LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF EDUCATION, SIR: It is of special importance at this time that students in foreign countries who may be seeking educational opportunities in the United States should have accurate information as to what institutions in this country have to offer. For this reason I requested Dr. Samuel Paul Capen, specialist in higher education in the Bureau of Education, to prepare for publication a document which should show the organization of American education with special reference to universities, colleges, and professional schools; state and explain admission requirements with special reference to the needs of foreign students; and outline the general and specific opportunities to be found at American institutions of higher education. The manuscript transmitted herewith gives information on these points and on many others of value, not only to the prospective student from foreign countries, but to all who may be interested in the present facilities for higher education in the United States. I recommend that it be published as a bulletin of the Bureau of Education. Respectfully submitted. THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. 6 P. P. CLAXTON, Commissioner. OPPORTUNITIES FOR FOREIGN STUDENTS AT COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES IN THE UNITED STATES. SECTION I. CHAPTER I. ORGANIZATION OF EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES. STATE SYSTEMS. The United States is a federation of 48 self-governing Commonwealths, each of which exercises independently all powers not specifically conferred upon the Federal Congress by the Constitution or derived by implication therefrom. Since the Constitution does not provide for the control of education by the Federal Government, there is no national system; but the United States contains within its area 49 separate systems of education. 1 3 No two of the State systems are exactly similar, yet they possess certain common factors. For example, all States provide by law 2 for elementary education at public expense. The usual length of the public elementary school course is eight years. Children commonly enter at the age of 6 or 7 and finish at the age of 14 or 15. In all but three States, school attendance during a part or all of this period is compulsory. Public secondary schools, called high schools, offering a course generally four years in length, are also maintained in every State. The high-school course is based on the elementary school course and is open to graduates of elementary schools or others of equivalent preparation. The high school serves three main purposes. To the great mass of students who frequent it it offers four years of cultural and informa 1 Including the District of Columbia, which is the seat of the Federal Government. * The raising of the necessary money by taxation for the support of the schools and the administration of them are generally left to local communities-counties, towns, or districts. But local funds are often supplemented by State funds. For a statement of the scope and content of elementary education, see Sec. III, p. 94. The age of compulsory attendance is generally from 7 or 8 to 14 or 15. A few States require attendance up to 16 years. Not to be confused with the German Hochschule, an institution of university grade. The high school corresponds more nearly with the middle portion of the course in a German Gymnasium or Oberrealschule. For typical high-school curricula, see Sec. III, p. 94, and following. tional study designed to equip them for more intelligent and resourceful lives as citizens of a democracy. Its second purpose is to prepare students for various higher institutions. In the third place, and quite recently, a few specialized public high schools have sought to fit young people for wage earning in trades and industries. In general, it may be said that the high school has tended more and more to adapt itself to the needs of the local community by introducing studies of a practical and vocational nature and by allowing its students increasing latitude in the choice of courses to be pursued. Most States maintain normal schools for the training of teachers, or a more or less well-developed State university, or both. The normal schools and certain departments of the State universities articulate with the public high school in ways later to be described. Alongside the public institutions various groups and individuals have founded elementary schools, high schools, academies,1 normal schools, and colleges. The most extensive system of private schools is that under the control of the Roman Catholic Church. The total enrollment of the Catholic parochial schools was 1,429,859 in 1914. Other religious sects have also established institutions to provide education under denominational auspices. Both the religious schools and the private schools under denominational control parallel rather closely the amount and character of the training afforded by the public institutions of the same grade. These nonpublic institutions and systems are allowed perfect freedom of development under the laws of the country. The foreign observer, noting chiefly the dissimilarities of the State systems, is at first inclined to think that a hopeless confusion of standards and organization must characterize American education. But the differences are after all superficial rather than fundamental. The same general types of institutions are to be found in every State, whether they all belong officially to the State system or not. Their interrelations are also essentially the same. There are still certain inequalities of educational standards, especially among higher institutions; but these are not so great nor so widespread as is often believed. STANDARDS. The principal reasons for the variation in the standards of higher education are perhaps already apparent, yet they should be briefly summarized because of their bearing on the whole plan and method of American education. The State educational systems have grown up independently of one another. If one takes account of the provisions for education made by a few of the colonial governments The term "academy" is generally applied to a school of secondary grade. 1 before the founding of the United States, the dates of establishment of the 49 systems of education have covered a period of something like two centuries and a half. In that time the social philosophy of the Nation has changed. The common conception of the part the State should play in fostering and controlling education has changed with it. According to a widely prevailing theory 1 all grades of education, from the kindergarten to the university, should be supported and managed by the State or local government. In the relatively newer States of the West and Middle West this condition is realized. Higher and secondary institutions not under public control are either rare or nonexistent. The educational policy of the older States, on the other hand, had crystallized before the general acceptance of this theory. Here the responsibility for providing elementary and a certain amount of secondary education is felt to rest properly on the State, but higher education is left, for the most part, to independent institutions founded under various auspices, principally religious, and subject to little or no public supervision. Inevitable differences of standards sprang from these differences in methods of control. Moreover, a few of the States, particularly those of more recent origin and of sparse population and those impoverished by the Civil War of 1860-1865, have thus far found difficulty in providing adequate equipment for thorough university education and in enforcing the most severe scholastic requirements. In this latter group of States, also, the development of universities and colleges of the highest grade has been still further retarded by the inferiority of the lower schools which prepare students for advanced education. There are, however, several counter influences at work tending to reduce these inequalities. Chief among them is the action of numerous national and sectional associations of school and university officers. For a number of years these associations have been engaged in defining standards of school and professional training and determining the appropriate scholastic requirements for degrees. In the sections of the country where education is best organized the recommendations of these associations are regarded as authoritative and are put into operation as speedily as possible. The educationally less favored sections are also striving to conform to the standards proposed by such bodies and are making increasingly rapid progress in this direction. In elevating the standards of various types of institutions, principally in the fields of rural education and higher education, the recommendations of the United States Bureau of Education have' also had wide influence. 1 Members of certain of the denominational bodies already referred to, who believe that education should be under religious auspices, do not, of course, concur in this theory. Whether American education ever shall achieve complete uniformity in standards and methods of management is open to doubt. Uniformity is contrary to the genius of the Nation. The Americans are an individualistic people. Their educational systems and institutions have reflected this quality. These have maintained the right to expand as they chose and to adapt their courses to local needs, free from hampering restrictions. Their freedom is, in fact, one of the sources of their strength. Nevertheless, it may safely be said that there is now a national consensus of opinion as to what the standards of admission to and graduation from the principal types of institutions should be, that the standards agreed upon coincide in the main with those in force in the corresponding institutions of other leading nations, and that they are already maintained by the best institutions of the United States. Indeed, students from abroad will find in those educational centers to which they will probably be attracted unsurpassed facilities for advanced academic and professional training. The brief outline of the opportunities for university study in the United States presented in this pamphlet deals principally with conditions existing in these more prominent educational centers. EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSITY. THE COLLEGE. An explanation of the prevailing organization of higher education in the United States properly begins with a description of the American college, an institution which has no exact counterpart in any other country. Historically, the college is the oldest of American institutions. The first one, Harvard College, was founded in 1636 by the early English settlers in Massachusetts. Cambridge and Oxford furnished its prototypes. Following the example of these institutions, Harvard College was designed to give training in the liberal arts, principally Latin, Greek, philosophy, and mathematics. Most of its earlier graduates entered the Christian ministry. In fact, to supply properly trained young men for this profession was one of the chief objects sought in the foundation of Harvard and of the other colleges established during the first century of colonial life in the United States. Gradually, however, the purpose and character of the college changed. The more elementary stages of the subjects taught were given over to lower schools. New subjects were added to the curriculum. The college lost its theological bent, without becoming a training school for other professions. It still offered courses in the liberal arts, leavened more and more by the introduction of the sciences, |