Standards (1890-1920)
Getting College Students
In the last part of the nineteenth century, colleges and universities competed for students in a market increasingly shaped by the public high school. Institutions adapted to this market by broadening both the higher curriculum and admission requirements.
In many ways, secondary education drove the market for higher education, as institutions of higher learning adopted new courses and the elective system, changed entrance requirements, and developed alternative admissions policies in response to the expansion of secondary education.
Competition for the graduates of the high school's fluid, increasingly practical and lay-influenced curriculum demanded that institutions of higher education and their representative administrators question what constituted adequate preparation for higher education and what admission standards and course requirements should be.
