To first set the stage. If you're thinking about higher education in Boston in 1800, you're (most likely) white, male, from a family with means, and have known for a while you were going to college. You don't think of college the way we do now - that is, the American framework of 8 years of grammar school, 4 years of high school, and 2, 4, or 6 years of college is relatively (early to mid-20th century) new. Your college plans were likely set into motion while you were still a boy.

Although by 1800 the colonial colleges were already well established [Harvard, Collegiate School (Yale), College of New Jersey (Princeton), King's College (Columbia), University of Pennsylvania, College of Rhode Island (Brown), Dartmouth, College of William & Mary, and Queen's College (Rutgers)], the choice was greatly (but not always) informed by locality. If your family is from Boston, you're probably going to Harvard.

Conrad Edick Wright's 2005 book, Revolutionary Generation: Harvard Men and the Consequences of Independence^1 focuses on Harvard graduates from 1771 to 1774 but the patterns he writes about likely didn't change all that much by 1800. Wright looked at the thinking and rationales the men shared about their educational paths. Your parents looked at a younger you and asked themselves:

• is /u/blueboybob capable?
• is he diligent?
• does he need a college education?
• can we afford to spare him?

If your parents had the means, been part of Boston society since your birth, not preparing you take over the family trade in the near future, and determined you showed a propensity for academic work, you likely found yourself at Boston Latin School, Phillips Exeter, or Phillips Andover (basically feeder schools for Harvard) as a boy. You probably had a few years in a common or Dame school and started BLS when you were 6 or 7. That put you a path to start Harvard at 14 or 15. (The average age of a Harvard student was approximately 15 1/2 in 1810^2. ) If your parents elected instead to hire private tutors, some of whom held near celebrity status, the tutors' goal was to get you into college. In effect, every teacher or tutor you had was teaching to the test. It's worth stressing there wasn't one way to go to college in 1800 or one age - American education wouldn't be standardized for nearly a century. Not all students who went to Boston Latin went to Harvard and some Harvard students started after only one or two years with a private tutor.

Your academic life, regardless if you went to school or had a private tutor, was all about Latin, with a side of Greek, mathematics, and history. Every college had their own admissions process but the constant across all of the colleges was an expectation you'd know your Latin backwards, forwards, inside out and upside down. The differences often came down to which text you were asked to translate. As an example of how deeply entrenched the importance of Latin and Greek was at that time and would remain, Nicholas Murray Butler had to study with a private teacher for at least a year before being allowed to take the entrance exams to Columbia in 1875 because his public high school in New Jersey hadn't offered Latin. (Butler would become one of the strongest advocates for standardizing high school curriculum based on his own experiences.)

The actual application to college would take the form of an interview, scheduled on a particular day (usually offered twice a year) with the college president and a few professors (typically called tutors in 1800). Your admission into college would be dependent on a number of factors including if you knew the content they asked you about, your character, and their financial needs. If you were just okay, but there had been a dip in enrollment, you were more likely to be accepted. An example of this from around that period was Horace Mann's admission into Brown. The university had lost a number of students in the War of 1812 and the president made the decision to enroll Mann in the Sophomore class based on the strength of Mann's answers during the test.^3 Social connections and legacy status also played a role, but again, it was dependent on which college you selected.

Let's say, though, you wanted to wander far afield and head to New York City. To join the ranks of Columbia in 1800, you'd have your work cut out for you.

No candidate shall be admitted into the College, after the second Tuesday in April, 1786, unless he shall be able to render into English Caesar's Commentaries of the Gallic War; the four Orations of Cicero against Catiline; the four first books of Virgil's Eneid; and the Gospels from the Greek; and to explain the government and connection of the words, and to turn English into grammatical Latin, and shall understand the four first rules of Arithmetic, with the rule of three.^4

If Yale was in the cards, you would have prepared for Tully, Virgil, Latin Grammar, Prosody, and Composition, Greek Testament, and the Rules of Vulgar Arithmetic. Princeton wanted all of the above plus Sallust and Caesar. There would be a sea change around the middle of the century as colleges began to shift from the classic curriculum but it would be your grandson who'd have to learn the laws of English grammar and geography, not you.

So let's jump forward in time and say it's 1804 and you've finished your Bachelors of Arts at Harvard. Remember how you've known for years you were going to college? That was probably because your career path was set. That is, you didn't go to Harvard for the experience, you went because your parents likely wanted you to be a doctor or a lawyer. (You weren't going to get your PhD, alas. The first American PhD won't be awarded until 1861.) And again, there was no one clear path or structured way for moving out of boyhood into adulthood in terms of education and career readiness. But, if you wanted to be a lawyer and were still in Boston, you would do what was referred to as "reading law." Basically, you'd stay at Harvard for a few more years to read Blackstone’s Commentaries and work with tutors before applying for the bar. (There was one law school in 1800 but it primarily served the sons of Connecticut.) You likely also had an apprenticeship at a local firm and formed relationships with your classmates that would lead to partnerships and connections in the future. States had different criteria for admission into the bar and the path you picked varied on where you were planning on settling down.^5

If you're interested in Medicine, you'd attend classes at the Medical School and graduate with a second Bachelor's and the title Medical Doctor. (The first Doctor of Medicine was awarded in 1811.)

Probably the most important thing to know about college in Boston in 1800 is that it was less about transitioning from adolescence to adulthood like it is now and more about getting a classical education, making social connections, and preparing for a profession.

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1. Wright, C. E. (2005). Revolutionary generation: Harvard men and the consequences of independence. Univ of Massachusetts Press.

2. George Bancroft, Board of Overseers, January 1845, Harvard Overseer Reports, v. 7, HUA. as cited in Story, R. (1975). Harvard Students, the Boston Elite, and the New England Preparatory System, 1800-1876. History of Education Quarterly, 15(3), 281-298.

3. Messerli, J. (1972). Horace Mann: A Biography. Knopf Books.

4. Broome, E. C. (1902). A historical and critical discussion of college admission requirements. Columbia University.

5. Katcher, S. (2006). Legal training in the United States: a brief history. Wis. Int'l LJ, 24, 335.

If you're interested in the same question circa 1900, Wechsler, H. S. (2014). The qualified student: A history of selective college admission in America is a good source.