Three Year Course at Columbia.

The reforms which President Seth Low is instituting at Columbia seem to mean practically the establishment of a three year course there. By these reforms he has extended the privilege of the senior in the choice of his studies. Formerly a senior was compelled to choose all of his work from the department in which he was registered, just as he does here at Harvard; now he can choose his work in any department of the University. Thus if a senior in the School of Arts intends to study law he can save an entire year by devoting his senior year to courses in the Law School. This, one of the New York papers says, means the same thing as a three year course, and the liberal policy which it indicates has caused much rejoicing among the students at Columbia.

It is a similar change to that which some of those who oppose the three year plan here have proposed. It would not have the same effect as the change which the faculty favor, although it would practically mean a three year course. Such a change at Harvard would lower the standard of the degree very materially inasmuch as a man could secure his degree for fourteen courses instead of eighteen as at present. The Harvard faculty proposes no such radical reduction in the requirement for the degree. If it be said that the work done in the professional school does count some toward the A. B. degree,-a rather specious plea it is true, the plan is still open to serious objection. The faculty here say that the A. B. degree should represent broad, liberal training, and not the technical work of the professional schools. They have held to this conception of the meaning of the degree in their proposed change while enabling the student to complete the work required in three years without the danger of overworking. It will be seen, therefore, that the change at Columbia, while a desirable one, and certainly would give a three year course, it is not in any sense the same thing as the change which is proposed at Harvard.