A Collection of College Words and Customs | Page 3

beene these foure years trained up in University
learning (for their ripening in the knowledge of the tongues, and arts) and are approved
for their manners, as they have kept their publick Acts in former yeares, ourselves being
present at them; so have they lately kept two solemn Acts for their Commencement.--New
England's First Fruits, in Mass. Hist. Coll., Vol. I. p. 245.
But in the succeeding acts ... the Latin syllogism seemed to give the most
content.--Harvard Register, 1827-28, p. 305.
2. The close of the session at Oxford, when Masters and Doctors complete their degrees,
whence the Act Term, or that term in which the act falls. It is always held with great
solemnity. At Cambridge, and in American colleges, it is called Commencement. In this
sense Mather uses it.
They that were to proceed Bachelors, held their Act publickly in Cambridge.--Mather's
Magnalia, B. 4, pp. 127, 128.
At some times in the universities of England they have no public acts, but give degrees
privately and silently.--Letter of Increase Mather, in App. to Pres. Woolsey's Hist. Disc.,
p. 87.
AD EUNDEM GRADUM. Latin, to the same degree. In American colleges, a Bachelor
or Master of one institution was formerly allowed to take the same degree at another, on
payment of a certain fee. By this he was admitted to all the privileges of a graduate of his
adopted Alma Mater. Ad eundem gradum, to the same degree, were the important words
in the formula of admission. A similar custom prevails at present in the English
universities.
Persons who have received a degree in any other college or university may, upon proper
application, be admitted ad eundem, upon payment of the customary fees to the
President.--Laws Union Coll., 1807, p. 47.
Persons who have received a degree in any other university or college may, upon proper
application, be admitted ad eundem, upon paying five dollars to the Steward for the
President.--Laws of the Univ. in Cam., Mass., 1828.

Persons who have received a degree at any other college may, upon proper application,
be admitted ad eundem, upon payment of the customary fee to the President.--Laws Mid.
Coll., 1839, p. 24.
The House of Convocation consists both of regents and non-regents, that is, in brief, all
masters of arts not honorary, or ad eundems from Cambridge or Dublin, and of course
graduates of a higher order.--Oxford Guide, 1847, p. xi.
Fortunately some one recollected that the American Minister was a D.C.L. of Trinity
College, Dublin, members of which are admitted ad eundem gradum at
Cambridge.--Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ., Ed. 2d, p. 112.
ADJOURN. At Bowdoin College, adjourns are the occasional holidays given when a
Professor unexpectedly absents himself from recitation.
ADJOURN. At the University of Vermont, this word as a verb is used in the same sense
as is the verb BOLT at Williams College; e.g. the students adjourn a recitation, when
they leave the recitation-room en masse, despite the Professor.
ADMISSION. The act of admitting a person as a member of a college or university. The
requirements for admission are usually a good moral character on the part of the
candidate, and that he shall be able to pass a satisfactory examination it certain studies. In
some colleges, students are not allowed to enter until they are of a specified age.--Laws
Univ. at Cam., Mass., 1848, p. 12. Laws Tale Coll., 1837, p. 8.
The requisitions for entrance at Harvard College in 1650 are given in the following
extract. "When any scholar is able to read Tully, or such like classical Latin author,
extempore, and make and speak true Latin in verse and prose suo (ut aiunt) Marte, and
decline perfectly the paradigms of nouns and verbs in the Greek tongue, then may he be
admitted into the College, nor shall any claim admission before such
qualifications."--Quincy's Hist. Harv. Univ., Vol. I. p. 515.
ADMITTATUR. Latin; literally, let him be admitted. In the older American colleges, the
certificate of admission given to a student upon entering was called an admittatur, from
the word with which it began. At Harvard no student was allowed to occupy a room in
the College, to receive the instruction there given, or was considered a member thereof,
until he had been admitted according to this form.--Laws Harv. Coll., 1798.
Referring to Yale College, President Wholsey remarks on this point: "The earliest known
laws of the College belong to the years 1720 and 1726, and are in manuscript; which is
explained by the custom that every Freshman, on his admission, was required to write off
a copy of them for himself, to which the admittatur of the officers was subscribed."--Hist.
Disc, before Grad. Yale Coll., 1850, p. 45.
He travels wearily over in visions the term he is to wait for his initiation