Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1944 [PAGE 1055]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1052

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

there is a noticeable increase in the percentage of students drawn from the upper half of the high-school graduating classes as indicated by 73 percent in 1935 and 80 percent in 1941. In two of the smaller colleges, Fine and Applied Arts and Physical Education, the trend is found to be in the other direction. Here there was a somewhat smaller percentage of students admitted from the upper half of the high-school graduating class in 1941 than in 1935, the figures being 68 percent and 74 percent in Fine Arts, and 34 percent and 41 percent in Physical Education. Additional information on the quality of students admitted was secured from data which the Commission obtained from four other selected midwestern state universities. This information shows that the experiences of these universities during the same period very closely parallel that of the University of Illinois. It is the judgment of the Commission that since 1935 at the University of Illinois: (1) the quality of students admitted, based upon the criterion of rank in high-school graduating class, has been similar to freshmen admitted to certain other comparable midwestern state universities, and that (2) the quality on the whole has not deteriorated but actually has shown slight improvement. Scholastic Records of Freshmen Another index of the quality of students admitted is the scholastic record which these students made while they remained in the institution. Data are available on the scholastic averages made by freshmen who entered the University of Illinois in the years 1935 to 1940 inclusive. Since the rank in high-school graduating class of students admitted to the University of Illinois from 1935 to 1941 has improved slightly, as might be expected, the grade point average of freshmen in their first year of university work from 1935 to 1940 has also shown a slight improvement. Weights are assigned to grades as follows: A = 5; B = 4 ; C-= 3 ; D = 2 ; and E (failure) = 1. The grade point averages of all freshmen for their first year of university work beginning with the class which entered in September 1935 and ending with the September 1940 class were 3.17, 3.18, 3.19, 3.21, 3.19, and 3.20 respectively.

[34 — A.C.E. Report]