神崎亜里沙,空岛kidulty,avhezi
| I. Introduction American higher education has achieved a great success in the world. There are eight universities from America in the top ten global universities ranking. Even top five universities are all from United States. The first is Harvard University, second is Stanford University, and Yale University, California Institute of Technology and university of California at Berkeley in turn. Much more than that, American colleges often play dominant roles in some single subject. For example, Harvard Medical School is second to none in medicine. West Point is the best military academy in the world. American higher education makes great achievements in the world. Admission system is one of the most important parts in higher education. The possession of perfect admission system is the guarantee for higher education. Actually admission systems are changing all the time with the change of limitations. From elite education to open enrollment system and selective system, admission systems has been changing with different limitations in order to solve problems in limitations, so admission system has been improved generation by generation. But There are still many limitation in the current American college admission system. The thesis will talk about right direction for development trend of American college admission system at last. Admission system changed because limitations changed. II. The Development of American College Admission System American higher education, from elite education in the colonial period to popularization education, has gone through many kinds of admission system. The change of admission system is because of changing limitations. With the change of limitation, American admission system has gone through from the select system and recommend system to synthesized selective system, open enrollment system and selective system. 2.1 Elite Education From the colonial period to the fifty years after Civil War, the main admission system in American was select system and recommendation system. Students in college were mostly white men who from rank and fashion. Almost no women，black people or ethnic groups. Education was elite at that time. 2.1.1 Select System Educational institute hadn’t colleges as nowadays in colonial period. Educational institutes was only one schoolmaster and one or two teachers. Who could be enrolled was based on introduction from local priests. Institute could select any students who introduced by local priests. Institutes almost had the same admission system that was select system. The way of selecting was based on introduction from local priests and the oral. The oral included Greek, Latin and mathematics. At that time, institutes were limited by scale and facilities. School was small scale and facilities were simple and crude. Teaching level also fell behind than Europe colleges. Because select system had so many limitations that a new enrollment system appeared. That was recommendation system. 2.1.2 Recommendation System. With the developing of Morrill Act of 1862 after Civil War, the amount of college was increasing. Select system couldn’t adapt to the increasing of students. College admission systems were began to change. For instance, Yale University needed examinees to take a botany exam, but Columbia University need physics and chemistry exam. American government wanted to resolve all these limitations, so they made a new admission system that was recommendation system. The recommendation system originated from University of Michigan in 1870. Recommendation system refer to the university estimated middle school and then selected the “approve middle school, the students graduated from the approve middle school could be recommended to the university. Until the nineteen nineties this kind of system was still pervades in America. Not only the select system in early time but also recommendation systems all have the same limitation. Students of the college almost were white boys who come from noble family or children from rich families. Students were almost on poor or girls. These were the serious limitations in American college admission at that time. 2.2 Educational Popularization From nineteenth century to twentieth century, public university had developed so fast. The amount of middle school students was increased. According to statistics, US population was increased threefold but amount of middle school students was increasing from eighty thousand to seven million. So recommendation system was serious limit. To resolve this kind of limitations, a new admission system was emerged. Synthesized selective system was became the main admission at that time, and American higher education began to the educational popularization. 2.2.1 Synthesized Selective System With the fast development of economy in United States, recommendation system couldn’t adapt to the increasing of students. Because of this kind of limitation, to unify the entrance examination was extremely urgent. The president of Columbia University and University of Maryland decided to create a new college entrance examination and established the College Entrance Examination Board in 1899. College Entrance Examination Board changed the test content in 1926.The Scholastic Aptitude Test, short for SAT was first held. SAT don’t include the basic knowledge, it investigate students whether have the ability in college. And then College Entrance Examination Board held another test named American College Test, short for ACT. ACT included the basic knowledge and basic skills in middle school textbooks. SAT was held seven times per year and ACT was five times. Five years later College Entrance Examination Board became a national organization. SAT and ACT had became the mainstay for synthesized selective system. Synthesized selective system expanded the number of people in the examination and solved the limitation of enrollment at that time. 2.2.2 Open Enrollment System and Selective System. After the Second World War, America need large quantities of talent for the development at top speed, for that reason, community colleges were rose spring up after the fifties. Community colleges are comprehensive universities. Finance support by the local government. The admission of community college was open enrollment system. This system let more and more young people receive the higher education. Community college also cultivated many technicians for American post-war reconstruction. Open enrollment of community college was tended to all middle school graduates who reside near the college. On the other hand, the admissions of some well-known private universities were selective system. For example, Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University or West Point, these kinds of universities have so many applicants every year. In that reason admission office must select the most outstanding students. This kind of admission is selective system. The objective of selective system was cultivated elites. From fifties 20th Century America had been set up reasonable college admission system. Open enrollment system and selective system are adapted to the American pluralism education. 2.3 Reasons of American College Admission System Development Till this day, American college admission system has gone through from select system, recommend system, synthesized selective system to open enrollment system and selective system. The change of admission system is because of changing limitations. Another reason is increase in population. Population is objective cause and limitations change is subjective cause. 2.3.1 Increase in Population The turn of the century American commercial yield had become first in the world. Different kinds of education and secondary education had developed at top speed after Second World War. From 1900 to 1948 the demography of United States had grown twice, but the number of college students grown tenfold. The reason was great depression at that time. So it hard for young people to found a job. For this reason, many young people swarmed into the college .After the Second World War, there was another reason influenced the enrollment that was the Servicement’s Readjustment Act of 1944. Proposed law stipulated that the man who on active service more than ninety days must be provided access to schooling one year at least. The two major reasons have made the increase in number of college students. Because the Servicement’s Readjustment Act of 1944，American higher education entered educational popularization. 2.3.2 Changes in Limitations From elite education to educational popularization, the reason of different admission systems in different periods was limitation changed. So whatever educational plants simple and crude or enrollment increased, all of them can be named limitations. For instance, the limitations of select system were small dimensions, educational plants simple and so on. Government wanted to surmount these kinds of limitation that recommendation system appeared. Another example, there was a serious limitation in elite education period was the disparity between total enrolled and examinee quantity numerous. Total enrolled too little but too many people in the examination. So the government wanted to surmount this limitation that American high education turn into the educational popularization. To sum up limitation changed make the admission system changed. The development of admission system in different periods was in order to resolve limitations one after another. To today American higher education has became the most perfection college education system around the world. Whether today’s American higher education exist limitations? Next chapter will analysis. III. Limitations in Current American College Admission System |
