institutions of learning best known 
 to them, by conference with State officers and by interviews with 
 presidents and deans of State universities as to their experience with 
 graduate students coming to them from other colleges in their re- 
 
spective States. Reliance was also placed upon the somewhat full 
 and accurate information which this bureau has of many of the 
 colleges in all parts of the country, some of which have made marked 
 improvement in standards and work so recently that these improve- 
 ments have not yet been fully recognized even by the graduate and 
 professional schools with which they have the closest relations. With 
 a later stage of the work in mind, Dr. Babcock visited as many colleges 
 as he could conveniently in connection with the performance of other 
 duties, but none of these was examined with the purpose of making 
 a personal and final evaluation of its work as a whole. 
 
 After 10 months of careful investigation of the kind above indi- 
 cated, Dr. Babcock made a tentative grouping of 344 colleges, only a 
 little more than half the number reporting to this bureau, but a much 
 larger proportion of those sending graduates on for advanced work. 
 The list was confessedly incomplete and the grouping only tentative. 
 
 " Institutions whose graduates would," according to his findings, 
 " ordinarily be able to take the master's degree at any of the large 
 graduate schools in one year after receiving the bachelor's degree, 
 without necessarily doing more than the amount of work regularly 
 prescribed for such higher degree," were listed in the first group, 
 which contained the names of 59 colleges. 
 
 "Institutions whose graduates would probably require for the 
 master's degree in one of the strong graduate schools somewhat more 
 than one year's regular graduate work * * * a differential which 
 might be represented by one or two extra year courses, by one or more 
 summer school sessions, or by a fourth or fifth quarter " were placed 
 in the second group, which contained the names of 161 colleges. " In 
 accordance with the practice of some graduate schools " Dr. Babcock 
 found " a brilliant student with a brilliant record from the strong 
 institutions in this class might be admitted probationally to regular 
 candidacy, and if he gave satisfactory evidence of his ability to do 
 the prescribed work during the first term or semester he might be 
 given an individual rerating in the middle of the year and be granted 
 the higher degree on the completion of the regular minimum amount 
 of work." The colleges in this list to which this practice seemed to 
 apply were starred. Of these there were 44. This gives a total of 
 103 colleges whose better students may, according to this finding, hope 
 to make the master's degree in one year without doing more than the 
 usual amount of work, and leaves 117 whose students must to obtain 
 this degree expect to do something more than the minimum amount 
 of work required. 
 
 " Institutions whose standards of admission and graduation are 
 so low, or so uncertain, or so loosely administered as to make the 
 requirement of two years for the master's degree probable " were 
 placed in the third class, which contained the names of 84 colleges. 
 
" Institutions whose bachelor's degree would be approximately two 
 years short of equivalency of the standard bachelor's degree of a 
 standard college " were placed in the fourth group, which contained 
 the names of 40 colleges. A " standard college " was interpreted as 
 being " one requiring the usual four years of high-school work or at 
 least 14 units for admission and four years of well-distributed college 
 work for graduation, in charge of a competent faculty of not less 
 than six persons giving their whole time to college work." 
 
 " The rating of institutions in this classification is based upon the 
 course which might be followed by an ambitious student proceeding 
 under normal conditions: (1) An earnest student of good ability and 
 health who has complied with the requirements for a bachelor's 
 degree in a standard college. (2) Whose work includes a solid 
 foundation for the courses which he desires to take for the advanced 
 degree. (3) Who enters upon graduate work within a year or two 
 after taking his bachelor's degree without intervening special study 
 and without such advantages as might arise from teaching subjects 
 of a special nature in high school or college, thereby making up in 
 some part deficiencies in his college preparation for graduate work." 
 
 It is " assumed that the line of study pursued for the higher degree 
 is closely allied to the work done as an undergraduate and not widely 
 divergent, as would be the case for a graduate from a classical course 
 desiring to take a master's degree in forestry " or civil engineering. 
 
 The tentative grouping made on this basis Dr. Babcock submitted 
 to me for my inspection and approval. It seemed to be as accurate as 
 could be made without the careful criticism of the officers of the 
 graduate and professional schools on whose judgment and practice 
 it was largely based. Since it would be easier for them to review it 
 if presented in the form of a printed pamphlet rather than on multi- 
 graph sheets, as was at first suggested, I requested that it be printed 
 and treated as a proof sheet until it might be revised in the light of 
 their criticism. This was done, and 200 copies were delivered to the 
 Bureau of Education, practically all of which were sent to the deans 
 of the larger graduate and professional schools in the hope that their 
 " frank and thoroughgoing criticism " might assist the bureau in its 
 preparation of a larger and more correct list later. Through an 
 an oversight the pamphlet was not marked " Proof — Confidential " 
 as it should have been, and before the error was discovered the 
 superintendent of documents had received copies of it for distribution 
 to the depository libraries and for sale. This explains why the 
 pamphlet does not have any serial number on it, nor any statement 
 that it is a document of the United States Bureau of Education. 
 The Bureau of Education does nothing which it wishes to conceal, 
 but its work, like any other work, can not fairly be considered as 
 complete when it has only been begun, and even a cursory reading 
 
8 
 
 of this tentative statement could not fail to reveal the fact that it 
 was not intended for general publication, and that any such use of it 
 was not expected. 
 
 It seems also to have been unfortunate that the groups of colleges 
 referred to above were designated as " Class 1," " Class 2," " Class 3," 
 and " Class 4," and that the word " classification " appeared on the 
 title-page, since these facts have given offense to some who have 
 doubtlessly not read the full and specific statement that the classifi- 
 cation is " with reference to bachelor's degrees " only, on the basis, 
 and for the purpose, and from the information set forth above, and 
 only tentative. 
 
 No attempt was made to classify colleges on the basis of their 
 worth and merits as educational institutions founded and maintained 
 to serve their constituencies according to their needs and conditions, 
 nor did it have any intention of announcing " a judgment day for 
 our colleges," or doing anything more than that which is clearly 
 stated above. I know many colleges listed in the second, third, or 
 fourth group which are serving their constituencies much better 
 than they could if, in disregard of needs, conditions, and demands, 
 they should raise their requirements for admission and graduation 
 so as to put them into a higher group of this classification, made on 
 the narrow basis of the rating of their bachelor's degrees as recorded 
 at the graduate and professional schools. Neither can the place of 
 any institution in this tentative group be legitimately used for ad- 
 vertising purposes unless accompanied by a clear statement of the 
 purpose, method, and basis of the grouping and the statement that 
 it is only tentative and confessedly imperfect. 
 
 What further has been done? What is the further intention of 
 the Bureau of Education in this work 'i Briefly, as follows : 
 
 The generous criticisms and continued investigations of a year 
 have indicated the desirability of making the grouping in a some- 
 what different form and the change of about a dozen colleges to an- 
 other group from that in which they were first placed. A revision 
 of the original statement embodying these changes has been made 
 and the galley proofs of it have been sent to the officers of the gradu- 
 ate and professional schools for further criticism. When these have 
 been returned a revised statement, which will then show as clearly 
 as possible, not the independent judgment of the Bureau of Educa- 
 tion or of any of its employees, but mainly the practice of the gradu- 
 ate and professional schools in dealing with students holding the 
 bachelor's degree from any of the several colleges listed and present- 
 ing themselves for professional or advanced work, will be issued as 
 a confidential proof sheet and sent to the officers of the graduate and 
 professional schools for such assistance as it can give them in this 
 still imperfect and tentative stage, and to the presidents of the col- 
 
9 
 
 leges listed for their information as to how these colleges are rated 
 at the graduate and professional schools to which their students go 
 for advanced work, and also for the frank criticism of these presi- 
 dents and of the members of the faculties of their colleges. To have 
 sent to these presidents or to the public press the first tentative state- 
 ment before it could be corrected so as to show more accurately the 
 practice of the graduate and professional schools would have been 
 premature and unfair to graduate schools and colleges alike. 
 
 No doubt it will be discovered, when this revised statement comes 
 into the hands of the presidents of the colleges listed in it, that the 
 work and standards of many of them have not been correctly evalu- 
 ated, and that there has been danger, at least, that their graduates 
 would not be given the exact amount of credit they should receive 
 when presenting themselves ^or advanced work. That there has 
 been such danger is well known, and this knowledge constituted the 
 principal reason for undertaking this difficult and important task. 
 
 Upon request from the proper authorities of any college which 
 seems to be rated too low or too high, the bureau will gladly under- 
 take an examination of equipment, requirements, standards, and work 
 and assist in any other way it can toward having the rating cor- 
 rected, and it will issue new revisions of these proof sheets as often 
 as may seem desirable. The number of men in the bureau who can 
 give their time to this work is not sufficient to carry it forward as 
 rapidly as we and all concerned would like, but possibly a way may 
 be found by which competent assistance may be had, and no great 
 harm can come from a reasonable delay if those interested will only 
 take the trouble to inform themselves fully as to the nature and pur- 
 pose of the work and then give such assistance as they can in carrying 
 it forward. A delay of a few months, or a few years even, in the 
 accomplishment of a task of this kind and magnitude is not so im- 
 portant as that it may finally be done honestly, faithfully, and in- 
 telligently. 
 
 There can be little doubt, on the other hand, that some colleges 
 will find they have defects of which they have not been aware. The 
 frank, but unbiased, criticism from the outside, which should be 
 welcomed by all educational institutions, may reveal defects and 
 weaknesses in equipment, requirements for admission, standards of 
 graduation, organization, and teaching not realized by those charged 
 with their government and conduct. Many of these will ask, as 
 some have already done, that the bureau send some competent person 
 to examine them thoroughly in the light of his broader knowledge 
 of similar institutions in all parts of the country, point out frankly 
 their particular defects, and offer such advice as he can for their im- 
 provement. The bureau will always respond to such a request to the 
 extent of its ability, or perhaps expert and disinterested advice may 
 
10 
 
 be obtained from other sources. In this way many colleges may 
 easily be brought up to the desired standard, which their officers and 
 supporters, in the fullness of love and zeal,' supposed they had already 
 attained. 
 
 Some colleges will say, no doubt, as they should, that they are less 
 concerned about the standing of their few graduates who go else- 
 where for advanced work than about meeting the obligations placed 
 upon them by the needs of the people they serve or the educational 
 conditions of the States or sections in which they are located. They 
 will rightly choose rather to serve the purposes for which they were 
 founded and are maintained, with low standards of admission and 
 graduation, than to prove recreant to their trust by attempting to 
 raise these standards prematurely. They will either ask to be re- 
 moved from the list because of their disregard of all standards or 
 to be retained because of their honest desire to have their standards 
 and purposes known as they are. 
 
 Finally, it will be possible to publish to the world a statement of 
 the standing of colleges in respect to the value of their bachelor's 
 degrees, which will for the time be approximately complete and cor- 
 rect. No such statement can ever be final. It will need careful re- 
 vision from year to year as new colleges come into existence and old 
 ones go out of existence or change their standards through growth or 
 decay. Such revision will, however, not be so difficult after an ap- 
 proximately correct statement of the standing of existing colleges has 
 once been made. 
 
 Why should the Bureau of Education have undertaken this task, 
 and having begun it, why continue it? T^Hiat adequate results are to 
 be expected ? These questions have been partially answered already. 
 
 For one thing, when the work has been completed to the extent 
 indicated above, or to a lesser degree even, there will no longer be 
 the danger which now exists of unjust treatment of students from 
 one college applying for admission for graduate or advanced work in 
 another. It must be recognized and admitted that some of this 
 danger arises from the natural tendency to overestimate the work of 
 old, large, and wealthy institutions as compared with that of those 
 which are younger, smaller, or less wealthy. Only a few days ago I 
 was told of a student who, having received a bachelor's degree from 
 a college well known and much honored in its section, applied for 
 admission as a graduate student working for the master's degree in a 
 university in another section, with the expectation of being able to 
 do the work required in one year, or in two at most. This student, 
 however, was informed that before she could be admitted to graduate 
 work she would have to do two years' work for the bachelor's degree 
 of that institution. I know both of these institutions and believe 
 the average graduate of the first should be admitted to higher stand- 
 
ing at the second than was granted this young woman, and that its 
 standard and work are higher and better than the authorities of the 
 second institution seem to think. If they are not, then the authori- 
 ties of the first institution, its faculty and students, the people who 
 support it, and the State it serves should know it. 
 
 Many colleges whose standards are low and whose work is not so 
 good as it might be will, when they have become conscious of their 
 defects, take delight in remedying them, and their supporters will 
 find equal pleasure in providing the necessary funds to enable them 
 to do better work and to attain the standards to which they, in their 
 affection and pride, imagined they had already attained. With this 
 raising of standards of the colleges there will come a general improve- 
 ment in all the schools from which they draw students and the possi- 
 bility of a better and a more thorough work in all the universities 
 and professional schools to which they send their graduates. 
 
 Sooner or later, let us hope soon, colleges whose equipment, endow- 
 ment, income, purpose, or constituency will not permit them to 
 do more than two years of college work will frankly acknowledge it, 
 deal honestly with themselves, their students, and the people who 
 contribute to their support, cease to give for two years of college 
 work degrees that are generally understood to be given only as a 
 reward of four years of such work, or to spend unwisely the larger 
 part of their income on a very few students in the higher classes to 
 the neglect of much larger numbers in the lower classes, face their 
 conditions and tasks frankly and do thoroughly and well the work 
 they can and should do without undue temptation to deceive them- 
 selves, their students, those who contribute to their support, or the 
 general public. 
 
 It will, I believe, also be possible, without increasing the danger 
 of a deadening, mechanical uniformity, to so standardize the work 
 of all our colleges that a year's work in any course at any college 
 will mean practically the same as a year's work in the same course 
 at any other college, and that students may go from one to another 
 freely, receiving full credit for work done and without loss of time 
 and progress. Such interchange of students is very desirable and 
 for many reasons must become more general than it has been in 
 the past. 
 
 Finally, more accurate information in regard to our colleges will 
 be accessible to foreigners, and a more just rating of them by foreign 
 universities to which our students go will be possible, both of which 
 ends are to be desired, especially by the smaller colleges whose size 
 and wealth are not such as to attract foreign attention but whose 
 work may nevertheless be of the highest type. 
 
 These last three results are not to be hoped for immediately, nor 
 do I* believe they were foreseen clearly enough to be counted as 
 
1^ 
 
 reasons for the beginning of this work which the Bureau of Edu- 
 cation has undertaken. But that they may grow out of it. if the 
 bureau can have for its completion the hearty cooperation of college 
 men which it should have, seems quite possible. That it will have 
 such cooperation when the nature and purpose of the work are fully 
 understood, I firmly believe, for college men are honest, unselfish, 
 and reasonable. It is their mission to find and teach the truth and 
 their profession to do whatever they can for the good of all the 
 people and for the sound advancement of the institutions by which 
 the people are served. More than others they know that things are 
 as they are and that no profit can come from any kind of deception, 
 either of self or of others, that freedom comes from knowing the 
 truth, and profit from its fearless and unselfish application. 
 
 The Bureau of Education has no selfish interest in this or any 
 other work. It desires only to serve wisely and effectively. Having 
 undertaken this task with a more or less full realization of its magni- 
 tude and difficulty and some understanding of its importance, it 
 believes it would be open to the just accusation of recreancy to duty 
 if it did not carry it forward faithfully toward completion. By 
 doing this it seems quite certain it may fulfill a part of the high 
 function for which it was established, viz, " for the purpose of col- 
 lecting such statistics and facts as shall show the condition and 
 progress of education in the several States and Territories, and of 
 diffusing such information * * * as shall aid the people of the 
 United States in the establishment and maintenance of efficient 
 schools and school systems and otherwise promote the cause of 
 education throughout the country." 
 
 V P. P. Claxton, 
 
 Gom/missioner. 
 
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