College Life

Academic Expectations.

Students who graduated from American colleges in the mid nineteenth century generally admitted that course expectations were low and that graduating required little effort; but the academic work required of undergraduates greatly increased from 1865 to 1910; and by the beginning of the new century college entrance requirements had stiffened considerably, especially among elite universities. Indeed, after 1900 it became common for university presidents to attempt to improve the academic performance of their students. Harvard, for example, instituted honors programs, and Princeton, with Woodrow Wilson as president, greatly upgraded its educational quality. Nevertheless, the overall picture for higher education in America in the decade 1900-1909 is mixed. Of the roughly five hundred institutions of higher learning, not even half deserved the title of college. Contemporaries noted that only a hundred...

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