CULLING SCHOLARSHIP HOLDERS

In the decision of the Committee on Scholarships to rearrange the present system of scholarship awards to Freshmen, the University once more emphasizes merit as the essential prerequisite for eligibility to such grants. By compelling first-year men to achieve at least a Group V standing at Mid-years, the Committee is in no way foisting a radical change on the present distribution of awards; it merely providing a reasonable check on the holders of Freshmen scholarships. Under the present system there is no way, as there is with the grants to upperclassmen, of controlling the incumbents during their first year.

The second ruling is certainly more radical, and justly so. The proposal of the Committee to award scholarships to twenty preparatory school students, the recipients to be named by the respective headmasters, places the grants in the hands of men qualified to judge more capably of the qualifications of these prospective Freshmen. Much more than the trial-and-error method which the University of necessity now assumes the new plan will have the benefit of first-hand experience to make the awards on a basis of merit. By its very nature a scholarship is not financial aid alone: It is a monetary reward for merit, distributed to those who most need it. Both of these new rulings by the Scholarship Committee represent a forward step toward a more harmonious meeting ground between the theory of scholarship awards and its practice.