Harvard university

20th century

Richard Rummell's 1906 watercolor landscape view, facing northeast.^[29]
In the 20th century, Harvard's reputation grew as a burgeoning endowment and prominent professors expanded the university's scope. Rapid enrollment growth continued as new graduate schools were begun and the undergraduate college expanded. Radcliffe College, established in 1879 as the female counterpart of Harvard College, became one of the most prominent schools for women in the United States. Harvard became a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900.^[9]
The student body in the early decades of the century was predominantly "old-stock, high-status Protestants, especially Episcopalians, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians."^[30] In 1923—a year after the percentage of Jewish students at Harvard had reached 20%—President A. Lawrence Lowell supported a policy change that limited Jewish students to 15% of the undergraduate population. While Lowell's idea was rejected, he did manage to ban black students from freshman dormitories.^[31][32][33]
President James B. Conant reinvigorated creative scholarship to guarantee Harvard's preeminence among research institutions. He saw higher education as a vehicle of opportunity for the talented rather than an entitlement for the wealthy, so Conant devised programs to identify, recruit, and support talented youth. In 1943, he asked the faculty to make a definitive statement about what general education ought to be, at the secondary as well as at the college level. The resulting Report, published in 1945, was one of the most influential manifestos in 20th century American education.^[34]
Between 1945 and 1960, admissions were opened up to bring in a more diverse group of students. No longer drawing mostly from select New England prep schools, the undergraduate college became accessible to striving middle class students from public schools; many more Jews and Catholics were admitted, but few blacks, Hispanics, or Asians.^[35] Throughout the rest of the 20th century, Harvard became more diverse.^[36]However, it is still noted that Harvard largely favours white admits. When it comes to athletics, the share for African American, Asian American, and Hispanics is less than 16% and if it were not for their racial status, a large number of those students would have been rejected.^[37]
Harvard's graduate schools began admitting women in small numbers in the late 19th century. During World War II, students at Radcliffe College (which since 1879 had been paying Harvard professors to repeat their lectures for women) began attending Harvard classes alongside men.^[38] Women were first admitted to the medical school in 1945.^[39] Since 1971, Harvard has controlled essentially all aspects of undergraduate admission, instruction, and housing for Radcliffe women. In 1999, Radcliffe was formally merged into Harvard