Who Gets In ?
The History of University Admissions in America
by Kiwa Iyobe

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Welcome to my first ever webpage!  This webpage is literally the product of blood, sweat, and tears...so please don't be quick to judge my ineptness with computers.  This page was created for a history seminar that I am currently taking at Barnard College , Columbia University. The course is called Higher Learning in America, and is taught by Professor Robert McCaughey of the Barnard History Department.  The focus of my webpage is university admissions policies/practices in the United States.  There is presently a lot of controversy in this arena, and I thought it would be interesting to follow the shifting concerns of university admissions from the time of the colonial colleges to the present-day.  Feel free to email me at ki54@columbia.edu to voice any opinions or concerns!  Enjoy!
 

• The Early History (1636-1860)
• The Rise of Women's Colleges
• Admissions: 1860 -1920
• "The Rise of Meritocracy" in the Post-WWI Era
• Pros and Cons of Affirmative Action in American Higher Education
• U.S. News and World Report Statistics for 1999

Events Update

Here are a few upcoming events in the Columbia University area that you may be interested in attending for further information about the nuts and bolts of university admissions.  Your home university's admissions office can also be a valuable resource.  The following events are highly recommended for those of you who are in the seminar, because I think the kind of issues addressed will be beneficial to class discussion later on in the semester.  Check it out!

        Tuesday, April 20, 1999   5:30pm  [rsvp:  ram31@columbia.edu]
          Columbia '68:  What's an Historian to Make Of It?
        Principle Speaker:  Professor Robert A. McCaughey of the Barnard History Department
        see website for relevant materials: http://beatl.barnard.columbia.edu/columbia68

Click here to check out the summaries of the ones I have attended in the past!
 

Affirmative Action News / Other Admissions Related Info 

Here are some excellent links to sights regarding the affirmative action debate.  Although affirmative action encompasses the workplace as well as schools, I have limited the sights to ones that deal specifically with university admissions.  I hope the varying viewpoints expressed in these links will give you a sense of how divisive this issue is.  It is especially controversial in the west, where policies to ban affirmative action have already been installed.  Even at Columbia, which is a private institution, recent right-wing attacks on the school's affirmative action policy have created an atmosphere of tense division.  Oh, and some other links regarding admissions in general are here too!

From Columbia Daily Spectator:

• Columbia Criticized by Media for Exclusion of Conservatives (1/22)
• Ad Campaign Attacks Columbia's Affirmative Action Policy (1/27)
• Columbia Defends Admissions Policy (1/28)
• The Anatomy of Racism (3/08)
• Columbia No Longer the Smallest Ivy (3/23)
• Panelists Discuss Impact of Co-education in CU  (3/24)
• Overcrowding Angst Revives Spirit of '68 (3/24)
• Columbia's Efforts to Attract Top-Notch Students (4/15)

• Proposition 209 to Widen Gender Gap in Faculty (UCLA)
• U. Washington Sued for Reverse Discrimination Policies of Pre I-200
• U. Missouri Beats out Big 12 in Minority Freshmen Enrollment

• Origins of Affirmative Action for Women
• What is Affirmative Action?  Californians for Justice
• Affirmative Action Discussion Board
• Affirmative Action Special Report by Washington Post
• Affirmative Action Coverage Ignores Women - A Six Month Study
• Affirmative Action Myths and Realities (Conservative P.O.V.)
• Americans United for Affirmative Action (auaa)
• Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary (bamn)