An Alumni society was formed at Columbia College in the year 1829, and at Rutgers College in 1837.  There are also societies of this nature at the College of New Jersey, Princeton; University of Virginia, Charlottesville; and at Columbian College, Washington.

ALUMNUS, pl. ALUMNI.  Latin, from alo, to nourish.  A pupil; one educated at a seminary or college is called an alumnus of that institution.

A.M.  An abbreviation for Artium Magister, Master of Arts.  The second degree given by universities and colleges.  It is usually written M.A., q.v.

ANALYSIS.  In the following passage, the word analysis is used as a verb; the meaning being directly derived from that of the noun of the same orthography.

If any resident Bachelor, Senior, or Junior Sophister shall neglect to analysis in his course, he shall be punished not exceeding ten shillings.—­Peirce’s Hist.  Harv.  Univ., App., p. 129.

ANNARUGIANS.  At Centre College, Kentucky, is a society called the Annarugians, “composed,” says a correspondent “of the wildest of the College boys, who, in the most fantastic disguises, are always on hand when a wedding is to take place, and join in a most tremendous Charivari, nor can they be forced to retreat until they have received a due proportion of the sumptuous feast prepared.”

APOSTLES.  At Cambridge, England, the last twelve on the list of Bachelors of Arts; a degree lower than the [Greek:  oi polloi] “Scape-goats of literature, who have at length scrambled through the pales and discipline of the Senate-House, without being plucked, and miraculously obtained the title of A.B.”—­Gradus ad Cantab.

At Columbian College, D.C., the members of the Faculty are called after the names of the Apostles.

APPLICANT.  A diligent student.  “This word,” says Mr. Pickering, in his Vocabulary, “has been much used at our colleges.  The English have the verb to apply, but the noun applicant, in this sense, does not appear to be in use among them.  The only Dictionary in which I have found it with this meaning is Entick’s, in which it is given under the word applier.  Mr. Todd has the term applicant, but it is only in the sense of ’he who applies for anything.’  An American reviewer, in his remarks on Mr. Webster’s Dictionary, takes notice of the word, observing, that it ’is a mean word’; and then adds, that ’Mr. Webster has not explained it in the most common sense, a hard student.’—­Monthly Anthology, Vol.  VII. p. 263.  A correspondent observes:  ’The utmost that can be said of this word among the English is, that perhaps it is occasionally used in conversation; at least, to signify one who asks (or applies) for something.’” At present the word applicant is never used in the sense of a diligent student, the common signification being that given by Mr. Webster, “One who applies; one who makes request; a petitioner.”