Repository: UIHistories Project: Course Catalog - 1867 [PAGE 13]

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13 qualified to pursue successfully with the regular classes in those studies. It may sometimes also occur that persons will desire to enter the university simply to attend some course of lectures, or to attain an insight into some agricultural or other industrial process, as the budding, grafting or pruning of trees, the management of a grapery, etc. Such students should be furnished with all the facilities consistent with the good order of the institution.

QUALIFICATIONS FOR ADMISSION.

The question of the qualifications required for admission to the university is one demanding careful consideration. These requirements should not be so high as to viitualiy exclude those who might successfully pursue the courses of study, nor so low as to admit those who are unprepared to profit by a residence at the institution, and whose time would be uselessly wasted in the attempt to grasp studies beyond their comprehension. The law prescribes that "no student shall be admitted to instruction in any of the departments of the University who shall not have attained to the age of fifteen years, and who shall not previously undergo a satisfactory examination in each of the branches ordinarily taught in the common schools of the State." The committee understand this language, not as fixing definitely the qualifications for admission, but only as determining their lowest limit. The trustees may require both a maturer age and a higher grade of scholarship, whenever in their estimation the interests of the State and of the University require it. It would certainly be bettor if students never entered college under eighteen years of age; but the average age of those applying for admission will doubtless be above this, without any special rule requiring it. Experience shows that students who enter college at a less age than that here indicated, are often injured by being thrown so early into the indiscriminate associations and powerful stimulation of college life. The University is the place for men rather than for mere boys. It seems requisite that two different sets of qualifications shall be prescribed ; the one for students who wish to pursue simply the studies of some select or partial course, and the other for candidates for the regular University courses.

1. QUALIFICATIONS FOB ADMISSION TO SELECT COURSES.

Students may properly be admitted to take some select course, on passing a thorough examination in the common school branches oC reading, writing, arithmetic, geography and grammar, and on evidence of sufficient maturity and intelligence to pursue successfully the studies selected by them.

2. ADMISSION TO REGULAR UNIVERSITY COURSES.

"While the committee would wish to open the University as widely as possible to the youth of the State, they can not forget that its real utility will depend on establishing and maintaining a high standard of scholarship. As it can not legally do common school work, so neither