nior year; in 1884, the sophomore
year; and in 1894 the single absolute requirement that remained in the
entire college course was English A. The action of Harvard was rapidly
imitated to a more or less thorough extent throughout the country.

Probably no two colleges administer the elective system in the same
way. There has been a considerable revulsion of opinion against
unrestricted election of individual subjects. In many colleges the
subjects of the curriculum were arranged into groups which must be
elected _in toto_. This resulted in the multiplication of bachelor's
degrees, each indicating the special course--arts, science,
philosophy, or literature--which had been followed. At the present
time the tendency is to prescribe the subjects considered essential to
a liberal education chiefly in the first two years and to permit
election among groups of related courses in the last two. This has
maintained the unity that formerly prevailed and introduced greater
breadth into the curriculum. It has also brought the new bachelor's
degrees into disfavor, and today the majority of the best colleges
give only the A.B. degree for the regular academic course. Valuable
modifications in the elective system are constantly being adopted. One
such is the preceptorial system at Princeton and elsewhere, under
which the preceptors personally supervise the reading and study of a
small group of students and can therefore advise them from personal
knowledge of their capacity. Another is the system of honor courses
adopted at Columbia and elsewhere, whereby a distinction is made
between mere "passmen" and students desirous of attaining high rank in
courses that are carefully organized in sequence.

=German Influence and graduate study=

The introduction of new subjects into the curriculum of the college
and the adoption by it of the elective system owe much to German
influence upon American education. Though this influence was partly
exerted by the study of the German language and literature, it
resulted chiefly from the residence of American students at German
universities. The first American to be granted the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy from a German university was Edward Everett, who received
it at Goettingen in 1817. He was followed by George Ticknor, George
Bancroft, Henry W. Longfellow, John Lothrop Motley, Frederick Henry
Hedge, William Dwight Whitney, Theodore Dwight Woolsey, and a host of
scholars who shed luster upon Ameri