Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/223

STUDENTS AND FACULTY 193 not likely to appear at all. After much inquiry and effort a dormi- tory for women students was found in the Beatrice apartment building near the corner of Fifty-seventh Street and what was then Madison, later Dorchester, Avenue. This was rented from Sep- tember i, 1892, to May i, 1893, at eight hundred dollars per month. In August the Drexel, an apartment building on the corner of Drexel Avenue and Fifty-sixth Street was leased for men students at three hundred dollars per month. The provision for men included, in addition to this building, the divinity and graduate dormitories, then under construction, with accommodations for one hundred and ninety. Altogether dormitory accommodations were provided for about two hundred and thirty-five men and for less than one hun- dred women. Meantime the question of boarding accommodations was insistently urged by the President. It was directly due to his urgency that the basement of the divinity and graduate dor- mitories was fitted up for a University Commons for men, the women being cared for in the Beatrice. These basement accom- modations were most inadequate and unsatisfactory, mere excuses for boarding-halls, low-ceilinged, damp, dark, absurdly unsuit- able for the use to which they were put. But there was no other way. Professor Abbott had been kept busy conferring with students, answering inquiries, arranging the courses of study, perfecting the regulations under which students were to be admitted, and arran- ging for the examination of students for admission in various parts of the country. During the year examinations for admission were held in a dozen cities. These examinations were submitted to Professor Abbott and clearly indicated that many students seeking admission were not prepared. The standard was too high for them. It was found in the end that two things saved the Uni- versity from being overwhelmed by numbers the first year. These were the high standard fixed and the requirement that all first-year entering students must pass an examination. Very many expected to be admitted on certificates from high schools and academies. When they found they could not do this, and read the requirements for admission in Official Bulletin No. 2 they decided to go elsewhere, or to defer their entrance until they were prepared to take the