the evolution of college admission Requirements

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From 1970: The admission requirements of American colleges and universities have been the

subject of considerable speculation and investigation since Harvard College ﬁrst set up its

requirements for admission in 1642. It is the intent of this paper to present an overview of the

historical development of college admission requirements through a chronological review of the

related literature.

ANDREW V. BEALE is a University of Virginia Ed. D. in Counselor Education and is now an

assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The Evolution of College

Admission Requirements

The National ACAC Journal Volume 15, Number 3

November 1970

by Andrew V. Beale

By the middle of the nineteenth century,

there was no substantial agreement

among colleges as to what subjects

and how much should be required

for admission. Such diversity soon

came to be a source of perplexity and

annoyance to secondary schools as they

attempted to instruct their students in

the requirements for college entrance.

Out of the conﬂicts arising from the

diversity of entrance requirements

came the ﬁrst efforts toward the

development of a national movement

for uniformity in college admissions.

Response: “The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same” by Andrew V. Beale on page 23

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The Literature

One of the earliest studies done in the area of college admissions

was the work of Broome,“A Historical and Critical Discussion of

College Admission Requirements,” published in 1903.* Broome

described the development of college admissions during the

seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as the story of entrance

requirements and admission procedures at Harvard College. During

this period, prospective students at all major American colleges

and universities were examined as to their character, background,

and demonstrated proﬁciency in Latin and Greek. Later, toward

the end of the eighteenth century, a new requirement, a working

knowledge of arithmetic, was added to Latin and Greek as a

required subject for admission to college.

(*This study contributed, among other things, a history of admis-

sion requirements for the 150 years prior to 1800, during which

time there were no college cat alogs issued, the data being gath-

ered from old records, minutes, and statutes.)

The beginning of the nineteenth century marked the development

of private academies which served to meet the growing popular

demand for a less classical and more practical type of education.

Inﬂuenced by the academies, colleges began to emphasize a wider

range of subjects required for admission and a greater freedom

of option. As an example, at the University of Chicago during the

middle of the nineteenth century, it was necessary for a candidate

for admission to the freshman class to present at least thirteen

units in English, Latin, mathematics, ancient history, and a mod-

ern language as required subjects (Reeves & Russell, 1933).

By the middle of the nineteenth century, there was no substan-

tial agreement among colleges as to what subjects and how much

should be required for admission. Such diversity soon came to be

a source of perplexity and annoyance to secondary schools as they

attempted to instruct their students in the requirements for college

entrance. Out of the conﬂicts arising from the diversity of entrance

requirements came the ﬁrst efforts to ward the development of a

national movement for uniformity in college admissions.

A committee of the National Education Association, the Committee

of College Entrance Requirements, presented a report in 1900

covering a four-year investigation of admission requirements and

ways and means of securing uniformity in college admissions. The

conclusions reached by the committee constituted the ﬁrst step on

a national scale toward bringing the secondary schools and colleges

into cooperation. It was also during this period, 1890 to 1920, that

area accrediting agencies were organized to secure united action

toward uniform college entrance requirements (Kelly, 1940 ).

As patterns of entrance requirements developed, numerous

studies were carried out in terms of identifying requirements for

admission to college. Kingsley, in 1913, compiled the admission

practices of over three hundred institutions of higher education

located throughout the United States. This was one of the ﬁrst

attempts to present the admissions practices of a large number

of institutions from all sections of the country. Earlier studies had

typically traced changes in admission policies and practices of a

few select institutions through a number of years. Kingsley found

that changes in entrance requirements were in the direction of

greater insistence upon the completion of a four-year high school

grade average, recommendations, and test scores.

During the ten-year period 1946 to 1956, college entrance

requirements reached a fairly uniform level. Investigations by

Nelson (1951), Traxler and Townsend (1953), Emanuel (1953),

and Knutson (1954) revealed that most colleges tended to admit

students on the basis of six major factors: 1) high-school graduation,

2) a minimum number of prescribed units in designated subjects,

3) rank in graduating class, 4) recommendation of the principal, 5)

personal interview, and 6) aptitude and achievement-test scores.

In 1956, Bowles proposed that colleges could give up the formal

entrance requirements of yesteryear because of the availability of

tests which enabled colleges to make selections on the basis of

aptitude and promise that were as good as, and perhaps better

than, selections made on the basis of the colleges’ old standard-

ized requirements. Five years later, Berger (1961) reported that

more than 75 percent of the admissions directors included in his

survey considered Scholastic Aptitude Test scores as “absolutely

essential” to the admissions process in 1960. Thus, testing by

standardized examinations sponsored by regional or national as-

sociations had become an accepted part of the college admission

process during the late 1950’s (Fishman and Pasanella, 1960).

The most salient and important trend in college admissions

during the 1960’s was the growing concern for the inclusion

of environmental and non-intellective variables in the selection

process (Hight, 1962; Heist & Webster, 1965; Yonge, 1965;

Educa tional Records Bureau, 1964; Morris, 1965). Colleges during

the 1960’s tended to give more attention and weight to personal

data in admitting students than they did during the 1950’s.

Admissions directors particularly desired information on character,

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emotional stability, and leadership qualities. While comparatively

ﬁxed patterns of secondary-school requirements for entrance

existed, the typical college allowed individual variations from these

requirements if the candidate was otherwise qualiﬁed. This shift

in emphasis from the prospective student’s academic abilities to

his personal attributes was heralded by many as a major break

through in the area of college admissions during the 1960’s.

Summary

The development of college admissions requirements during the

seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was basically the story of the

admission policies and practices at Harvard College. Candidates

for admission were examined on their ability to read and translate

Latin and Greek, and a careful check was made of their character

and background. With the exception of changes in the content of

the subjects required for entrance, requirements for admission to

American colleges and universities changed little during the 1800’s.

Studies conducted during the 1900’s revealed that changes in

admission requirements were in the direction of greater insistence

upon the completion of a four-year high school course and greater

ﬂexibility in ad mission standards. The trend during the 1930’s

and 1940’s was for colleges to accept secondary school graduates

on the basis of ability rather than subjects studied. The decade

1949-1959 witnessed an increased interest in standardized

examinations sponsored by regional or national associations.

The most apparent development in college admissions during the

decade of the 60’s was the growing emphasis placed upon envi-

ronmental and non intellective factors in the admission process.

Many colleges became increasingly aware of the need to broaden

their view of the admission process in order to ensure that the full

range of talent that an institution is capable of developing is prop-

erly rep resented in the student body.

Berger, A.B. “How the college admissions

ofﬁcer views counselor recommendations.”

Vocational Guidance Quarterly, 1961, 9, 256.

Bowles, F.H. “The evolution of admission

require ments.” The interaction of school and

college. New York: College Entrance Examina-

tion Board, 1956.

Brammell, R.P. Articulation of High School and

College. Washington: Government Printing

Ofﬁce, 1933.

Broome, E.C. A historical and critical discussion

of college admission requirements. New York:

College Entrance Examination Board, 1963,

Reprint.

Educational Research Bureau, Admission to

American Colleges: Summary of policies and

practices. New York: Educational Records

Bureau, 1964.

Emanuel, V.H. “College-entrance requirements

ten years after the eight-year study.” The

School Re view, 1953, 61, 521-526.

Ferguson, H.A. “Trends in college admission

re quirements.” School and Society, 1938, 48,

407-411.

Fine, B. Admission to American Colleges: A

study of current policy and practice. New York:

Harper and Brothers, 1946.

Fishman, J.A. and Pasonella, A. K. “College

admission-selection studies.” Review of Edu-

cational Re search, 1960, 30, 298.

Grossman, D.A. “Trends in admissions to

higher institutions.” Bulletin of the American

Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admis-

sions Ofﬁcers, 1935, 10, 253-261.

Heist, P. and Webster, H. “Selection, predic-

tion, and persistence.” Review of Educational

Research, 1965, 3S, 254.

Hight, W.B. Patterns of admission require-

ments to selected American colleges and

universities. Unpub lished doctoral disserta-

tion, University of North Carolina, 1962.

Hunsinger, M. The selection of persons to be

trained as teachers of commercial subjects.”

Encyclopedia of Modern Education. New York:

Philosophical Library, 1943, 154-155.

Kelly, F.J. Collegiate accreditation by agencies

within states. Washington Government

Printing Ofﬁce, 1940.

Kingsley, C.D. College entrance requirements.

Wash ington: Government Printing Ofﬁce, 1913.

Knutson, H. Admission requirements: A study of

admission requirements. Unpublished doctoral

dis sertation, University of Wyoming, 1954

Kurani, H.A. Selecting the college student in

Amer ica. New York: The Rumford Press, 1931.

Linton, C. A study of some Problems arising in

the admission of students as candidates for

professional degrees in education. New York:

Columbia Uni versity, 1927.

McKown, H.C. The trend of college entrance

re quirements 1913-1922. Washington:

Government Printing Ofﬁce, 1925.

Maddox, M.E. Problems of college admission.

Lexing ton: University of Kentucky, 1947.

Morris, L.F. An examination of pre-

admission selection with reference to methods,

theories, and trends as related to four-year

degree-granting institutions of higher educa-

tion in the United States. Unpub lished doctoral

dissertation. University of Colorado, 1965.

Nelson, L.W. “Are we in need of a new plan for

evaluating student qualiﬁcations for college

en trance?” The Bulletin of the National As-

sociation of Secondary School Principals, 1951,

30, 87-92.

Reeves, F.W. and Russell, J. D. Admission and

retention of university students. Chicago: The

Uni versity of Chicago Press, 1933.

Traxler, A.E. and Townsend, A. Improving

transi tion from school to college. New York:

Harper & Brothers, 1953.

Yonge, G. D. “Students.” Review of Educational

Research, 1965, 35, 261.

REFERENCES

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