College Student Life

American Eras

College Student Life

Sources

Colonial Colleges. Colonial colleges were small. An estimate of the number of students in all nine colleges in 1775 was about 750. In 1775 Harvard had a graduating class of forty; Yale, thirty-five; Columbia, thirteen; Dartmouth, eleven; and the College of Philadelphia, eight. Most colleges had a grammar school that supplied students to the college, and these schools generally contained more students than the higher institutions. Not only were colleges small, but they were also poor, especially in comparison to English universities. College was expensive on the eve of the Revolution: tuition ranged from £9 to £20 per student, and with other costs such as books, clothing, travel, and spending money, a student’s annual fees usually ran as high as £25 to £35. This was a high percentage of most annual salaries—a college instructor, for example, made about £100 annually—so most scholars came from wealthier families though some loans and charitable funds helped the poorer students. In spite of the high tuition, colleges could not meet expenses and had to depend on gifts, provincial subsidies, and lotteries. During the second half of the eighteenth century they raised funds by subscription, often by sending agents abroad to do so. Most of the operating expenses—which took about three-seventh’s of a college’s budget—were used for faculty salaries, which remained low until the nineteenth century.

Admissions. Higher education in the colonies was open to males who had received a classical education either in a Latin grammar school or privately by a clergyman or tutor. Even though all colonial colleges, with the exception of the College of Philadelphia, had been established by religious denominations, they did not exclude students affiliated with different religions. Every spring oral entrance exams were given to prospective students, and if the candidate passed the exam, he was admitted to the fall session. Until the middle of the eighteenth century

classical education was the major requirement for entrance. About midcentury the requirements changed, and Yale, for the first time, included an arithmetic requirement. All students who were admitted at the same time formed a class that continued through four years, and classes were ranked by seniority according to English custom. The ranking was rigidly maintained, especially by the upper classmen, who demanded petty and oppressive services from the freshmen, in ways similar to the English custom of fagging.

Daily Life. Most colonial college students shared simple, sparsely furnished rooms in the main building, or college hall. The college hall also contained the classrooms and the refectory, where students ate their meals. The food was generally poor and never plentiful—always a major cause of student protests. Some students who could afford it boarded with local families. A typical day began early with morning prayer followed by classes, then the main meal of the day and more classes, evening prayer, and study period. Professors seldom lectured; rather they required the students to recite passages from textbooks. Since the heart of the college life was religion, students were expected to attend morning and evening prayers and Sunday services and to enroll in theology courses.

Extracurricular Activities. Popular student activities outside class included oratory, singing, dramatics, verse writing, and various kinds of music, but literary societies (debating clubs), which began in the eighteenth century, were the most important. Here students could expound their ideas without the constraints imposed by classroom discipline. These societies competed with each other in heated debates over current political issues and decisions relevant to college life, such as the choice of commencement speakers. They had their own regulations, elected officers, and raised money for their libraries, clubrooms, and furnishings.

Student Rebellions. Faculty and students were frequently at odds with each other because the faculty had the responsibility of disciplining students and maintaining strict parental control over them, outside as well as inside the classroom. A long list of regulations governed all aspects of college life, including class attendance, idleness, clothing, dancing, drinking, and swearing. A tight rein was considered necessary in order to educate moral and religious gentlemen. To enforce the rules faculty imposed such punishments as fines, revocation of privileges, suspension from certain classes or from the college, and expulsion. One primary cause for student rebellion in the eighteenth century was the bad quality and meager quantity of food. Harvard’s first revolt in 1766 was caused by rancid butter. In addition students at some of the more patriotic colleges, such as the College of New Jersey, Harvard, the College of Rhode Island, and Yale, rebelled against British policies by wearing homespun clothes to commencements, burning and boycotting tea, forming militia companies, burning British leaders in effigy, and delivering heated patriotic orations.

Degrees. Colonial colleges conferred two degrees: the bachelor of arts and the master of arts. If after taking a four-year fixed curriculum a student could demonstrate his competence in the classical languages and literatures and logic, he would receive the bachelor of arts degree. In the middle of the eighteenth century these requirements changed to include proficiency in the newer courses of instruction, such as science. Achievement for the masters degree was a different matter since there was no fixed curriculum or plan of study nor any residence requirement. A masters was conferred after three years, sometimes as a matter of course and sometimes as the result of intensive study, particularly by clergy-in-training. By the end of the seventeenth century colleges were also granting honorary degrees, but for doctorates and advanced degrees not offered in colonial colleges, students had to travel abroad.

Changes. Colleges became more politically oriented during the revolutionary struggles. By the middle of the 1760s college leaders began to link education with the welfare of the state. Institutions of higher education founded during and after the revolution focused on the education of men for republican leadership on local, state, and national levels. Still embedded in religion, they began to put more emphasis on culture, public virtue, and education for practical purposes. However, the curricula for these new schools, two of which were established before the end of the war in 1783, were similar to those of the older colonial colleges: the classics, English and modern languages, mathematics, and sciences.

AMERICAN COLLEGES

The following is a list of American colleges that received charters to grant degrees before 1784:

Original Name	Modern Name	Date Chartered
Sources: Beverly McAnear, “College Founding in the American Colonies, 1745-1775,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 42 (1955); 24-44;
David W. Robsoti, “College Founding in the New Republic, 1776-1800,” History of Education Quarterly, 23 (1983): 323.
Harvard College	Harvard University	1636
College of William and Mary	College of William and Mary	1693
Yale College	Yale University	1701
College of New Jersey	Princeton University	1746
Kings College	Columbia University	1754
College of Philadelphia	University of Pennsylvania	1755
College of Rhode Island	Brown University	1764
Queens College	Rutgers University	1766
Dartmouth College	Dartmouth College	1769
Washington College	Washington College	1782
Liberty Hall Academy	Washington and Lee University	1782
Hampden-Sydney College	Hampden-Sydney College	1783
Transylvania Seminary	Transylvania University	1783

Sources

John S. Brubacher & Willis Rudy, Higher Education in Transition: A History of American Colleges and Universities (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction, 1997);

Lawrence Cremin, American Education: The Colonial Experience, 1607-1783 (New York: Harper & Row, 1970);

Beverly McAnear, “College Founding in the American Colonies, 1745-1775,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 42 (1955): 24-44;

David W. Robson, “College Founding in the New Republic, 1776-1800,” History of Education Quarterly, 23 (1983): 323-341;

Robson, Educating Republicans: The College in the Era of the American Revolution, 1750-1800 (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1985).

Find more facts and information related to the .
Copyright 1997, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.