ABSTRACT
The first edition of The Qualified Student noted societal ambivalence when attempting to define "qualified". Recent events did not reduce that ambivalence. Colleges continued to choose among academically, socially, or financially able candidates. This chapter updates key topics related to the history of admission to college: high school-college relations, college entrance requirements, standardized exams, and racial and ethnic equity. It begins with the contextual question: ascertaining the high school-college border. The growing proportion of students—including many former soldiers—applying to college after World War II heightened concern for identifying multiple paths across the high school-college border. Educators again debated the subjects of greatest importance for terminal students and for college entrance—and whether the same list applied to both groups. The curricular issues associated with student reformist demands led to liberalized secondary and postsecondary curricula and college entrance requirements. Many colleges, for example, ended foreign language requirements for entrance and graduation.
