John Dewey - Ultimate Collection: 40+ Works on Psychology, Education, Philosophy & Politics
For purposes of comparison, the value of the statistics is vitiated by the fact that the date of the admission of women is not given, and this, in the cases of the co-educational college, does not agree with the date of organization. Other facts, which we omit, go to show that the average date of admission, Oberlin being Excluded, may be safely put at about 1870.
The questions involved in the inquiry were exceedingly comprehensive, and may conveniently be considered under three heads, of which the first takes up the conditions of childhood, comprehending date of birth, nationality of parents, surroundings in childhood, amount of exercise received between the ages of eight and fourteen, the age at which study began, the age at entering college, and the age at graduation. The second section relates to individual health, and comprehends physical condition; nervousness; the age at beginning of the menstrual period; the conditions attending the menstrual periods; the number of graduates reporting disorders; the number of disorders; the number reporting each disorder, and the causes of disorders.
From the broad data thus obtained, the third section, a series of comparison tables, is gathered. Of these one of the most important compares the present health of graduates with the age at beginning study, the age at entering college, the time entering college after the menstrual period commenced, the amount of out-of-door exercise, and hereditary conditions. Another compares the health during college-life with the age at entering, the amount of study performed, the amount of worry about private and college affairs, etc. The first set is thus seen to be occupied with giving a picture of health through life, while the second endeavors to ascertain the changes introduced by college-life, and their causes.
The general features of the tables may be stated as follows:
| Colleges. | Average Age. | ||||
| At beginning study. | At beginning of menstrual period. | At entering college. | At graduating from college. | At present time. | |
| Boston | 5·25 | 13·89 | 19·61 | 23·36 | 26·72 |
| Cornell | 5·31 | 19·94 | 19·43 | 23·09 | 26·66 |
| Kansas | 5·25 | 13·65 | 16·32 | 21·75 | 26·35 |
| Mass. Inst. of Tech. | 6·00 | 13·67 | 21·00 | 24·00 | 25·67 |
| Michigan | 5·38 | 13·49 | 19·26 | 23·22 | 29·00 |
| Oberlin | 4·95 | 13·58 | 19·69 | 24·10 | 41·74 |
| Smith | 5·64 | 13·48 | 19·19 | 22·69 | 25·02 |
| Syracuse | 5·69 | 13·76 | 19·65 | 23·47 | 28·24 |
| Vassar | 5·91 | 13·61 | 17·81 | 21·96 | 28·95 |
| Wellesley | 5·51 | 13·56 | 18·34 | 22·24 | 24·90 |
| Wesleyan | 4·50 | 13·60 | 20·00 | 24·00 | 29·00 |
| Wisconsin | 5·49 | 13·57 | 17·98 | 21·69 | 27·24 |
| All colleges | 5·64 | 13·62 | 18·35 | 22·39 | 28·58 |
The influence upon health may be summed up very generally as follows: The maximum per cent of good health, 78·1, is reported at the time of entering college; during college-life this falls off to 74·9 per cent, to be followed by a rise to 77·9 per cent since graduation; fair health shows a gain from 2 to 8 per cent during college-life, followed by a decrease to 5 per cent since that time; while there was an actual decrease of 2 per cent during college-life of those having poor health, the figures being respectively 19·8 and 17·3 per cent, no appreciable change being shown for the years since graduation.
From the comparison tables it is further shown that 138, or 19·6 per cent, report a deterioration in health during college-life; 418, 59·3 per cent, no change; 149, 21·1 per cent, show an improvement. This result may be compared with the returns of the inquiries instituted by the Massachusetts Board among the working-girls of Boston, as follows: Of the 705 female college graduates, 138, or 19·58 per cent, show a deterioration in health during college-life, and of the 1,032 working-girls, 166, or 16·09 per cent, show a deterioration in health, during working-time, these figures indicating a greater loss of health, of 3·49 per