# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1953_S991
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

19
4 SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES

The chart b illus
graduates oat pelow illustrates the steady decline in

vee ve completed the entire SIX years of S fre number
Sys Ynod's preparaty
Cent "
58
56
54
2
50
48
46
“4
42
“ Page
38
t
*f er en tages
Chart vo Ann *
of 'T: wal Percen Total Numb .
en Preparatory Schools Who''cc feted Six-Year petheologteat

1943 1953 Pretheologica} Progra

equation are: Lo = 338
(49.86) ¢—< g Y = 1.69775 0833
(498 6) (—1.02526)*, Thus, th oe cg1g8ss*

duates when, € normal percenta P A
gra pleted: the six. gran on oe ic
tes ear bs bretheological
be bo2ne of those who completed. less then the six-year en” rand
gram will

CHART VIZ is based on the following data:

Percentage of Total

Preseparetory School
Year theological Graduates
anne Completed

1943 "
1944 —— =

55.4

33" 833

of change 1% all is the fact
admissions to the freshman and sophomore hikes

for the period covered.

five previons chaste the data exhibited in the

A final ch ibi
: art (VII) exhibits the net effect of these factors on

the trainin,
ig pattern of the ministerial graduates coming from the

* Origin at 1948,

SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES 195

tory schools. It shows that, over the past 11 years, the per-
3 ping e of graduates. completing six years of study in Synod’s pre~
ratory system has declined from 55% in 1943 to 39.2% in 1953.
oe Policy Studies Required

"The inevitable result of this situation is a sharp, immediate
..» in the graduations during the period when college admissions
at Synod’s preparatory schools are increasing at a rate almost twice
as fast as the total new ministerial admissions and almost six times
as fast as the high school division admissions. There is every rea-
gon to believe, also, that this strong trend toward advanced stand-
‘jng enrollments will continue. ;

In the past year, for example, 19.5% of all new ministerial
gdmissions (73 students) were enrolled at junior college levels.
During the past triennium, an average of 36.4% of all new min-
isterial enrollments have been at the high school junior level or
above. Advanced standing admissions (above sophomore high
school year) ranged, at the individual institutions, from a low of
13.6% to a high of 75.6% during this period.

It will be readily apparent that this development makes it
impossible to predict accurately the ministerial graduations from
the preparatory schools and admissions to the St. Louis Seminary
even as much as two years in advance; e.g., in 1951 a total of 369
new ministerial students enrolled in the preparatory schools. On
the basis of past experience * this enrollment would be expected
to produce approximately 170 admissions to the St. Louis Sem-
inary in 1957. However, 97 of these new students enrolled as col-
lege freshmen (76) and sophomores (21) so that the majority of
them will apply for admission to St. Louis in 1953, thus confronting
the seminary with approximately 75 students more than would
normally be anticipated from the size of the freshman class orig-
inally enrolled at the preparatory school.

It is recognized, of course, that fluctuations of these data are
to be expected, but the net effect of the development must in-
evitably be a pattern of sharply increased admissions at the St. Louis
Seminary, since so many students arrive at that level two or three
years after admission to the preparatory schools, instead of six years
later as Synod has assumed.

The Board’s data show, further, that this situation severely
modifies, at this time, Synod’s traditional pattern of six years of
preparatory training when Synod has not yet had the benefit of
conclusions on the experimental programs now being carried for-
ward at Fort Wayne and at Portland. Of the 1952 ministerial grad-
uates from the preparatory schools, only 43.8% had completed a full

* Assuming normal dropouts on a six-year basis.

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