Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 63.djvu/166

162 time is in Oberlin about double that in the New York University. Finally, we may call attention to the fact that in the University of Alabama and in Syracuse University, the age of graduation has remained practically unchanged, with a slight tendency to decrease.

So much for the general aspects of Table I. It will be of some interest to consider somewhat closely the changes that have come within the last two generations of college graduates, or since 1850. At this period all the colleges in our list are available for comparison; and it is since the beginning of this period that practically all the modern development of the American college has taken place. What happened before 1850, while it may be interesting, can not have the importance for us now that the changes of the past fifty years have.

At the outset, we note that of the eleven colleges in the table, the median age for one only remains quite unchanged—Syracuse. The following show increases, in months: Bowdoin, 6; Vermont, 5; New York University, 13; Wesleyan, 2; DePauw, 12; total, 38. The if following show decreases, thus: Dartmouth, 11; Adelbert, 3; Alabama, 7; Oberlin, 15; Middlebury, 1; total, 37.

The net result of the changes that have come in the age of graduation in these fifty years is more clearly presented to the eye by Table II. Here is presented a view of the medians for all the eleven colleges, wherein each college is given an equal weight, regardless of whether it be a large or a small college. By this method then is avoided the overweighting which a large college, like Dartmouth or Bowdoin, would otherwise exert on the results. The results show that in only one decade is the average of medians as high as that of 1850-59. Moreover, the last two decades show a slight decreasing tendency, making a net reduction in fifty years of two months for all the colleges.

Thus far we have dealt with the median age of graduation as distinct from the average age, and reasons have been adduced to show why the