Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/34

 having proved their worth by their election to an honorary society, they become self-satisfied and relax their industry, or whether it may be explained by the fact that the most of the men have previously lived in houses where there were few students and so find it difficult to work among so many, it is difficult to say; at any rate it is certain that the scholarship in such cases does usually drop. Statistics show this year at the University of Illinois that the scholarship standing of men outside of the fraternities who lived in houses accommodating more than a dozen men was not so good as that of the fraternities whose membership with us averages about thirty. This fact of lower scholarship was seen in the Young Men's Christian Association dormitory, in College Hall, and in practically all the places where a large number of men are housed. It seems evident from these facts that if a man is going out for high scholarship, he will most easily attain this result by living by himself. Only three or four of the twenty-five men ranking highest in the University of Illinois last semester lived in houses containing more than a half-dozen students, and in not a few cases there were no other students in the house.

It can be seen from the facts given also that the fraternity is solving its scholastic problems