thy that more frequently economics is required in the smaller
colleges having but one curriculum, that of liberal studies. In the
larger institutions economics is usually not required of students in the
humanities, although of late it has increasingly been made a part of the
technical college curricula, especially in engineering and
agriculture.[21] So we are in a fair way to arrive at the situation
where no student except in those "liberal" arts courses can get a
college diploma without studying economics; only in a modern course in
the humanities may the study of human society be left out.

The economists have not been active in urging their subject as a
requirement. The call for increasing requirements in economics has
come from the public and from the alumni. The steady increase in the
number of students electing economic courses without corresponding
additions to the teaching forces has made the overworked professors of
the subject thankful when nothing more was done to increase by faculty
requirements the burden of their class work. It is charged and it is
admitted in some institutions that the standards of marking are
purposely made more severe in the economics courses than in courses in
most other subjects. The purpose avowed is "to cut out the dead
timber," so that only the better students will be eligible for
enrollment in the advanced economics courses. An unfortunate result is
to discourage some excellent students, ambitious for high marks or
honors, from electing courses in economics because thereby their
average grades would be reduced. In many cases, for this reason, good
students take the subject optionally (without credit), though doing
full work in it.

=Organization of the subject in the college curriculum=

We have already, in discussing the place of economics, necessarily
touched upon the organization of the courses. In most colleges this
organization is very simple. The whole economic curriculum consists of
the "general" course, or at most of that plus one or more somewhat
specialized courses given the next year. The most usual year of
advanced work consists of one semester each of money and banking and
of public finance. A not unusual plan, well suited to the situation
in a small college where economics takes the full time of one teacher,
is to give the general course in the sophomore year, and to offer a
two-year cycle of advanced work, the two courses being given in
alternate years, the class