Education: Success Test

A great many—about one quarter—of the young hopefuls who go to college flunk out hopelessly. That is one reason why educators would like to be clairvoyant. Last week two experts in the Federal Office of Education turned out an elaborate statistical system* for predicting whether a student will do well in college (and, therefore, whether he ought to go).

Statisticians Segel & Proffitt studied the college marks of students in 13 colleges and universities, compared them with the same students’ earlier records—high-school marks, extracurricular activities, etc. Some of their findings were trite: that a student who has a good average in high school, or rates high in intelligence tests, is likely to get good marks in college; that a youth who works for part of his college expenses gets lower than average marks, but a determined 100% self-supporting student ranks above the average.

Some of the statistical discoveries were more surprising: e.g.,, that a high-school youngster who ‘is good in English or mathematics has the best chance of making good in college. But if he is good only at music or,art, he had better think twice about matriculating. These talents have a low correlation with other subjects; artists and economics do not go together.

*Some Factors in the Adjustment of College Students—by David Segel and Maris M. Proffitt (Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C.,).