Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/224

 194 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO examination. On September 26, 1892, a week before the opening, President Harper wrote the following to Mr. Gates: People are beginning to realize that we are aiming to establish a high-grade institution. Certainly over two hundred men have been turned away because we would not receive their certificates. The Freshman class will number about one hundred and twenty, and about the same number will enter advanced classes, so that the undergraduate department will include about two hundred and fifty students. The graduate [department] as it now looks will include about one hundred and fifty. The number of undergraduate students might easily have been tripled. We are all more than satisfied. We shall certainly have a magnificent set of men and women. There has been a great temptation, of course, to admit students unprepared according to our standards, but we have constantly held ourselves in restraint, and while many men doubtless have been disgruntled, because of our refusal to admit their sons, we have felt that to be the only wise thing to do. You have no idea of the pressure which has been brought to bear to admit the sons of certain men, but I have determined that we shall be as impartial, or as heartless, if you will, as Harvard or Yale. Most of the Board of Trustees uphold me in this policy. Some, I am inclined to think, would rather have seen the bars let down. The fruitage will appear another year We have been obliged to make chapel exercises voluntary because there is no room in which all the students could be accommodated. The outlook for the Divinity School is most excellent. There will be surely over two hundred students, thus bringing a total of about six hundred. This is all that, with any degree of satisfaction, we can accommodate. As it turned out, the total number of students enrolled during the first year was seven hundred and forty- two. This was exclusive of the attendance at the University Academy at Morgan Park where there had been above one hundred. Three days before the opening day, October i, 1892, the Secretary reviewing the preceding two years wrote as follows regarding the probable attend- ance of students: Correspondence has been had with nearly three thousand students who expressed a desire to enter. Very many of them will spend another year in preparatory studies and report for entrance next year. Meantime, the University will have as great an attendance as it is prepared to care for during its first year. Thereafter it will be ready to receive all who come prepared to take its courses. This is the story of the gathering of the students of the first year. As was said at the beginning, they gathered themselves.