Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/224



Every year at the opening of college the papers are full of the accounts of the large number of freshmen who are flocking to the various colleges and universities. I do not know what percentage of these entrants persists through the four years of their undergraduate course and come up for their degrees, but I suppose that it varies in different parts of the country and in different types of institutions. An investigation made recently by the assistant dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois showed that at this institution approximately forty per cent of those entering the freshman class of that college continued through the course and received their degree at the end of the four years. A few, perhaps, returned later to finish their work or occupied five years in the completion of their courses, but even counting these in, the percentage of matriculants who ultimately graduate would not exceed forty-five per cent. I presume that if statistics were compiled in the other colleges of the University, the result would not be particularly different from that which was shown in the College of Engineering. A good many reasons might be alleged for this large percentage of mortality,