The Best Universities in 1910 and 1925

Colleges & Universities University of Chicago
1

<p>Ever wonder what the best universities in America were a hundred years ago? Long before U.S. News…</p>

<p>1910 American University Rankings</p>

<p>The first attempt to rank universities in America was conducted by J. McKeen Cattell, a psychology professor at Columbia University. He published a 600-page work, American Men of Science. Although mainly a biographical dictionary, Cattell grouped the names by institution, beginning with the 2nd edition in 1910. He calculated both overall rankings and departmental rankings based on the number of eminent men (and women) in science affiliated with American universities and government agencies.</p>

<p>Cattell was the first professor of psychology in the United States, receiving an appointment at the University of Pennsylvania, but he later moved to Columbia. Upon his death, the New York Times saluted him as “the dean of American science.”</p>

<p>Overall Ranking 1910:

  1. Harvard
  2. University of Chicago
  3. Columbia
  4. Yale
  5. Cornell
  6. Johns Hopkins
  7. Wisconsin
  8. U. S. Geological Survey
  9. Dept. of Agriculture
  10. MIT
  11. Michigan
  12. California
  13. Carnegie Institute
  14. Princeton
  15. Stanford
  16. Smithsonian
  17. Illinois
  18. Pennsylvania
  19. Bureau of Standards
  20. Missouri</p>

<p>[A</a> statistical study of American men of science, … . - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library](<a href=“http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark%3A%2F13960%2Ft9x060c2t;page=root;seq=63;view=1up;size=100;orient=0;num=589]A”>http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark%3A%2F13960%2Ft9x060c2t;page=root;seq=63;view=1up;size=100;orient=0;num=589)</p>

<p>1925 American University Rankings</p>

<p>In 1925 Raymond Hughes, the president of Iowa State College, conducted “A Study of the Graduate Schools of America” for the Association of American Colleges. He ranked graduate programs in 24 subjects by surveying faculty. Others quickly turned his departmental rankings into overall institutional rankings based on how many top-rated departments a school had.</p>

<p>Overall Ranking 1925:

  1. University of Chicago
  2. Harvard
  3. Columbia
  4. Yale
  5. Wisconsin
  6. Princeton
  7. Johns Hopkins
  8. Michigan
  9. California (Berkeley)
  10. Cornell
  11. Illinois
  12. Pennsylvania
  13. Minnesota
  14. Stanford
  15. Ohio State
  16. Iowa
  17. Bryn Mawr
  18. Caltech
  19. MIT
  20. Northwestern</p>

<p>Source:
[A</a> study of the graduate schools of America, (Book, 1925) [WorldCat.org]](<a href=“http://www.worldcat.org/title/study-of-the-graduate-schools-of-america/oclc/05110051]A”>http://www.worldcat.org/title/study-of-the-graduate-schools-of-america/oclc/05110051)</p>

2

<p>Wow! things have changed so much since then! Thanks for the post :)</p>

3

<p>Thanks. Very interesting. Unlike the poster above me, I am surprised by the lack of change overall in the schools that comprise these rankings</p>

4

<p>Interesting that UChicago was already at #2 in a 1910 study after only about 20 years in existence.</p>

5

<p>The University of Chicago was one of the five convenors of the Association of American Universities (essentially, the elite research university trade group) in 1900, less than 10 years after the university’s creation. And Stanford, which was even younger, was one of the nine additional universities invited to join as founding members.</p>

<p>Here is the complete list of founding members: University of California, The University of Chicago, Clark University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, Leland Stanford Junior University, University of Wisconsin, and Yale University. As you can see, it corresponds fairly closely to the institutions at the top of the 1910 list that educated undergraduates with a comprehensive curriculum.</p>

<p>What this shows is that Chicago and Stanford were part of the nation’s higher education elite essentially from the time they opened their doors. I think what happened is that both of them spent a great deal of money on facilities and faculty right at the outset, and they lured well-esteemed faculty away from Eastern universities. And, of course, in those days faculties were much, much smaller; a dozen key hires or fewer made you a national powerhouse.</p>