THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PRESENT ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS

There are only two main reasons for entrance requirements: (a) to provide the student with adequate preparation, both scientific and "cultural," in order to enable him to profit best from his medical instruction, and (b) to provide the medical schools with students of adequate intelligence and to keep out those who are intellectually weak and likely to fail. The present entrance requirements date from a financial catastrophe in 1888 and are due to two persons, Miss Mary E. Garrett and Dr. William H. Welch. Because of the suspension of dividends by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1888 and the loss of endowment revenue, the Johns Hopkins University could not start its school of medicine. However, in 1893, Miss Mary E. Garrett made the opening possible by contributing $300,000 on the understanding that only those who were already graduates in arts or who had an equivalent training should be received