THEY WENT TO COLLEGE

The human interest behind the vital statistic, in a study of 9,064 college graduates based on a survey made by analyzed by the Columbia University Bureau of Applied Social Research, and interpreted with a speculative flexibility and a bright commentary by the authors. Assuming that college is a ""kind of talisman which nobody really understands but everyone respects""-this is an attempt to appraise some of the endless folklore in terms of breadwinning, citizenship, family life and personal happiness. Who attends college- who paid for it, trends in curriculum; types of jobs secured after college (better ones) and cash value of the degree (cumulatively higher); marital and procreative records (alone not bigger and better figures) of the graduate; for women, her chance at a husband, and after marriage, career versus home, motherhood which militates against a career; politics, religious opinions, the question of a B.A. versus specialization (""culture is inedible""), the parallel between grades and earnings; the prestige of Princeton versus Podunk; and many allied considerations... There's a lot of fascinating material here from which certain indications of practical as well as social significance can be derived.