Colleges, American

Colleges, American The methods of organization and instruction adopted in these institutions naturally grew out of those pursued in the educational establishments of the mother country, especially the great universities of Oxford and Cambridge, in which the colleges proper are subordinate or detailed schools. SEE UNIVERSITIES, EUROPEAN. In a few, chiefly the older and better-endowed colleges of the Eastern and Middle States, the original academic foundation has gradually expanded into a fully-developed university, and in many of the newer institutions the entire curriculum has been laid out for future completion; hence the use of the title "university" has been not altogether inappropriate, although few American educational incorporations cover the entire field of liberal arts and learned professions. In one instance, the University of the State of New York, the European idea has been substantially adopted, but without any local apparatus of buildings, teachers, or personal instruction. Special schools of technical training are generally relied upon to supplement the literary course in the departments of law, medicine, theology, engineering, etc. SEE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES. In many of the newer colleges of America, and in a few of the older ones, ladies are now admitted to the full privileges and honors of study and graduation, and there are numerous institutions, often styled "Female Colleges," in which women exclusively have nearly equal literary advantages, besides the ornamental branches more appropriate to their sphere. The honorary degrees (A.B., etc.) are in America sometimes conferred by schools which in reality are little above the rank of ordinary "academies." SEE EDUCATION. The following tables are compiled from the Report of the (U. S.) Commissioner of Education for 1883-84 (the latest return). Detailed information on nearly all the colleges may be found in Kiddle and Schem's Cyclopaedia of Education, under the title of each. SEE CLASSIFICATION OF AMERICAN COLLEGES.