Establishing the American College

        The first established colonial college was Harvard College in the year 1636.  Built in the city of
Cambridge in Massachussets, Harvard was modeled after Cambridge University in England.
Harvard was created by Oxford and Cambridge-educated men who desired to advance learning in
the colonies.  These Oxford/Cambridge men founded Harvard with the notion of re-creating an
English university in mind. The Harvard Guide is a useful resource in finding out more about the
history of this excellent institution.  Other universities such as William and Mary, Yale, and Princeton soon followed in Harvard's tracks.  Though each university had specific reasons for setting up, with differing religious affliliations, they all shared a fundamental enlightenment belief in the necessity of human betterment through education.  Of course the more religious schools stressed this sort of "education" through faith itself and the scriptures, whereas the more secular schools such as the Academy of Philadelphia (later University of Pennsylvania) stressed the importance of practical education.  Instead of educating students to become clergymen, the secular Academy of Philadelphia strove to educate their students in business and public service. As Provost William Smith of the college of Philadelphia stated, "Thinking, Writing and Acting Well...is the grand aim of a liberal education."

  What kinds of people went to these colleges?

    One of the most important things to keep in mind when thinking about early American colleges is that these institutions of higher learning were hardly considered widely accessible in the way we think of colleges and universities today.  Besides the fact that there were so very few institutions of higher learning in early America, we must also keep in mind the fact that the number of students that attended these colleges was extremely small.  As Frederick Rudolph notes in his study of the American University (The American College and University), that most Americans were unable to attend these institutions because of the need for available cash, and even if they were prosperous enough to be able to pay for a college education, most families did not have the inclination to send their sons to such places.  Rudolph points out that amongst the southern gentry, there was even outright hostility towards higher education.  A South Carolina newspaper wrote in 1770, "Learning would become cheap and too common, and every man would be for giving his son an education."  This idea of "higher learning," the notion that learning equates privilege, is an interesting thing to keep in mind as time progresses, because it forms the foundation of the kinds of admissions policies that are hotly debated to this day.  (See:  Open Admissions at CUNY)
    Basically, the point is that the colonial American college was not for everyone, and in fact, the institutions themselves helped keep people away.  Until the formation of The Academy of Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin, the curriculum was not considered practical, and did not appeal to the sons of businessmen etc.  Also, the distances contributed to keeping students away, for the average farmer's son could not afford to abandon homelife (labor) and study at an institution so far away.  Rudolph points out that in 1704 in Westchester County, only six families could afford to send their children off to a distant college.
    There was also the problem of pre-college preparation.  Without an adequately extensive public schooling system intact, there was a shortage of qualified candidates to attend these institutions.  These were times when elementary reading and writing taught at home was considered enough education for the average child.  In colonial America, it has been estimated that by 1775 "Perhaps one out of every thousand colonists had been to college at some time or other," (Evarts Boutell Greene: The Revolutionary Generation 1763-1790) and out of those, only a handful actually graduated.  By the time of the Revolution, there were only 3,000 living graduates of American colleges. (Rudolph)  Obviously, these were not the most accessible of institutions.
    In terms of admissions policies, it was obviously unheard of for someone of non-European, non-Caucasion descent to enter the pearly gates of higher learning.  The above photo shows a typical college class from the early 19th century, and it isn't difficult to see that there are no women or people of color.  Most of the students attending these early American colleges were the sons of wealthy families and/or aspiring clergymen.  Because of the lack of popularity, colonial colleges did not have the kind of highly systematized form of admissions that we have today.  Rather, it was accepting of all white men who could afford the costs of education.

An ironic juxtaposition of the past and present
 

When George III appealed to English benefactors in behalf of the colleges in Philadelphia and New York in 1762, his catalogue of purposes suggested the variety of directions in which American higher education was developing:  to combat the inconveniences of an uninstructed population drawn from "different Parts of the World...to guard against total Ignorance...to instil...just principles of Religion, Loyalty and a Love of our Excellent Constitution."  ... A college develops a sense of unity where, in a society created from many of the nations of Europe, there might otherwise be aimlessness and uncontrolled diversity.  (from The American College and University by Frederick Rudolph)