In 2025, Harvard University again began asking applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores. This was a reversal of the exam-free policy adopted by the university and many other American universities during the coronavirus pandemic. For some in higher education, the elimination of common testing requirements was a shock, but in some ways it was not without precedent. Until the mid-1919s, there was no universal test, so Harvard University had applicants take its own entrance exam. For example in 1869: can be seen hereassessed students’ proficiency in Latin, Greek, history and geography, arithmetic, algebra, and plane geometry.
The idea was not so much to assess a candidate’s reasoning abilities as to see if they had already received the education expected in their class. nevertheless, like new york timesAlison Lee Cowan writes:“Universities sometimes allowed prospective students to correct defects as a condition of admission.”
This reflects the vastly different role that higher education plays in American life today than it did a century and a half ago. At that time, Harvard University admitted 185 out of 210 applicants. Last year, 1,968 people were admitted out of 57,435. As the country became more industrialized, universities changed accordingly. Existing universities grew, many new universities appeared, and an ever-increasing proportion of students followed the processes surrounding higher education, eventually starting to look like a machine in itself.
For students applying to college today, the 1869 entrance exam may not be entirely unfamiliar, at least insofar as it included questions related to mathematics. However, current Harvard applicants, no matter how intelligent, are unlikely to be able to actually pass the exam due to its emphasis on classical languages. Throughout the 19th century until World War I, all young gentlemen were educated in Latin and ancient Greek. But as both began to disappear from college entrance exams, especially after the SAT became dominant in the 1940s, so too did the immediate motivation to study them. Although it reflects the exigencies of a rapidly changing technological society, one sometimes wonders how well someone who doesn’t understand any Latin or Greek understands English. This is a question that college students have been asking for the past few decades. mind-boggling answer.
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Based in Seoul, Colin Mbemust write and broadcastIt’s about cities, languages ​​and cultures. he is the author of the newsletter books about cities books as well Home page (I won’t summarize Korea) and korean newtro. Follow him on the social network formerly known as Twitter. @Colinbemust.
Source: Open Culture – www.openculture.com
