AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES. In the United States popular usage employs the terms 'univer sity' and 'college' indiscriminately for any higher institution of learning which possesses the power of conferring the usual academic degrees. This confusion prevails also in official nomenclature, for some of the oldest, richest, and most com pletely equipped of our universities still bear the name of 'college,' while in certain parts of the country institutions inferior in endowment and in scholarly distinction to some of the secondary schools are officially designated as 'universities.' Harvard and Yale, though long since equipped with the amplest facilities for university work, have only very recently put aside the name of `college.' and the same is true also of Columbia and Princeton.
Classified with reference to their pedagogic character, American universities may be roughly grouped under two general heads: (I) Universi ties that are equipped for the prosecution of original investigation and research in the various departments of study, besides usually having con nected with them the various professional schools, representing the faculties of law, medicine, the ology, and natural science: and (2) universities, so called, that perform chiefly the disciplinary and preparatory work similar to but somewhat more advanced than that of the German Gym nasium (q.v.). Institutions of the second class have a course more or less prescribed (see ELECTIVE COURSES AND STUDIES), leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and in some cases to the alter native degrees of Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Letters, or Bachelor of Philosophy. With the granting of such degrees the responsibility of the institution usually ends, though some of the universities offer facilities for advanced lines of study. But in all, the 'undergraduate courses' leading to the baccalaureate degree form the most important portion of the cnr ricu 1 um.
Of the former class, to which in the best usage the term university is now restricted, are Har vard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Michigan, Johns Hopkins, Clark, Pennsylvania, California, Chi cago, Cornell, New York, and the Catholic Uni versity of America at Washington. The last is the only institution of all this class that does not now offer the preparatory .collegiate work, but confines itself wholly to post-graduate instruc tion. However, in most of these less stress is laid
upon the collegiate work than upon the more original work performed by those who have al ready received the first degree in arts and science, and who are consequently engaged in the special or professional investigations that are to fit them for their life's work. In the remainder of these, and in many similar institutions bearing the name university, the chief emphasis is upon the undergraduate work, though the advanced and progressive work is also represented and the title of university is appropriate. Such are the State universities of Virginia, California, Michi gan. Indiana, Minnesota, and several other States, Boston University, and Princeton Uni versity. So far as the advanced work is carried in these institutions, it is in no wise inferior to that of institutions laying the chief stress on graduate investigation and instruction. In no ease is there an institution comparable to the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, made up of constituent colleges doing undergraduate work; nor, on the other hand, universities in the Ger man sense of the term. The one institution that confines itself wholly to graduate work is a denominational institution, and hence does not furnish a parallel, since it draws only from a restricted clientele.
The influence of the German universities, how ever, has been most instrumental in developing advanced instruction in American institutions. The first American to graduate at a German uni versity was Edward Everett, who received his doe tor's degree at Gottingen in 1817. During the next few years this example was imitated by four or live others, among them George Bancroft, who received his degree in 1820. Not until after 1840, however, were any great number of American students attracted to the German universities. From that time a constantly increasing num ber pursued such a course and returned to affect immediately the work of American institutions. As early as 1800 Harvard College had accepted resident graduates, and announced their names as students. A varying number, never over twelve, continued each year until 1860, when Harvard first definitely announced in its cata logue that such students would be accepted and provided for, and three years later announced a series of graduate courses.