Swarthmore College in the spring of 1936, the university system was not an early attempt at honors work in the sense in which this has been adopted at Swarthmore and other colleges throughout the country. The program was, it is true, only for the abler students, but it provided for no independent work or reading. A full course program was sometimes outlined for two years in advance. There was, in fact, almost no one on the staff at that time who knew the meaning of reading for honors as it has been practiced at Oxford and Cambridge universities for centuries.
During the years when the university system was under consideration, the faculty was also discussing the qualifications for the various doctor's degrees which should be granted by the University. Inasmuch as there was at that time no graduate school, the university system and the work for advanced degrees became inextricably bound together, and the Registrar's Office records indicate that as early as 1883 there were graduate as well as undergraduate students enrolled under the university system. By 1885 or 1886, the number of graduate students who were enrolled in the university system was equal to that of the undergraduates, and within a year had exceeded the number of undergraduate students. The records for 1887-88 were labeled:
- 1 — Graduation on the University System
- 2 — Higher degrees on the University System
This statement of fact, appearing without any explanation on the records of the Registrar's Office for that year, would be difficult to understand, were it not for the action of the faculty taken on June 2, 1890. This action named the professor of the department in which the major study fell as chairman of the committee for advanced degrees, the committee to be composed of professors and assistant professors who instructed the candidate. At least three members were required for committees on advanced degrees.
This method of constituting the committees for advanced degrees eliminated the need for the university system in graduate work. The numbers of students who enrolled and graduated in three representative years of this decade were as follows:
| Enrolled | Graduated | |
| 1883-84 | 18 | 11 |
| 1887-88 | 16 | 13 |
| 1890-91 | 3 | 3 |
A list of students who studied under this plan contains the names of many who later attained prominence. Among these are Ernest Sutherland Bates, Claude Van Tyne, Fred N. Scott, E. R. Sunderland, and Aldred S. Warthin. It is very evident from letters of alumni that this program provided "two years of the richest experience in intimate contact with … great men that a young man could possibly realize."
