type. It is a little world by itself. The professors and students are
separated from the common activities of life, and a common feeling
unites all in a common bond. There are poured into this community the
hopes, aspirations, habits, and tastes of the different students,
which are soon molded into a common life, and become, in turn, an
important factor in forming the character and directing the life of
the student.
The college classes become the organic centers of college life. For
four years the students meet, at least in the smaller colleges, in
the same lecture rooms for common studies, and become acquainted with
each other's talents, tempers, and characteristics. It is within this
charmed circle that the students find their associates and form warm
and lasting friendships. It is not to be wondered at that class spirit
runs high and class sentiment becomes a strong abiding power with the
student. It is worth much to any young man or woman to be initiated
into this hallowed sanctuary and catch its spirit and receive its
uplifting influence. These central forces of the college classes
naturally combine into a community with a common life. Thus each
college comes to have a _genius loci_ of its own. The subtle and
fascinating influence of the common life and spirit is the _esprit de
corps_ of a college, and exerts no small influence over the life of
the students. It gives exhilaration and stimulus to the students, and
its formative power is felt throughout their lives, molding character
and giving form to their opinions and direction to their aims, so
that the college becomes a real _Alma Mater_. It is this spirit that
makes and enforces a peculiar sentiment in the college community,
which becomes almost as strong as positive law. These influences
emanate in various ways. No one can trace them to their ultimate
source, but all feel the effect of these dominant forces, and realize
that their lives are, in some measure, gradually but surely becoming
molded and shaped by them. These influences are among the most
cherished recollections in after years, and unite the student to his
college with affectionate regard. There is certainly no better place
for our youth to form and solidify a manly character, and develop
independent convictions and humanitarian sympathies which will be of
lasting satisfaction.
Noah Porter, in speaking of the benefits of association in a college
community, truthfully says: "It is enough for us to be able to assert
that thousands of the noblest men, who stand foremost in the ranks of
social and professional life, would be forward to acknowledge that
they are indebted to the cultivating influences of college friendships
and college associations for the germs of their best principles, their
noblest aspirations, and their most refined tastes. * * * True
manhood, in intellect and character, is in no community so sagaciously
discerned and so honestly honored as in this community. Pretension and
shams are in none more speedily and cordially detected and exposed.
Whether displayed in manners or intellectual efforts, conceit is
rebuked and effectually repressed. Modest merit and refined tastes are
appreciated, first by the select few, and then by the less discerning
many. Each individual spectator of the goings-on of this active life
is learning intellectual and moral lessons which he cannot forget if
he would, and which he would not if he could, and he comes away with a
rich freight of the most salutary experiences of culture in his
tastes, his estimates of character, his judgments of life, as well as
of positive achievements in literary skill and power."
Some of the effective means of social life among the students are the
_open_ and the _secret_ societies. They are purely voluntary, and are
originated and managed by the members.
The _Greek Letter Societies_ are _secret_, and prevail in nearly all
colleges. They are generally limited to ten or twenty members, and the
chapters in the different colleges bear a friendly and mutual relation
to each other. Among the Eastern colleges, nearly all these societies
have elegant chapter houses, in which the members have rooms, and
where they enjoy homelike comforts; while in the Western colleges the
societies have attractive rooms, with tasteful appointments, which
become a place of rendezvous for their members. Their only bond is
congeniality. Some very different types of character are manifest in
these societies. Students group themselves according to their common
tastes, habits, and character. Some societies aim at scholarship or
literary excellence, while others make wealth or social qualities an
essential requirement. Even "fast fellows," if there be such, are
eager to group themselves together into a secret society. A few of
these societies are of a literary character, but the object of the
majority is to promote sociability. It is claimed that their influence
in some colleges is positively injurious, while in others they are
beneficial and helpful in cultivating social qualities and in
establishing warm intimate friendships among the members.
It is a question whether the attendant evils do not offset their
advantages. They are expensive, and often accompanied with
distractions unfavorable to student life. Sometimes the late hours and
suppers and other convivial indulgences absorb time and lower
scholarship. They afford opportunity secretly to do evil. The members
may plan escapades and hatch intrigues, and cover them up so as to
make it almost impossible for the college authorities to discover the
guilty ones. Yet many excellent things are said of them and of the
mutual benefits to their members.
The _open_ societies, devoted exclusively to literary work, need no
justification. They are voluntary associations for general literary
and forensic culture. Oratorical and literary accomplishments are a
prerequisite to the highest success and usefulness. The student who
improves the opportunities of these societies need not neglect his
regular college work, but in them can train himself to think
consecutively, and gain facility of expression and an acquaintance
with parliamentary law. If he makes faithful preparation, he will
escape bombast and loose thinking and expression, and will become
familiar with public movements, political questions, and social
tendencies. For these and other reasons the literary societies should
be encouraged, and students should consider it a privilege to become
members of the same.
Political clubs are, likewise, organized among the colleges to promote
the success of their several parties and the triumph of their
respective principles. At the time of national contests the clubs are
especially active at mass meetings, in joint debates, and speeches,
which set forth the merits of party principles and candidates. These
experiences are both pleasant and instructive. The dignified
participation of students in active political work tends to fire their
patriotism and better equip them for the important social and civil
duties of life. Political leagues are now organized in nearly all our
colleges, with a view to strengthen the political party ties of the
students in the several colleges and extend the party spirit and
principle.
Glee clubs and other musical clubs, together with classical and
scientific clubs, likewise afford ample opportunity for cultivating
social life, and furnish pleasant entertainment.
Interest in athletic sports and outdoor amusements is often intense.
Foot-ball and base-ball are the most popular games. Boat clubs are
especially popular at Harvard and Yale. Bicycle clubs and lawn tennis
clubs are made quite enjoyable to a large class of students.
College students also edit and publish college newspapers and
journals. They are issued as daily, weekly, or monthly papers, and are
supposed to voice the sentiment of the college and reflect its social,
intellectual, and moral conditions. These journals help to keep the
alumni and the undergraduate students in touch with the college and
its work.
The religious life in college is very important. One of the primary
purposes of the founders of American colleges was to promote such a
religious life among students that they would go forth into all
vocations as religious teachers and leaders of the people. This
religious purpose has not been entirely thwarted. The general
religious interest was never more marked and aggressive than at
present. From one-half to five-sevenths of the students in American
colleges make an open confession of Christ. In 1893, there were 70,419
young people in Protestant colleges. Of these, 38,327 were members of
churches. Within the last few years the religious tone of our colleges
has been elevated and improved. The average American student feels the
need of educating the spiritual nature, and that there is no better
way to attain this end than through a knowledge of the Bible and the
soul touch of the Christ-life.
College authorities, recognizing the student's need of daily spiritual
food, almost universally require once a day attendance at college
prayers, which last from fifteen to thirty minutes. The students have
frequent opportunities to meet the college pastor or one of the
professors for conversation on personal religion.
Revivals are of frequent occurrence in many of our American colleges.
These religious awakenings are strong and pervasive, and not only show
the deep religious interest, but give a Christian tone to the body of
students. The extent and intensity of these revivals in some colleges
is so manifest that from three-fourths to nine-tenths of the graduates
go out from their halls professing Christians.
The Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations are organized
in nearly all the colleges, to secure growth in the Christian life and
to encourage aggressive work among the students. They have either
separate buildings on the college campus, or rooms fitted up in some
of the college buildings, for their regular religious meetings. These
associations are operated through standing committees, composed of one
or more members from each college class. These societies have done
much to awaken, increase, and intensify the interest of the students
in religious matters, and by prayer and mutual sympathy have
strengthened each other's Christian character and principles during
the trying years of college life.
The morals of students should not be expected to rise much above the
morals of the homes from which they come. The formative period of the
student begins prior to college life. Parents who neglect this
opportune time for training the moral life should not place this
responsibility upon college professors and expect them to make up for
parental neglect. It is a well-known fact, however, that only a very
small per cent. of college students are known to be immoral. The
prevalence of the drinking habit is decreasing. In one or two of the
Eastern colleges a large per cent. of the students will take a social
glass on public occasions and at inter-collegiate games, but in
Western colleges this custom is rarely practiced. Money supplied by
over-indulgent parents is the occasion of most of the immoralities.
There is no general laxity of college law and sentiment in regard to
the morals of the student. Most college authorities deal severely with
known cases of drunkenness, theater going, and gambling.
The consensus of opinion among college authorities is that the morals
of students are better than those of the same number of youth outside
the college. "Our opinion is," says Noah Porter, "and we believe it
will be confirmed by the most extended observation and the most
accurate statistics, that there is no community in which the
pre-eminently critical period of life can be spent with greater safety
than it can in the college." President Timothy Dwight bears this
testimony: "There is no community of the same number anywhere in the
world which has a better spirit, or is more free from what is
unworthy, than the community gathered within our university borders.
The religious life of the community has been earnest and sincere. The
proportion of Christian men in the university is very large, and the
influence exerted by them is manifest in its results."
President Thwing says: "I do believe, and believe upon evidence, that
the morals of the American college student are cleaner than the morals
of the young man in the office, or behind the counter, or at the
bench. His life and associations belong to the realm of the intellect,
not to the realm of the appetite. His discipline is a training in that
virtue the most comprehensive of all virtues--the virtue of
self-control. He is able to trace more carefully than most the
relations of cause and effect in the sphere of moral action. He
recognizes the penalties of base indulgence. It is, therefore, my
conviction that the college man is at once less tempted to the
satisfaction of evil appetites, and less indulgent towards this
satisfaction, than are most young men."
The _expenses_ in college vary according to the means and dispositions
of the students themselves. In making general estimates, it is
impossible to be strictly accurate.
The average cost per year of an education at Harvard is estimated at
about $900; at Yale and Columbia, $700; at Princeton, Boston, Cornell,
and Amherst, $600; at Wellesley, Smith, and Vassar Colleges, $500 to
$600. The average cost of an education in most Western colleges does
not exceed $300 or $400. At Oberlin College, Wooster University, and
the Ohio Wesleyan University the average yearly expenses are reduced
to $200 or $250.
It is evident that higher education is more expensive in Eastern than
in Western colleges. The difference arises from various causes. The
tuition ranges from $100 to $150 in Eastern colleges, and from $30 to
$50 in Western colleges. Again, the professors in most of the Western
colleges receive smaller salaries than those in the Eastern colleges.
In many of the smaller college towns the cost of living is low.
Then the student's personal and social habits play an important part
in making up the general average. The large room rent and elaborate
furnishings, expensive athletic sports, and costly fraternity life is
much more manifest in the Eastern than in the Western colleges. The
students are prone to follow the standards of home expenses, and fall
in with the spirit of the wealthy social class, and indulge in
elaborate living. Parents should discourage any display of wealth or
extravagance in college if they wish their sons not to spend their
time attending clubs, theaters, and questionable places of amusement,
but to devote their attention to attaining true scholarship.
The student's manner of living varies according to location and
circumstances. In Eastern colleges the students reside mostly in
dormitories located on the college campus, or in fraternity chapter
houses, and secure their board outside in clubs or restaurants. These
rooms rent from $50 to $300 a year, and the price of board varies
from $3 to $7 per week. The dormitory system does not prevail to any
great extent among Western colleges. Students rent rooms in private
residences, paying from 50 cents to $2 per week, and find board in
families or clubs at a cost of $2 to $3 per week. The students
boarding in clubs are comparatively free from restraints, and often
fail to cultivate the social amenities and table manners which should
characterize a cultivated gentleman. For this reason, boarding in
private families, where a woman's presence usually lends grace and
dignity to social life at the table, is better for the student. The
college student cannot afford, for the sake of cheapness in club life,
to become rude or coarse. The people look to the college-trained man
for that inherent polish which reveals itself in good taste and
refined manners. Success and usefulness in life often depend upon
these small matters.
The students in American colleges are not measured by social and
financial standards. The colleges sustain democratic ideals and
methods by discouraging costly luxury, and encouraging simplicity of
living without making life bare of all that is elevating and refining.
They believe that "plain living and high thinking" is the way to call
out the talent hedged about by financial difficulties, as well as to
spur those gifted with fortune to higher aims and nobler efforts. The
student who has the promise of a large inheritance has intimate social
relations with those whose only capital is brain and heart. The true
college test is thus expressed by President Thwing: "Brain is the only
symbol of aristocracy, and the examination room the only field of
honor; the intellectual, ethical, spiritual powers the only test of
merit; a mighty individuality the only demand made of each, and a
noble enlargement of a noble personality the only ideal." This is a
healthful condition in college life, and tends to develop in the
student self-respect and independence as an essential element in true
citizenship.
Students of limited means are encouraged to secure an education. The
young man of ability and perseverance, who commands the esteem of the
college community, will receive encouragement and support to complete
his course in college. There are many charitable foundations to help a
needy young man in college. Harvard gives away annually to students
nearly $100,000 in prizes, scholarships, and fellowships. Cornell has
six hundred free scholarships, and other colleges deal generously with
earnest and worthy students. The hesitating young man who desires an
education would do well to follow Franklin's advice, "Young man, empty
your purse in your head." If necessity requires that the student
should go through college poorly dressed and with plain living, he can
afford to face these apparent disadvantages when he is confident that
within a few years, by force of application, he can win a position of
honor and independence as the reward of true merit. It is a
significant fact that the majority of the students in our American
colleges come from homes of moderate means, and that fully one-third
are earning their way through college.
VI.
THE PERSONAL FACTORS IN A COLLEGE EDUCATION.
One of the personal elements entering into a college education is the
choice of a college to attend. This decision is a problem of the first
importance, and should not be left to ignorance or caprice, but ought
to be carefully considered, inasmuch as it largely involves the future
type of character a student will have after the formative period of
college life. The college puts a life-long stamp upon its graduates.
It largely shapes their tastes, determines the company they keep, and
greatly influences the serious work of their lives. There are a few
principles by which we may test the excellence of a college without
undue disparagement of any.
In the first place, a young man or woman should select a college where
the standard of scholarship is high. The number and extent of studies
in the college curriculum is not so important as the quality and tone
of instruction. The world has come to require accuracy and
thoroughness in instruction. What little a student knows he ought to
know thoroughly, and then he can speak and act with assurance. A low
intellectual tone or lack of critical work on the part of a college
has a debilitating influence on the student. The professors should
have a ripe scholarship, and be earnest and strong in their work, as
well as inspire scholarly ambitions. Their bearing should be kind,
courteous, and gentlemanly, in order that the students may come to
possess more manly and womanly qualities of character as well as
scholarship. Such teachers, in close personal contact with students,
will awaken new powers, and help to discipline the mind to clear
thinking, and impart noble impulses that will enrich manhood and
womanhood.
Again, the college buildings, libraries, apparatus, and general
equipment are important, but not as essential as the teaching force.
President Gates says: "Harvard ranked as a small training college, and
had no cabinets illustrative of science, when she trained Emerson and
Holmes and Lowell, among all her gifted sons still her triple crown of
glory. Bowdoin had no expensive buildings upon her modest campus when
Hawthorne and Longfellow there drank at the celestial fount. Amherst,
among her purple hills, boasted no wealth of appliances or endowment
when she printed the roll of undergraduates rendered forever
illustrious by the names of Richard S. Storrs, Henry Ward Beecher, and
Roswell D. Hitchcock. Presidents Woolsey and Wayland, and Mark Hopkins
and Martin B. Anderson, were trained for their noble and ennobling
work in colleges which lacked rich appliances and thronging numbers."
Such, however, has been the growth of the sciences and advancement in
the methods of teaching, that in our modern schools for superior
instruction the well-equipped college has a decided advantage over
those with meager appliances.
Likewise, select a college where the life and _esprit de corps_ is the
very best. The college is not an exercising ground for the intellect
alone, but a place for inspiring ideas and aims. These are the soul of
college life. They are more important than college buildings,
endowment or libraries.
The religious principle should have the ascendancy in the choice of a
college, because religion demands the supreme place in life. The moral
and religious character is by no means fixed when the student enters
college, and he needs to come into a pure Christian atmosphere, where
the heart, as well as the mind, is molded and stimulated.
Other things being equal, the student should favor a college of his
own denomination, or the one that he thinks best represents the spirit
and form of Christianity. His church affiliations should be
strengthened. In advising this, we do so not from any sectarian
bigotry. The probabilities are that if the student attends a college
of another denomination, the impressions made may tend to produce
indifference to the church of his fathers, or weaken his own Christian
efficiency in it. The young should maintain personal loyalty to the
church that has helped to build up their Christian character and to
inspire in them a thirst for a broader culture.
It is claimed to be an advantage to the student living in the West to
select a college in his own state, where he will form his friendships
and associations, which afterward may be of value to him in his chosen
profession. In such cases, it is thought advisable to take graduate
work in the East, in some university which is pre-eminent for its
special courses, libraries, laboratories, and appliances. On the other
hand, it would often be an advantage for the Eastern student to take
work in the best universities of the West.
We come now to speak of some of the _personal hindrances and
advantages_ in acquiring an education. Student life has its
hindrances. All have not the same capacity to assimilate culture. It
requires more effort for some to master a college course than for
others. A thorough college training costs arduous labor. Many are not
willing to pay the price, and to practice the self-denial necessary to
acquire the power to think and master the great subjects of study. It
demands all the force of a strong conviction and an earnest resolution
to go through college and win a place among the thinkers of the world.
One reason why so many students enter college and drop out before they
complete their course of study, arises from the fact that they have
not acquired the power of application. Their feeble wills and
intellectual lethargy succumb before mental tasks requiring eight or
ten hours of hard, earnest work a day. They should be encouraged with
the words of Lord Bacon, who says: "There is no comparison between
that which we may lose by not trying and not succeeding, since by not
trying we throw away the chance of an immense good, and by not
succeeding we only incur the loss of a little human labor."