That No Foot Shall Slide

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EACH year thousands of men and women fresh from their exposure to a higher education storm the gates of industry and the professions, or the offices of educators who will pass on their fitness for further exposure. Each one of them has at hand, or at call, a document containing at least the unsifted evidences of his achievements, and a cryptic phrase honorable dismissal granted. Statistics do not tell us, but from an inspection of those transcripts which pass across an admissions officer's desk it is safe to assume that few, if any, bear any real indication that would warrant the statement from the certifying college honorable admission granted. There can be no question that in the past score of years and before, our colleges and high schools have made determined efforts to single out those who should go to college and those who should not. Our shelves of educational literature are bulging with reports, studies, and proposals which may guide us to guide our youth. Through the welter of a considerable portion of this literature it is inescapable that we should ask to whom might guidance be better given, to the guider or to the youth who seeks it. With many notable exceptions the writings on admission to college would seem to center themselves on the means at hand by which the college might better select those who seek entrance. We see criteria set up that will invite or exclude, that classify and group by abilities and deficiencies, and, in our larger institutions particularly, we find agencies that will check and sort the needs as well as the abilities of the newcomers and direct them accordingly within, and sometimes without, the institution. We know with a moral certainty that all colleges and universities, large and small, are making determined efforts to select their students. Our question then is not how much or how well this operation is carried out. It is this, Are they helping the student to select the college? It would seem that all schools and their officers agree that the technique by which they acquaint the applicant with their institution is one cloaked with the most serious of responsibilities. Yet so often we find that the school's curriculum is presented to the inquiring applicant in the pattern of cut-rate drug salesmanship: The brand we offer is 'just as good' as the kind you really wanted. Call it what you may: recruiting, college choosing day, campus tours, or that all-