Expansion (1945 - 1965)
Admissions
Financial aid has often involved an interplay between cultural values and market economics. It has ... been shaped by traditional but changing conceptions of who should get how much aid - what need, what merit.
Rupert Wilkerson
"Assorted Ends, Contested Means: Student Financial Aid in American History"
Admissions and admissions testing had been the bread and butter of the College Board before 1948. After 1948, the College Board began to assert itself as a broker for information and instruction relating to college admissions, including information on the use of test scores and guidance, on higher education institutions, and on financial aid. The Board also took a more proactive role in systematizing college admissions.
Questions about selective admissions and democracy surfaced in the 1950s and 1960s as more students attended college. The entry of veterans onto campus and manpower concerns in the 1950s and early 1960s highlighted concerns about merit and higher education.
College Board officials recognized that there were emergent problems in admissions policy. The relationship between secondary and higher education, the college preparatory function of high schools, and the intention of higher education became problematic as educators began to question who should go to college.
Two basic philosophies on college admission competed. These two philosophies about college admissions could trace their roots to tensions between Jeffersonian ideas about merit and Jacksonian ideas about democracy.
Some educators thought that only certain people with certain abilities should attend college. These people supported selective admission policies. Other educators believed that higher education should be open to everyone.
However, how admission policy should be determined became a matter of debate and discussion. Admissions officials began to recognize that when devising an admissions policy, they must consider the climate of the higher education institution, the climate of the high school, the college constituency, and the purposes of college.
The College Board quickly positioned itself as the organization to facilitate a national discussion on college admissions. The College Board led the effort to set a uniform acceptance date for college admissions. The Board then coordinated the setting, publicizing, and reviewing of what became known as the Candidates Reply Date Agreement.
The College Board began publishing a number of publications in the 1950s to aid in the dissemination of information related to college admissions. College Board Review began as a way for member institutions to communicate but quickly evolved into presenting articles and information of a more general educational interest.
The College Handbook existed before the 1950s and listed the admissions schedules of member institutions for applicants and guidance counselors. It evolved in the 1950s into a resource on the higher education institutions. It included descriptions of institutions.
Between 1953 and 1963, the College Board sponsored an annual series of colloquiums on college admissions. College Board officials Frank Bowles and William Fels designed the colloquiums to build a base for the professional study and practice of college admissions. Admissions officers and College Board and ETS staff members attended the colloquia to discuss topics including pre-college guidance, the secondary curriculum, and identifying talent, among other things.
It became clear to College Board officials that broader concerns about admissions and the college demanded serious attention and specialized study and consideration. It also became clear that because college admissions was central to questions about access, college admissions needed to be considered part of education generally.
By the end of the 1950s, the College Board was developing a perspective on college admissions for the next decade. The focus for the 1960s was on student identification and guidance. Concerns about equality in educational opportunity and minority enrollment in higher education began to surface. The College Board began to study tests and the admission of blacks to college, as well as to desegregate its testing centers in the South.
